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The Katabangan have completely switched to Filipino. Katabangan is also used by some people in the Bikol Region to refer to mixed-blood Agta. Zubiri believes it is likely related to Inagta Alabat and to the Manide of western and central Camarines Norte.
History and status
The language was originally listed by Garvan (1963: 8). Katabaga is in fact a misspelling of Katabangan, the name that the people use to refer to themselves. Some people in the Bikol Region also use the term Katabangan to refer to mixed-blood Agta in the region. Lobel (2013: 92) reports from a 2006 visit that the Katabangan speak only Tagalog. According to Lobel (2013), based on its present-day location, if the Katabangan did in fact once have their own language, it could possibly have been related to Inagta Alabat (see Inagta Alabat language) and Manide.
Louward Allen Zubiri reports that there are 670 individuals in the Katabangan community. The community was granted an ancestral domain title by the government of the Philippines in 2015. There are also families living in Mulanay, Gumaca, Lopez, and Alabat.
Vocabulary
Zubiri compares a few Katabangan lexical items remembered by elders and notes clear similarities with Inagta Alabat and Manide.
Garvan, John M. 1963. The Negritos of the Philippines. Wiener Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte und Linguistik Band XIV. Vienna: Ferdinand Berger Horn. (Published posthumously from field notes taken by Garvan between 1903 and 1924.)
