If These Languages Could Talk: The Extinct Languages of the Philippines

The Philippines, an archipelago of diverse cultures and traditions, has faced drastic changes in the status of languages spoken around the country in the past decades. Despite the efforts, there were already identified languages that had fallen silent. Though one of the most captivating narratives is on how these languages died, this study aimed to document the stories of the six (6) extinct or dead languages in the Philippines by knowing how they faced their demise and what happened to their speakers. It was found that the death of these languages was due to not being spoken already by the native speakers themselves as they speak other languages already. As per the review, only in the case of Agta Dicamay did the language die because its last native speakers were allegedly killed. Although this paper gives a glimpse of the different extinct languages in the country, especially since it is limited to literature, future extensive documentary studies focusing on the language are encouraged to widen knowledge on the existence of these languages