Geographic extent of Central Luzon languages based on Ethnologue
The Central Luzon languages are a group of languages belonging to the
Philippine languages. These are predominantly spoken in the western portions of
Central Luzon in the
Philippines. One of them,
Kapampangan, is the major language of the
Pampanga-
Mount Pinatubo area. However, despite having three to four million speakers, it is threatened by the diaspora of its speakers after the June 1991 eruption of that volcano. Globalization also threatened the language, with the younger generation more on using and speaking
Tagalog and
English, but promotion and everyday usage boosted the vitality of Kapampangan.[1] Another Central Luzon language,
Sambal or Sambali, experiences same situation, the speakers of the language are decreasing due to the globalization that many of the speakers of younger generation are shifting to Tagalog &
Ilocano.
External relationships
Ronald Himes (2012)[2] and Lawrence Reid (2015)[3] suggest that the
Northern Mindoro languages may group with the Central Luzon languages. Both branches share the phonological innovation
Proto-Austronesian *R > /y/.
