The Ibanag language (also Ybanag or Ibanak) is an Austronesian language spoken by up to 500,000 speakers, most particularly by the Ibanag people, in the Philippines, in the northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan, especially in Tuguegarao, Solana, Abulug, Cabagan, and Ilagan and with overseas immigrants in countries located in the Middle East, United Kingdom and the United States. Most of the speakers can also speak Ilocano, the lingua franca of northern Luzon island. The name Ibanag comes from the prefix I which means 'people of', and , meaning 'river'. It is closely related to Gaddang, Itawis, Agta, Atta, Yogad, Isneg, and Malaweg.
Classification
Similar to more known languages in the Philippines such as Cebuano and Tagalog, Ibanag is a Philippine language within the Austronesian language family. On the other hand, it belongs to the Northern Philippine languages subgroup where related yet larger Ilocano and Pangasinan also fall under.
Distribution and dialects
Ibanag is spoken in various areas of Northeastern Region of the Philippines (namely within Isabela and Cagayan), and because of this there are also minor differences in the way that it is spoken in these areas. Ibanag spoken in Tuguegarao is known to be the standard dialect. And other native Ibanag speakers usually distinguish if the speaker is from Tuguegarao City with the variation of their pronunciation and accent. Most who have adapted the urban dialects of Ibanag tend to have a Hispanic accent.
In Tuguegarao, before the Spaniards came, the language was Irraya (an almost-extinct Gaddang dialect). Spaniards introduced Ibanag to the city from Lal-lo (formerly the city of Nueva Segovia) and made the language as the lingua franca of the northeastern Philippines. But with the introduction of Ilocano settlers, Ilocano has become the new lingua franca since the late 20th century.
Cauayan speakers and Ilagan speakers in Isabela have a hard accent as opposed to the Tuguegarao Ibanag that sounded Hispanic. But, native speakers of Northern Cagayan have a harder accent.
For example, Ibanags from towns in northern Cagayan, which includes Abulug, Aparri, Camalaniugan, Pamplona and Lallo, tend to replace their ps with fs. Also, certain Ibanag words differ from these areas as opposed to the Tuguegarao and Isabela Ibanag. The dialects are South Ibanag and North Ibanag.
Examples: – ('hot') – ('a place to put') – ('banana')
Tuguegarao Ibanag may be considered the standard; however, Northern Cagayan Ibanag may be closest to the ancient Pre-Hispanic Ibanag existent prior to the spread of the language throughout the province, as Northern Cagayan was the original Ibanag home territory. On the other hand, Tuguegarao Ibanag, besides having Spanish influences, may have acquired elements from nearby Itawis. At the same time, Isabela Ibanag may have acquired elements from the original Gaddang language predominant in the province.
Archaic Ibanag
Some words used in the present such as 'rice', 'pig', 'fire', are listed in Spanish texts as , , and respectively. Also, the Ibanag term for the number one, , was once used interchangeably with the word , which is no longer used apparently by modern speakers of the language.
Use and current status
As of Oct. 2012, "revival of the Ibanag culture is part of the Mother-Tongue Based (MTB) program of the [Philippine] government which seeks to preserve indigenous cultures, including its languages, for generations to come. Ibanag is one of the MTB languages now taught in Philippine schools," and two current stage plays, (Heritage of the River) and Why Women Wash the Dishes are being performed in the Ibanag language.
Phonology
Vowels
Monophthongization of diphthongs is observable in Ibanag. For example, the words ('to go'), ('house') or ('day') are sometimes pronounced as ume, bale, and aggo respectively.
Consonants
Ibanag is one of the Philippine languages which are excluded in the - allophony.
Ibanag features phonemes that are not present in many related Philippine languages; phonemes unique to Ibanag compared to its sister languages include as in , 'rice', as in , 'pig', as in , 'goat' and as in , 'maid'.
Ibanag features gemination: ('half') ('to squeeze, squeezing')
Orthography
There are two ways that Ibanag can be written. In older texts, the "Spanish style" is often used: ⟨c⟩, and ⟨qu⟩ are used to represent /k/, and words that end with a glottal stop have -c added to the end of the word.