The Subanen languages (also Subanon and Subanun) are a group of closely related Austronesian languages belonging to the Greater Central Philippine subgroup. Subanen languages are spoken in various areas of Zamboanga Peninsula, namely the provinces of Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, and in Misamis Occidental of Northern Mindanao. There is also a sizeable Subanen community in Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte. Most speakers of Subanen languages go by the name of Subanen, Subanon or Subanun, while those who adhere to Islam refer to themselves as Kolibugan, Kalibugan, Tewlet or Telet.

Internal classification

Jason Lobel (2013:308) classifies the Subanen varieties as follows.

  • Subanen Western Western Subanon Western Kolibugan Nuclear West Nuclear Tawlet-Kalibugan Subanen Salug-Godod Subanen East Nuclear Southern Subanen Central Subanen Northern Subanen Eastern Subanen

Lobel (2013:308) lists the following innovations or retentions among each of the following subgroups.

  • Nuclear Subanen: *k > Ø
  • Western Subanen: *k > /k/ (retention)
  • East Nuclear Subanen: *r > /l/
  • West Nuclear Subanen: *r > /r/ (retention)
  • Western Subanen: *r > /l/ (independently took place, likely due to contact with Tausug, Maguindanaon, Butuanon, Cebuano, and/or Ilonggo, which have also undergone the *r > /l/ shift independently of one another)

Proto-Subanen

The following phoneme inventory can be reconstructed for Proto-Subanen:

Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Close*i*u
Mid*ə
Open*a
Consonants
BilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Stopvoiceless*p*t*k*ʔ
voiced*b*d*g
Fricative*s
Nasal*m*n*ŋ
Lateral*l
Approximant*w*y

According to Jason Lobel (2013:304-305), the innovations defining Proto-Subanen from Proto-Greater Central Philippine are:

1. *h was lost in all positions in Proto-Subanen.

2. *ʔ was lost word-initially and word-medially, only being retained in word-final position.

3. Reduction of *a to *ə in prepenultimate syllables, as well as in closed penultimate syllables.

4. Addition of a word-initial *g- to all vowel-initlal words following the operation of the previous innovations.

5. Assimilation of consonant clusters into a sequence of either *kC, *gC, or a nasal cluster.

External links

  • at Ethnologue (23rd ed, 2020).
  • Audio recordings of Subanon are archived with Kaipuleohone, including a word list, sentences, and a traditional song