Manide is a Philippine language spoken near the province of Camarines Norte in Bicol region and Quezon in Southern Tagalog of southern Luzon in the Philippines. Manide is spoken by nearly 4,000 Negrito people, most of whom reside in the towns of Labo, Jose Panganiban, and Paracale.^[2]

History

Between 1903 and 1924, John M. Garvan (1963) visited Negrito Filipino communities in the region of Luzon and recorded the name Manide.^[2][3]

Many of the Manide population children still grow up speaking Manide.

Classification

Manide is the most divergent out of the three other Negrito languages in Southern Luzon, namely Inagta Rinconada, Inagta Partido, and Alabat.^[2] In a survey of 1000 lexical items, 285 appeared to be unique, including new coinages which are forms that experienced semantic and or phonological shifts over time. In comparison, other Negrito languages such as Batak, Inagta Rinconada/Partido, Mamanwa, or Inati have a cognate rate of over 90% with neighboring non-Negrito languages.^[2]

The language genetically closest to Manide is the Inagta Alabat language.^[4] Katabangan may have also been related according to Zubiri.^[5]

Distribution

Lobel (2010) shows the separation of towns with Manide populations.

• Camarines Norte
  • Basud – 2 communities, 175 speakers
  • Labo – 9 communities, 1,542 speakers
  • Jose Panganiban – 3 communities, 568 speakers
  • Paracale – 4 communities, 581 speakers
  • Santa Elena – 1 community, 110 speakers
  • Capalonga – 2 communities, 245 speakers
  • San Lorenzo Riuz – 1 community, 45 speakers
• Quezon
  • Calauag – 1 community
  • Lopez – 1 community
• Camarines Sur
  • Ragay – 1 community, 200 speakers
  • Lupi – 1 community, 197 speakers

Phonology

Historical reflexes

Reflexes are words, sounds, or writing systems which are derived from previous, older elements or systems.

Verb morphology

Manide is a reduced-focus language because it primarily uses mag- for the actor focus and -an for the location focus, while -en takes place of the functions from Proto Malayo Polynesian *-ən and *i-, thus marking object focus.^[2] There are two present forms, with the first being possessive. The second present form is used for habitual functions. In Southern Luzon, Manide is the only language that uses CVC reduplication.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Manide make the same contrasts as in other Philippine languages.

Vowel shifts

Vowel shifts are systematic sound changes in the pronunciation of vowel sounds. In Manide, there are vowel shifts following voiced stops /b d g/ and glides /w y/.^[2] Low vowel fronting, back vowel fronting, and low vowel backing are all present in Manide.

Fronting refers to a change in the articulation of a vowel with shifts to vowels further forward in the mouth. (i.e., the position of the highest point of the tongue during its pronunciation).^[7]

Case markers

Case markers in Manide are similar to those of other Philippine languages. The case markers show the relationships of nouns and noun phrases to a verb. The most common situations are genitive, nominative, and oblique. Something very unusual is that Manide uses the same case markers for personal names just as used with common nouns. There are no 'personal' case markers in Manide for in the plural form, only the singular form.

References