User:RussianAnt/Casiguran Dumagat Agta

Dumagat Agta
Casiguran Dumagat
Native to	Philippines
Region	Luzon
Ethnicity	Aeta
Native speakers	(610 cited 1989)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Northern Luzon Northeastern Luzon Dumagat Dumagat Agta
Dialects	Nagtipunan Agta
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dgc
Glottolog	casi1235

Casiguran Dumagat Agta (also known as Dumagat Agta, Casiguran Dumagat, Baler Dumagat, Casiguran-Nagtipunan Agta, or Agta) is an Aeta language of the northern Philippines. The Dumagat Agta people from the Casiguran Valley and around areas near the town of Casiguran in the province of Aurora^[1] in the region of Luzon. The language is currently endangered.

The language was first documented in 1936 by Christian missionaries. There are many surviving works of Father Morice Vanoverbergh that document the language. Although the language has gone through rapid cultural change since his early work, the Father's writings still give a window of insight into what the language and the culture of the people was.^[2] Since then it has been continually documented by SIL linguists like Thomas and Janet Headland (Lobel 2013:88).^[3] A New Testament translation was published in 1979, called Bigu a Tipan: I mahusay a baheta para ta panahun tam.^[4] Among the Aeta languages, Casiguran Dumagat Agta has been one of the most extensively studied varieties.^[3]

After visiting the Casiguran Agta people in 2002, Thomas Headland reported that he did not find any Agta adults who seem aware that their language is dying or even changing. Children still learn the language, even though they are also fluent in Tagalog by the age of 12.^[5]

Father Vanoverbergh in 1936 counts "787 indiviudals (small children not included)", however that count did not include the speakers living in the municipal areas of Dilasag, Dipaculao, Dinapigi, and Madella. According to Thomas Headland, if those areas were included in Father's count, the number would have been at least 1600 Casiguran Dumagats in 1936.^[2]

By 1960 the population of the Casiguran area did not exceed 9.2 thousand people. In just 10 years the area witnessed a population increase of 149% bringing the number of people to 22.7 thousand. This was no surprise, following the overall population increase in the Philippines with a stable 3.3 per cent per annum. However, despite the rapid population growth in the area, according to the census records provided by Mr. Thomas Casala, former agent for the Commission of National Integration in Casiguran, Headland estimates there are between 650 and 800 Casiguran Dumagats in 1975. ^[2]

According to the records of Thomas Headland in 1975, Most of the speakers resided in the forested foothills on the east side of the Sierra Madre mountain range, near the municipal towns of Casiguran, Dinalongan, and Dilasag. However, they also populated as far south as Dipaculao, Quezon and west of Sierra Madre Madella, Nueva Viscaya. Several of them have married into the Palanan Dumagats in Palanam, Isabela.^[2]

The Casiguran Agta population was down to approximately 590 in 1994. ^[6]

Today, it is spoken by around 610 speakers,^[5] most of whom today live in the San Ildefonso Peninsula, across the bay from Casiguran, Aurora. Because of many marrying outside of the speaking community, there is a lack of inter-generational transition of the language in the community ^[7]. The Agta Language is slowly giving in to the pressure of lingua franca in the area. The community widely uses Tagalog, English, and Taglish. As a result the native language is currently endangered.

Casiguran Dumagat is close to Paranan and a dialect spoken by the Palanan Negritos. These dialects are mutually intelligible with each other and Casiguran Dumagat, unlike other Dumagat languages. ^[8]

A dialect called Nagtipunan Agta was discovered by Jason Lobel and Laura Robinson in Nagtipunan, Quirino (Lobel 2013:88).^[3] Nagtipunan is influenced by the regional language, Ilokano, while Casiguran Dumagat is influenced by Tagalog and Kasiguranin.^[9]

Casiguran Dumagat has eight to ten vowel sounds, compared to the usual four in most Philippine languages.^[9] The vowels are: a, e, ë, é, i, o, ö, u. Generally, the accent in placed on the final syllable of the word, though there are many exceptions. This is due to the heavy influence and borrowing from Tagalog, Spanish, and English. The accented syllable is usually the loudest and the syllable before it sounds short. The peak of intonation occurs at the accent.^[8]

The consonants in Casiguran Dumagat are: p, t, k, b, d, g, s h, m, n, ng, l, r, w, y, and a glottal stop. A glottal stop is only symbolized (by a hyphen) when it occurs following a consonant. When a word begins or ends with a vowel, there is a glottal stop preceding or following it accordingly. Any two vowels together are to be read with a glottal stop between them. ^[8]

A Casiguran Dumagat - English Dictionary only lists the stems of the words. In order to look up the meaning of a Dumagat word, one must use the morphophonemic rules of the language to help him identify its stem. There are six common types of rules.

1. Assimilation
2. Replacement
3. Reduction
4. The prefix i-
5. Words ending in h
6. The suffix -an

For a detailed description of Morphophonemics see Headland 1965b.^[8]

The language contains noun-marking particles classified by 7 characteristics. They are divided into Singular and Plural, Topic, Attributive, or Oblique, Personal or Nonpersonal, and Absent or Present. The following Table shows the noun-marking particles. ^[8]

The topic is any focused noun phrase within a clause, as signaled by the verbal affixation in the predicate.

The attributive is any unfocused subjective phrase or any noun possessor phrase.

The oblique is any unfocused noun phrase which is not subject of the clause.

It is interesting to explain the classification of Present vs. Absent. It is similar to Alive vs. Dead, Known vs. Unknown, General vs. Specific, Actual vs. Non-Actual, In sight vs. Out of sight, Present in time vs. Past in time, and Mass nouns vs. Singular nouns. ^[8]

			Topic	Attributive	Oblique
Singular	Nonpersonal	Absent Present	tu i	no na	to ta
	Personal		ti	ni	ni
Plural	Nonpersonal	Absent Present	du di	du di	du di
	Personal		de	de	de

Pronouns are categorized into 4 sets of Ephasis, Topic, Attributive, and Oblique, and also Singular vs. Plural.^[8]

	English	Set I Emphasis	Set II Topic	Set III Attributive	Set IV Oblique
Singular	I thought and I thou he, she, it	sakén sikita siko siya	ék kita ka siya	ko ~ ta ta mo na	diyéken dikita diko diya
Plural	we-not-you we-all you they	sikame sikitam sikam sidë	kame kitam kam sidë	me tam moy de	dikame dikitam dikam dide

Demonstrative Pronouns are classified into two sets.

English	Set I	Set II
this, here (near speaker)	éye	se
that, there (near addressee, or in sight of both)	ina	sina
that, there (far from both)	èya	sa

Verbs are considered one of the most complex parts of the grammar of Casiguran Dumagat. They have a contrast between past and non-past tense. The past tense is marked by -in- or n- and the non-past is marked by m- except in the cases of -en, -an, I- and -um-. Beyond that verbs are classified by Focus and Orientation.^[8]

BASIC VERBAL AFFIXATION

		Subject Focus Verb		Object Focus Verb (A)		Object Focus Verb (B)		Dependent Verb in Temporal Clause
		Non-Past	Past	Non-Past	Past	Non-Past	Past
Orientation	1	ma- mé- me- -um-	mina- na- miné- mine- ne- -inum-					ka- ké- ke- ké-
	2	mag- még- mang- méng-	minag- nag- minég- nég- minang- nang- minéng- néng-	-én	-in-	ma- mé-	mina- na- miné-	pag- pég- pang- péng-
	3	mag--an még--an	minag--an nag--an minég--an nég--an	-an	-in--an	ma--an mé--an	mina--an na--an miné--an	pég--an
	4	mangi- méngi-	minangi- nangi- minéngi- néngi-	i-	ni-			pangi- péngi-
Abilitative		maka- méka	minaka- naka- minéka- néka-					paka- péka-
Purposive		méki-	minéki- néki-					péki-

In Casiguran Dumagat, the number closely resemble their counter-parts in Tagalog, notably, numbers 1-10. Additionally, the numbers used to referring to the time of day and often when counting money are borrowed from Spanish.^[8]

	Regular Numbers		Numbers used for reference to the time of day or when counting money
	Tagalog	Casiguran Dumagat	Spanish	Casiguran Dumagat
1	Isa	ësa/ëssa	Uno	'unu
2	Dalawa	éduwa/duwa	Dos	dos
3	Tatlo	étélo	Tres	tres
4	Apat	épat/éppat	Cuatro	'kuwatro
5	Lima	lima	Cinco	'singku
6	Anim	éném	Seis	saes
7	Pito	pitu	Siete	si'yete
8	Walo	walu	Ocho	'otyo
9	Siyam	siyam	Nueve	nu'webi
10	Sampu	'sapulu	Diez	diyes

The Casiguran Dumagat language has 17 different names for different types of arrows: Albid, Ambitél, Baag, Balawét, Banglag, Bétek, Eblog, Kinamangan, Gahaygay, Pangal, Gungot, Palsok, Saqud, Sahaysay, Uténg, Unay, and Sigangat. ^[8]

English	Casiguran Dumagat
Child	anak
Children	'anak
Type of basket	bala
Bullet	'bala
Thud	ganéb
Door	'ganéb
I will pass by.	Salinan ko
I will change it.	Sa'linan ko
We are rebuilding the fire there.	Mégtamo kame ta éya
We are going there.	Még'tamo kame ta éya
Chin	séme
To bounce up and down	sémë
Arrow notch	singet
Bee sting	singét
Drunk	lango
Fly	langö
Howl of a dog	'gölgöl
To file an arrowhead	'gulgul
To slice meat	'gélgél
Type of wildcat	alës
Blanket	ulés
To cut hair	ules
To make a fire by friction	ulas

• List of linguistic materials and descriptions, online access
• Agta Demographic Database: chronicle of a hunter-gatherer community in transition, https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/9299

• Headland, Thomas N.; Headland, Janet D. (Spring 1997). "Limitation of Human Rights, Land Exclusion, and Tribal Extinction: The Agta Negritos of the Philippines". Human Organization. 56 (1): 79–90.
• Headland, Thomas N. (October 1987). "Kinship and Social Behavior among Agta Negrito Hunter-Gatherers". Ethnology. 26 (4): 261–280.
• Headland, Thomas N.; Headland, Janet D. (1974). A Dumagat (Casiguran)- English dictionary. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 0858831074.
• Fortier, Jana. "Regional Hunter-Gatherer Traditions in South-East Asia". Oxford handbooks Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
• Turnbull, Wilfrid (June 1930). "Bringing a Wild Tribe Under Government Control". The Philippine Magazine. 27 (1): 31–32.
• Headland, Thomas N. (2004). "Basketballs for bows and arrows: deforestation and Agta culture change". Cultural Survival Quarterly. 28 (2): 41–44.
• "Agta, Casiguran Dumagat". Ethnic Groups of the Philippines. Ethnic Groups Philippines.
• "Casiguran Dumagat Agta". Endangered Languages Project. First Peoples' Cultural Council.

Category:Aeta languages Category:Northeastern Luzon languages Category:Languages of Aurora (province)