Kapampangan language


Kapampangan, Capampáñgan, or Pampangan, is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary and predominant language of the entire province of Pampanga and southern Tarlac, on the southern part of Luzon's central plains geographic region, where the Kapampangan ethnic group resides. Kapampangan is also spoken in northeastern Bataan, as well as in the provinces of Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, and Zambales that border Pampanga. It is further spoken as a second language by a few Aeta groups in the southern part of Central Luzon. The language is known honorifically as Amánung Sísuan.
Kapampangan is assigned the ISO 639-2 three-letter code pam, but not an ISO 639-1 two-letter code.

Classification

Kapampangan is one of the Central Luzon languages of the Austronesian language family. Its closest relatives are the Sambalic languages of Zambales province and the Bolinao language spoken in the towns of Bolinao and Anda in Pangasinan. These languages share the same reflex of the proto-Malayo-Polynesian *R.

History

Kapampangan is derived from the root word pampáng. The language was historically spoken in the Kingdom of Tondo, ruled by the Lakans.
A number of Kapampangan dictionaries and grammar books were written during the Spanish colonial period. wrote two 18th-century books about the language: Arte de la lengua Pampanga and Vocabulario de la lengua Pampanga. Kapampangan produced two 19th-century literary giants; was noted for Gonzalo de Córdova and Comedia Heróica de la Conquista de Granada, and playwright wrote Alang Dios in 1901. "Crissotan" was written by Amado Yuzon, Soto's 1950s contemporary and Nobel Prize nominee for peace and literature, to immortalize his contribution to Kapampangan literature.

Geographic distribution

Kapampangan is predominantly spoken in the province of Pampanga and southern Tarlac. It is also spoken in border communities of the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and Zambales.
The language has also speakers outside Central Luzon, particularly in nearby Metro Manila and as far as Palawan and Mindanao. In Mindanao, a significant Kapampangan-speaking minority also exists in Cagayan de Oro, Davao City, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat. Other areas outside Central Luzon w/ Kapampangan speakers are Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley, with largest concentrations in Pangasinan, Cagayan, and Isabela.
According to the 2000 Philippine census, 2,312,870 people spoke Kapampangan as their native language. As of 2020, the language is ranked to be the eighth leading language spoken at home in the Philippines with only 639,687 households still speaking the language.

Phonology

Standard Kapampangan has 21 phonemes: 15 consonants and five vowels; some western dialects have six vowels. Syllabic structure is relatively simple; each syllable contains at least one consonant and a vowel.

Vowels

Standard Kapampangan has five vowel phonemes:
There are four main diphthongs:,,, and. In most dialects, and are reduced to and respectively.
Monophthongs have allophones in unstressed and syllable-final positions:
  • becomes in all unstressed positions.
  • Unstressed is usually pronounced, as in English bit and book respectively.
  • In final syllables can be pronounced, and can be pronounced.
  • * deni/reni can be pronounced / or /; seli can be pronounced or ; kekami can be pronounced or ; suerti can be pronounced or, sisilim can be pronounced or.
  • * kanu can be pronounced or ; libru can be pronounced or ; ninu can be pronounced or ; kaku can be pronounced or, and kámaru can be pronounced or.
  • Unstressed are usually pronounced, respectively.

    Consonants

In the chart of Kapampangan consonants, all stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions, including the beginning of a word. Unlike other languages of the Philippines but similar to Ilocano, Kapampangan uses /h/ only in words of foreign origin.
  • tends to lenite to between vowels.
  • and are allophones in Kapampangan, and sometimes interchangeable; Nukarin la ring libru? can be Nukarin la ding libru?.
  • A glottal stop at the end of a word is often omitted in the middle of a sentence and, unlike in most languages of the Philippines, is conspicuously absent word-internally; hence, Batiáuan's dropping of semivowels from its very name. The vowel it follows is then lengthened.

    Stress

Stress is phonemic in Kapampangan. Primary stress occurs on the last or the next-to-last syllable of a word. Vowel lengthening accompanies primary or secondary stress, except when stress occurs at the end of a word. Stress shift can occur, shifting to the right or left to differentiate between nominal or verbal use :
  • dápat → dapát
  • dapúg → dápug
Stress shift can also occur when one word is derived from another through affixation; again, stress can shift to the right or the left:
  • ábe → abáyan
  • láso → lasáwan

    Sound changes

In Kapampangan, the proto-Philippine schwa vowel merged to in most dialects of Kapampangan; it is preserved in some western dialects. Proto-Philippine is tanam in Kapampangan, compared with Tagalog tanim, Cebuano tanom and Ilocano tanem.
Proto-Philippine merged with. The Kapampangan word for 'new' is bayu; it is bago in Tagalog, baro in Ilocano, and baru in Indonesian.

Grammar

Kapampangan is a VSO or Verb-Subject-Object language. However, the word order can be very flexible and change to VOS and SVO. Just like other Austronesian languages, Kapampangan is also an agglutinative language where new words are formed by adding affixes onto a root word and the repetition of words, or portions of words, to ának-ának ). Root words are frequently derived from other words by means of prefixes, infixes, suffixes and circumfixes. to kanan to 'kakanan to kakananan ).
Kapampangan can form long words through extensive use of affixes, for example: Mikakapapagbabalabalangingiananangananan, 'a group of people having their noses bleed at the same time', Mikakapapagsisiluguranan, 'everyone loves each other', Makapagkapampangan, 'can speak Kapampangan', and Mengapangaibuganan, 'until to fall in love'. Long words frequently occur in normal Kapampangan.

Nouns

Kapampangan nouns are not inflected, but are usually preceded by case markers. There are three types of case markers: absolutive, ergative, and oblique.
Unlike English and Spanish and Inuit and Basque, Kapampangan has Austronesian alignment. Austronesian alignment may work with nominative or ergative markers and pronouns.
Absolutive or nominative markers mark the actor of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. Ergative or genitive markers mark the object of an intransitive verb and the actor of a transitive one. It also marks possession. Oblique markers, similar to prepositions in English, mark location and direction. Noun markers are divided into two classes: names of people and everything else.
AbsolutiveErgativeOblique
Common singularing-ng, ningking
Common pluralding, ringringkaring
Personal singulari-ngkang
Personal pluraldi, ririkari

Examples:
  • Dintang ya ing lalaki.
  • Ikit neng Juan i Maria.
  • Munta ya i Elena ampo i Robertu king bale nang Miguel.
  • Nukarin la ring libro?
  • Ibiye ke ing susi kang Carmen.

    Pronouns

Kapampangan pronouns are categorized by case: absolutive, ergative, and oblique.
Absolutive Absolutive ErgativeOblique
1st person singularyaku, i aku, akukukukanaku, kaku
1st person dualikatakata, tatakekata
1st person plural inclusiveikatamu, itamukatamu, tamutamu, takekatamu, kekata
1st person plural exclusiveikami, ikekami, kemikekami, keke
2nd person singularikakamukeka
2nd person pluralikayu, ikokayu, koyukekayu, keko
3rd person singulariya, yayanakeya, kaya
3rd person pluralilalada, rakarela

Examples

  • Sinulat ku.
  • Silatanan ke.
  • Silatanan na ku
  • Dintang ya Note: Dintang ya 'He arrived '; Dintang ne 'He has arrived.'
  • Sabian me kaku
  • Ninu ia ing minaus keka?
  • Mamasa la
  • Mamangan la ring babi?
Genitive pronouns follow the word they modify. Oblique pronouns can replace the genitive pronoun, but precede the word they modify.
  • Ing bale ku; Ing kakung bale; Ing kanakung bale
The dual pronoun ikata and the inclusive pronoun ikatamu refer to the first and second person. The exclusive pronoun ikamí refers to the first and third persons.
  • Ala katang nasi.
  • Ala tamung nasi.
  • Ala keng nasi., Ala kaming nasi.
Kapampangan differs from many Philippine languages in requiring the pronoun even if the noun it represents, or the grammatical antecedent, is present.
  • Dintang ya i Erning.
  • Mamasa la ri Maria at Juan.
  • Silatanan na kang José.