Filipino alphabet
The modern Filipino alphabet (Filipino: makabagong alpabetong Filipino), otherwise known as the Filipino alphabet (Filipino: alpabetong Filipino), is the alphabet of the Filipino language, the official national language and one of the two official languages of the Philippines. The modern Filipino alphabet is made up of 28 letters, which includes the entire 26-letter set of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, the Spanish Ñ and the Ng digraph of Tagalog. It replaced the Pilipino alphabet of the Fourth Republic. Today, the modern Filipino alphabet may also be used to write all autochthonous languages of the Philippines and Chavacano, a Spanish-derived creole.
| Filipino alphabet | |
|---|---|
| Languages | Filipino |
In 2013, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino released the Ortograpiyang Pambansa ("National Orthography"), a new set of guidelines that resolved phonemic representation problems previously encountered when writing some Philippine languages and dialects.
Alphabet
| Upper case | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | Ñ | NG | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower case | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | ñ | ng | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
| IPA phonemes | a | b | k, s | d | e | f | g | h | i | dʒ, h | k | l | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | o | p | k | r | s | t | u | v, b | w | ks, z | j | z |
Letters
The 28 letters of the Alpabeto are called títik or létra, and each represents a spoken sound. These are classed either as patínig or bokáblo (vowels) and katínig or konsonánte (consonants).
The letters' names are pronounced and collated in the same way as English, except for Ñ /enje/.
| Letters | Name | Phonemic Values | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | ey | /a/ | |
| B | bi | /b/ | |
| C | si | /k/, /s/ | used in the digraph ch /tʃ/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph ts, or in loan words from Castilian |
| D | di | /d/ | |
| E | i | /ɛ/ | |
| F | ef | /f/, /p/ | sometimes indistinguishable with p |
| G | dyi | /g/, /dʒ/, /h/ | |
| H | eyts | /h/ | |
| I | ay | /i/ | |
| J | dyey | /dʒ/, /h/ | used in the letter j /dʒ/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph dy, or in loan words from English; /h/ in loan words from Castilian |
| K | key | /k/ | |
| L | el | /l/ | also used in the digraph ll /lj/ or /j/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph ly and y, or in loan words from Castilian |
| M | em | /m/ | |
| N | en | /n/ | |
| Ñ | enye | /ɲ/ | Sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph ny, or in loan words from Castilian |
| Ng | endyi | /ŋ/ | |
| O | o | /o/ | |
| P | pi | /p/ | |
| Q | kyu | /k/ | used in the digraph qu /k/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the letter k, or in loan words from Castilian |
| R | ar | /ɾ/ | |
| S | es | /s/, /z/ | |
| T | ti | /t/ | |
| U | yu | /u/ | |
| V | vi | /v/, /b/ | sometimes indistinguishable with b |
| W | dobolyu | /w/ | |
| X | eks | /ks/, /h/ | used in the letter x /ks/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph ks, or in loan words from English; /h/ in loan words from Castilian |
| Y | way | /j/ | |
| Z | zi | /z/, /s/ | sometimes indistinguishable with s |
Consonants
The Abakada developed in the early 20th century had fewer consonants. By the middle of the century, letters (baybayin) were added and later on reduced due to its ideology which is English that is approximately radical to English alphabet with the release of the Ortograpiyang Pambansa in 2014. This is a radical change to add these letters to modernise the writing system and to preserve the sounds that were found in native Philippine languages. The digraphs and manuscripts were chosen to be placed in other wordings for privileges and adaptations.
Examples of the added letters:
| Words | Language | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| chila | Ibaloy | tongue |
| chingching | Ibaloy | wall |
| alifuffug | Itawes | whirlwind |
| safot | Ibaloy | spiderweb |
| falendag | Tiruray | a flute that is covered with a leaf when played through the mouth |
| feyu | Kalinga | a pipe made from reeds |
| jambangán | Tausug | plants |
| masjid | Tausug, Mëranaw; ultimately from Arabic مسجد | mosque |
| julúp | Tausug | bad behaviour |
| avid | Ivatan | beauty |
| vakul | Ivatan | a traditional, protective woman’s headdress from Batanes woven from Phoenix hanceana [1] |
| kuvat | Ibaloy | war |
| vuyu | Ibanag | meteor |
| vulan | Ibanag | moon |
| kazzing | Itawes | goat |
| zigattu | Ibanag | east |
Vowels
Most languages in the Philippines share vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/. After centuries of Spanish colonisation and the standardisation of Filipino as the national lingua franca, the vowels /e/ and /o/ became more common.