Kapampangan belongs to the Northern group of Philippine languages. It is classified as a member of the Malayo-Polynesian language branch of Austronesian languages according to Ethnologue. According to Gonzalez (2005), the Kapampangans settled in the central plains but were gradually displaced and pushed further north to what is now Pampanga, Tarlac, parts of Bataan, and adjacent areas in Nueva Ecija. The name Kapampangan comes from the term pampang which means ‘the area near the river bank’.

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          Kapampangan is still known as ‘Kapampangan’ to outsiders since this language is one of the major languages spoken in the Philippines. According to 1990 census taken from Ethnologue, there are 1,905,430 speakers of Kapampangan language. According to Añoso (2012), Kapampangan is spokenby around 2.4 million people in Luzon. The language is spoken mostly in the whole province of Pampanga, in southwest Nueve Ecija province, Tarlac province, and in Zambales province. Aside from the Kampangan-speaking people, speakers of languages such as Tagalog, Bisaya, and Maranao who hail from different regions and provinces also inhabit the local areas.

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         In a sociolinguistic point of view, older people tend to speak in full Kapampangan while the younger ones are mostly bilingual and speak Tagalog and Kapampangan, according to the researchers’ informant. Both Kapampangan and Tagalog are being used as a medium of instruction in schools and the language of office in government.

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           The Kapampangan variety given data in this research is spoken from the municipality of Lubao, Pampanga. According to the official website of the municipality of Lubao, Lubao is located at the western part of the province of Pampanga, and it is one of the 22 municipalities of the Pampanga province. It is located at the western part of the province where it is bound by the municipalities of Guagua to the north, Sasmuan to the east, Floridablanca to the west, and Orani, Bataan to the south. 64.30% of the total land area comprises of broad plains, making the municipality the largest rice-producing town in the province of Pampanga.

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         According to the 2000 census, the total population of Lubao is 125, 699. It is reported that about 5% of Philippine ethnic groups are found in Lubao, but Kapampangan (95%) is still the major language of the residents. Baba and Lubao are popular names used by the early Kapampangan settlers to describe the physical nature of the place. Throughout the history of Lubao, the term “low” became associated to the meaning of the town. Lubao’s location is nestled along the flat greenfields and prosperous estuarines, which are considered advantageous and essential for agriculture and trade. Lubao has a total land area of 15,731.11 hectares. It is a first-class municipality composed of 44 barangays which are classified into different categories namely, urban core, central business district, sub-urban zone, rural villages, and fishing villages; depending on their main source of livelihood.