Gaʼdang language

Gaʼdang
Gaddang
Native to	Philippines
Region	Luzon
Ethnicity	Gaddang people
Native speakers	6,000 (2002)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Northern Luzon Northern Cordilleran Gaʼdang
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gdg
Glottolog	gada1258
Area where Gaʼdang language is spoken according to Ethnologue maps

Gaʼdang is an Austronesian dialect spoken in Northern Luzon, Philippines particularly in Paracelis, Mountain Province, Luzon; Potia, Ifugao Province; and Tabuk, Kalinga Province. There are some residents of speakers in Aurora and Nueva Vizcaya. Many Ga'dang speakers speak Ilocano as their second language.

The Ga'dang 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 Ga'dang. There are notable differences from other languages in the distinction between "r" and "l" (and between "r" and "d"), and the "f" sound is a voiceless bilabial fricative somewhat distinct from the fortified "p" sound common in many Philippine languages (but not much closer to the English voiceless labiodental fricative). Finally, the (Spanish) minimally-voiced "J" sound has evolved to a plosive (so the name Joseph sounds to the American ear as Kosip).

Most Ga'dang speakers use six vowel sounds: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ɯ/

Ga'dang 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 Ga'dang speakers have "a hard tongue".

For example: tudda (tood-duh). which means rice.

Ga'dang is also one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from [ɾ]-[d] allophony.

This article about Philippine languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

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