Filipino alphabet


The modern Filipino alphabet, otherwise known as the Filipino alphabet, 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.
In 2013, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino released the Ortograpiyang Pambansa, a new set of guidelines that resolved phonemic representation problems previously encountered when writing some Philippine languages and dialects.

Alphabet

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 and katínig or konsonánte.
The letters' names are pronounced and collated in the same way as English, except for Ñ.
LettersNamePhonemic ValuesNotes
Aey/a/
Bbi/b/sometimes indistinguishable with v
Csi/k/, /s/used in the digraph ch /tʃ/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph ts, or in loan words from Castilian
Ddi/d/
Ei/ɛ/
Fef/f/, /p/
Gdyi/g/, /dʒ/, /h/
Heyts/h/
Iay/i/
Jdyey/dʒ/, /h/used in the letter j /dʒ/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph dy, or in loan words from English
Kkey/k/
Lel/l/used in the digraph ll /lj/ or /j/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the digraph ly and y, or in loan words from Castilian
Mem/m/
Nen/n/
Ñenye/ɲ/
Ngendyi/ŋ/
Oo/o/
Ppi/p/
Qkyu/k/used in the digraph qu /k/, which is sometimes indistinguishable from the letter k, or in loan words from Castilian
Rar/ɾ/
Ses/s/, /z/
Tti/t/
Uyu/u/
Vvi/v/sometimes indistinguishable with b
Wdobolyu/w/
Xeks/ks/
Yway/j/
Zzi/z/, /s/

Consonants

The Abakada developed in the early 20th century had fewer consonants. By the middle of the century, letters 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:
WordsLanguageMeaning
chilaIbaloytongue
chingchingHokkienwall
alifuffugArabicwhirlwind
safotArabicspiderweb
falendagArabica flute that is covered with a leaf when played through the mouth
feyuKalingaa pipe made from reeds
jambangánTausugplants
masjidTausug, Mëranaw; ultimately from Arabic مسجدmosque
julúpTausugbad behaviour
avidIvatanbeauty
vakulIvatana traditional, protective woman’s headdress from Batanes woven from Phoenix hanceana
kuvatIbaloywar
vuyuIbanagmeteor
vulanIbanagmoon
kazzingItawesgoat
zigattuIbanageast

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.