Gaddang language


The Gaddang language is spoken by up to 30,000 speakers in the Philippines, particularly along the Magat and upper Cagayan rivers in the Region II provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela and by overseas migrants to countries in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, in the Middle East, United Kingdom and the United States. Most Gaddang speakers also speak Ilocano, the lingua franca of Northern Luzon, as well as Tagalog and English. Gaddang is associated with the "Christianized Gaddang" people, and is closely related to the highland tongues of Ga'dang with 6,000 speakers, Cagayan Agta with less than 1,000 and Atta with 2,000, and more distantly to Ibanag, Itawis, Yogad, Isneg and Malaweg.
The Gaddang tongue has been vanishing from daily and public life over the past half-century. Public and church-sponsored education was historically conducted in Spanish or English, and now in Filipino/Tagalog. Once significantly-Gaddang communities grew exponentially after WWII due to in-migration of Ilokano, Tagalog, Igorot, and other ethnicities; Gaddang is now a minority language. In the 2000 Census, Gaddang was not even an identity option for residents of Nueva Vizcaya. Vocablulary and structural features of Gaddang among native Gaddang speakers have suffered as well, as usages from Ilokano and other languages affect their parole. Finally, many ethnic Gaddang have migrated to other countries, and their children are not learning the ancestral tongue.

Geographic Distribution

The Gaddang people were identified as I-gaddang by the Spanish in the early 1600s, and differentiated from the Igorots of the highlands by physique, skin color, homelands, and lifestyle. Mary Christine Abriza tells us "The Gaddang are found in northern Nueva Vizcaya, especially Bayombong, Solano, and Bagabag on the western bank of the Magat River, and Santiago, Angadanan, Cauayan, and Reina Mercedes on the Cagayan River for Christianed groups; and western Isabela, along the edges of Kalinga and Bontoc, in the towns of Antatet, Dalig, and the barrios of Gamu and Tumauini for the non-Christian communities. The 1960 census reports that there were 25,000 Gaddang, and that 10% or about 2,500 of these were non-Christian."
Distinct versions of Gaddang may be heard as you travel down the valleys of the Magat and Cagayan on the Asian Highway 26 through Nueva Vizcaya into Isabela after leaving Santa Fe, where its use is infrequent, and successively through Aritao, Bambang, Bayombong, Solano,, and Bagabag. By the time you arrive in Santiago City, in-migration due to the economic development of the lower Cagayan Valley over the last century means you now must search diligently to hear Gaddang spoken at all.
The Gaddang language is related to Ibanag, Itawis, Malaueg and others. It is distinct in that it features phonemes not present in many neighboring Philippine languages. As an example the "f","v","z" and "j" sounds appear in Gaddang. There are notable differences from other languages in the distinction between "r" and "l", and the "f" sound is a voiceless bilabial fricative somewhat distinct from the fortified "p" sound common in many Philippine languages. Finally, the minimally-voiced "J" sound has evolved to a plosive.

Vowels

Most Gaddang speakers use six vowel sounds: ,,,,,

Consonants

Gaddang features doubled consonants, so the language may sound guttural to Tagalog, Ilokano, and even Pangasinan speakers. The uniqueness of this circumstance is often expressed by saying Gaddang speakers have "a hard tongue"
For example: tudda which means rice.
Gaddang is also one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from - allophone.

Phonology

Gaddang is also one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from - allophony.

Grammar

Nouns

Personal Pronouns

Existential

Interrogative Words

Like most languages of the Philippines, Gaddang is declensionally, conjugationally and morphologically agglutinative.
Also like them, it is characterized by a dearth of positional/directional adpositional adjunct words. Temporal references are usually accomplished using agglutinated nouns or verbs.
The following describes similar adpositional structure in Tagalog: "The marker sa, which leads indirect objects in Filipino, corresponds to English prepositions...we can make other prepositional phrases with sa + other particular conjugations." Gaddang uses si in the same manner as the Tagalog sa, as an all-purpose indication that a spatial or temporal relationship exists.

Examples

Simple greetings/questions/phrases

Below are examples of Gaddang proverbs and riddles. Note the Ilokano and even Spanish loan-words.
Inaccan na lammag ca.
Nu boliarancu ay mabbebed - abanacio.
Si liek a mangngan, mabattuac; ackabalin cu mangngan, mabisinnac - caldero.