The Kagayanen language is spoken in the province of Palawan in the Philippines. It belongs to the Manobo subgroup of the Austronesian language family and is the only member of this subgroup that is not spoken on Mindanao or nearby islands.

Kagayanen is spoken in the following areas:^[2]

• Palawan Province: Cagayancillo Island between Negros and Palawan
• Palawan coastal communities
• southern Palawan: Balabac Island
• northern Palawan: Busuanga and Coron
• other areas around the Philippines: Iloilo Province; Silay, Negros; Manila; Quezon and Rizal areas

[h] occurs only in loan words, proper names, or in words that have [h] in the cognates of neighboring languages.^[4] Outside of loanwords, /d/ becomes [r] between vowels.^[5]

Comparative and historical evidence suggests that /ð̞/ and /l/ were in complementary distribution before a split occurred likely with pressure from contact with English, Spanish, and Tagalog.^[6]

/i/ ranges between [i] and [e], except in unstressed syllables (as well as before consonant clusters) where it lowers to [ɪ] or [ɛ].^[8] Similarly, /u/ lowers to [ʊ] in unstressed syllables, before consonant clusters, and word-finally. It is otherwise [u].^[9]