Ilocano language

Iloco (also Ilóko, Ilúko, Ilocáno or Ilokáno; ; Iloco: Pagsasaó nga Ilóko) is an Austronesian language primarily spoken in the Philippines by the Ilocano people. It is one of the eight major languages of the Philippines with about 11 million speakers and ranks as the third most widely spoken native language. Iloco serves as a regional lingua franca and second language among Filipinos in Northern Luzon, particularly among the Cordilleran (Igorot) ethnolinguistic groups. It is also spoken in the Cagayan Valley and in the portions of the northern and western areas of Central Luzon, including Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, and Aurora. As an Austronesian language, Iloco or Ilocano shares linguistic ties with other Philippine languages and is related to languages such as Bahasa Indonesia, Malayic languages, Tetum, Paiwan, Malagasy and other Malayo-Polynesian languages. It is mutually intelligible with several Northern Luzon languages, as it belongs to the same Austronesian subgroup. It shares a higher degree of lexical similarity with the Itneg language, which belongs to the Central Cordilleran subgroup, largely due to historical contact and the exchange of loanwords. However, mutual intelligibility with other Central Cordilleran languages is generally low, even though Ilocano functions as a lingua franca and primary second language among many speakers of these languages. Iloco is also spoken outside of Luzon, including in Mindoro, Palawan, Mindanao particularlly in Soccsksargen, and internationally in Canada, Hawaii and California in the United States, owing to the extensive Ilocano diaspora in the 19th and 20th centuries. About 85% of the Filipinos in Hawaii are Ilocano speakers and the largest Asian ancestry group in Hawaii. In 2012, it was officially recognized as the provincial language of La Union, underscoring its cultural and linguistic significance.