Sambal

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A language of Philippines

ISO 639-3
xsb
Alternate Names
Sambali, “Tina” (pej.), “Tina Sambal” (pej.)
Autonym
Sambalì
User Population

70,000 (2000 SIL), decreasing. No monolinguals. Ethnic population: 70,000.

Location

Central Luzon region: Tarlac province, western border; Ilocos region: Pangasinan province, 2 villages; MIMAROPA region: Palawan province, Quezon municipality, Panitian village; north Zambales province, 5 towns.

Language Maps
Language Status

7 (Shifting). De facto language of provincial identity in Zambales province.

Classification
Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central Luzon, Sambalic
Dialects

Santa Cruz, Masinloc, Iba. 70% intelligibility with Botolan [sbl].

Language Use

Youth start using it at work if they do not go on to higher education; little use among children. Not used around outsiders, but they like it when outsiders learn Sambal. All domains among adults. Oral use in local commerce, occasional use in religion and political campaigning. Some letter-writing. Adults only. Shifting to Filipino [fil]. Some also use Ilocano [ilo].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L1: 98%. Literacy rate in L2: 98%. Orthography similar to Filipino [fil]. English and Filipino taught in school. Taught in primary schools through grade 3. Literature. Newspapers. Radio. Videos. Dictionary. Texts. NT: 1999–2000.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Sambal
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Christian.