Presentation Date:
Friday, November 16, 2018
Location:
Quezon City, Philippines
The 13th Philippine Linguistics Congress
Paper presentation
University of the Philippines Diliman
14-16 November 2018
Abstract
Ibatan Babuyan is a Batanic language mainly spoken on the island of Babuyan Claro, Babuyan Islands, Cagayan. It is spoken as the native language of a majority of the residents of Babuyan Claro, and also as the second language of Ilokano migrants in the community. The mixed linguistic background of the Ibatan Babuyan speakers appears to manifest itself linguistically as contact-induced change, with features not seen in other Batanic languages occurring in Ibatan Babuyan. Dialectal variation in the language is mainly dictated by the linguistic profiles of the speakers. Native or non-native use of Ibatan Babuyan, as well as sociolinguistic categories such as age, geographic mobility, social network, and ethnic orientation contribute to the variation seen in Ibatan Babuyan. This paper reports on the current linguistic profile of Babuyan Claro based on a sociolinguistic fieldwork done in the community. Information on language use and attitudes among the speakers within the context of the whole region are diagnostic not only of the vitality of Ibatan Babuyan but also of the direction of change projected for the language.