| Description:
The Ivatan language, also known as Ibatan (though in ISO classification Ibatan is reserved for a closely-related language spoken in the Babuyan Islands, which is assigned the code [ivb] as opposed to [ivv]) or Chirin nu Ibatan (meaning, "language or dialect of the Ivatan people"), is an Austronesian language spoken exclusively in the Batanes Islands. Despite the islands' closer proximity to Taiwan than Luzon, it is important to not group the language with Formosan languages, which in fact are assigned one of ten sub-families within the Austronesian language family, whereas Ivatan is included with other Philippine languages in the Malayo-Polynesian sub-family, an immense group of 1248 languages not restricted to the languages of the Philippines, but, as the name suggests, includes Malayic and Oceanic languages. Confuses arises because the Batanic, or more commonly, Bashiic division does contain Yami, a language spoken by the Tao people of Orchid Island off the east coast of Taiwan, who are ethinically related to the Ivatan. Tao is the closest language to Ivatan if Ibatan, whose status as an independent language is still unclear to scholars, is disregarded.
Ivatan is especially..... full article at Wikipedia |
