Languages share a content common to all people; however, they differ with regard to their specific and nation-dependent phonetic means used to express it. These phonetic means grant a particular sound to each language. A phonetic system is usually based on segmental units: phonemes, syllables and syntagms. The main units of a phonetic system are closely interrelated with super-segmental or supra-segmental units, namely intonation and word stress. (Sulce 2012)
In this excerpt of Sulce’s Research on the Latvian Language, the differences of the phonological features of the language show how the identity of a language is partly dependent on the phonemes …show more content…
As seen in Ethnologue (2015), the population of Kapampangan speakers are close to two million. But this number was only based in a 1990 census and no other census has been made by Ethnologue since then. Because of this, the number of Kapampangan speakers may have increased or dwindled in the last twenty years. According to Pangilinan (2013, 1), “Kapampangan is an Austronesian language spoken in Indung Kapampangan, the Kapampangan homeland, located in the northern island of Luzon in the Philippines, by the ethnic group known as Bangsang Kapampangan (Kapampangan people). Kapampangan is often affectionately called by them as Amanung Sisuan ~ the ‘language suckled from the mother’s breast.’” The aforesaid language is used in different provinces in Luzon and it may not be limited only to the people residing in Pampanga. It may also be observed in select regions in the Tarlac Province wherein it has its own dialect, a dialect where the stress and tone of the speakers differ from that of the speakers in