Ratagnon (also translated as Latagnon or Datagnon, and Aradigi) is a

regional language * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority La ...

spoken by the Ratagnon people, an indigenous group from

Occidental Mindoro Occidental Mindoro (), officially the Province of Occidental Mindoro ( or ''Lalawigan ng Occidental Mindoro''), is a province in the Philippines located in the Mimaropa region. The province occupies the western half of the island of Mindoro. I ...

. It is a part of the Bisayan language family and is closely related to other

Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (language ...

. Its speakers are shifting to Tagalog. In 2000, there were only two to five speakers of the language. However, in 2010 ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'' had reported there were 310 new speakers. Ratagnon at ''

''.

Classification

Ratagnon is closely related to the

Cuyonon language Cuyonon is a regional Bisayan language spoken on the coast of Palawan and the Cuyo Islands in the Philippines.Bisayan language spoken in the Cuyo Archipelago just to the south of

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...

. This may be brought about by migrations of Cuyonons to the southern tip of Mindoro, akin to their migrations to mainland Palawan, a very much gradual process. It could be inferred that these migrations happened at an earlier date before the migrations to mainland Palawan started (around the mid- to late 19th century) due to its diversion from the Cuyonon language (Given that Ratagnon descended from an older language spoken in the general area West of Panay, Ratagnon and Cuyonon are classified under Kuyan), whereas the Cuyonon of mainland Palawan, Calamian and that of the Cuyo itself remain the same language with relatively little dialectal difference.

Distribution

According to the ''

'', Ratagnon is spoken in the southernmost extreme tip of Mindoro islands, including the municipalities of Magsaysay and Bulalacao. * Magsaysay,

* Bulalacao,

Oriental Mindoro Oriental Mindoro (), officially the Province of Oriental Mindoro (), is a province in the Philippines located on the island of Mindoro under Mimaropa region in Luzon, about southwest of Manila. The province is bordered by the Verde Island P ...

lists the following locations. *lower Caguray River near Santa Teresa, Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro *San Nicolas, Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro *Bamban, Magsaysay, Occidental Mindoro

Vocabulary

Barbian (1977) provides lexical and phonological data for Ratagnon. In contrast to Cuyonon, Ratagnon dropped the schwa sound, instead opting for a ''u/o'' sound. It too borrowed lexical terms from the languages of its Mangyan neighbors and to a lesser extent Spanish It is notable in Barbian's ''Mangyan – English Vocabulary'', Ratagnon might have already experienced heavy Tagalization, present in words such as 'heart', in Cuyonon, albeit in Ratagnon, same with Tagalog's . The word 'why', in Cuyonon, is noted as and in Ratagnon, ( + ) being a loan from Tagalog, and , a Hanunuo Ambahan term ( being non-Ambahan), perhaps inferring that is a loan from Ratagnon, as Ambahans have been known to use archaic Hanunuo terms and loans from various languages, one being Ratagnon. This phenomenon is also observed in the Hanunuo traditions of Urukay, perhaps closely related to the Erekay of the Cuyonons, both being a form of Balagtasan. Ratagnon also has terms specific to the lowland river surroundings which are not present in modern Cuyonon, most of which are borrowings from Hanunuo and Buhid, whereas a few are either archaic Cuyonon terms or innovations made within the Ratagnon language. Aside from the aforementioned differences from the Cuyonon language, the two languages are still very much mutually intelligible. Differences from Cuyonon include: The usage of the ''t'' sound over the ''d'' sound, present in: Usage of the ''k'' sound over the ''g'' sound: The aforementioned dropping of the schwa for the ''u'' sound present in: The preference for the ''l'' over the ''r'' sound: There are some words that differ in meaning between Cuyonon and Ratagnon; this is most notable in terms specific to their respective surroundings, which has created false friends with almost the same, yet different, meanings.

Notes

References

* * * {{Languages of the Philippines Visayan languages Endangered Austronesian languages Languages of Occidental Mindoro