Filipino alphabet

Not to be confused with Baybayin.

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. The Ng digraph came from the Pilipino Abakada 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

Filipino 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 phones	a	b	k, s	d	e	f, p	g	h	i	d͡ʒ, h	k	l	m	n	ɲ	ŋ	o	p	k	ɾ	s	t	u	v, b	w	ks, z	j	z, s

The letters C/c, F/f, J/j, Ñ/ñ, Q/q, V/v, X/x, and Z/z are not used in most native Filipino words, but they are used in a few to some native and non-native Filipino words that are and that already have been long adopted, loaned, borrowed, used, inherited and/or incorporated, added or included from the other languages of and from the Philippines, including Chavacano and other languages that have or where occurs a wider set of occurring sounds and pronunciations compared to the more limited occurring sounds and pronunciations in the Tagalog language and some of the other major local and regional languages and lingua francas or common languages, and also from foreign languages in the Philippines and beyond, that have influenced or continues to influence the languages of and from the Philippines and how Filipinos speak and pronounce the Filipino language and the other languages, which are all already long part and already have been long part of the Filipino national and official language since 1987, most especially in the varieties, variants or dialects on the other places or areas of the Philippines outside of the predominantly and only Tagalog-speaking and the predominantly or only Tagalog-based or predominantly Tagalog only-based Filipino-speaking places or areas.

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/.

Letter	Name	Phoneme	Notes
A	ey	/a/	Becomes [ɐ] in unstressed syllables and [ä] in stressed syllables.
B	bi	/b/
C	si	/k/, /s/	For words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language, [k] applies to ⟨ca, co, cu⟩, while [s] applies to ⟨ce, ci⟩. Formerly used for Tagalog words under Spanish orthography.
D	di	/d/	Is often allophonic with [ɾ] in intervocalic positions.
E	i	/e/	Normally [e ~ e̞], but can become [ɛ] in emphatic speech. Sometimes pronounced as [ə] in areas with influence with other native languages.
F	ef	/f/	Often indistinguishable from [p]. Exclusively written for words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language.
G	dyi	/ɡ/, /dʒ/, /h/	For words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language, [dʒ] often applies to those from English, while [h] applies to those from Spanish.
H	eyts	/h/	Speakers from Luzon tend to pronounce the name of the letter as [e̞t͡ʃ].
I	ay	/i/	Becomes [ɪ] in unstressed syllables and [i] in stressed syllables.
J	dyey	/dʒ/, /h/	Normally rewritten as ⟨dy, diy⟩ to represent [dʒ] or as ⟨h⟩ to represent [h]. For words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language, the former corresponds to English, while the latter to Spanish.
K	key	/k/, /kʷ/	Not to be confused with [kʰ]. [kʷ] only applies to ⟨kw, kuw⟩.
L	el	/l/
M	em	/m/
N	en	/n/, /ɲ/	[n.j ~ ɲ] only applies to ⟨ny, niy⟩.
Ñ	enye	/ɲ/	Exclusively written for words of Spanish origin that have not been assimilated into the language.
Ng	en dyi	/ŋ/	Comparative to ⟨ng⟩ in "sing," "running," etc. Not to be confused with the indirect case marker ng (originally ng̃ with a tilde over the g), which is [nɐŋ].
O	o	/o/	Normally [o ~ o̞], but can become [ɔ] in emphatic speech.
P	pi	/p/	Not to be confused with [pʰ].
Q	kyu	/kʷ/	Exclusively written for words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language. Formerly used for Tagalog words under Spanish orthography.
R	ar	/ɾ/	Normally [ɾ], but can become [ɹ ~ r] in consonant clusters.
S	es	/s/
T	ti	/t/	Not to be confused with [tʰ].
U	yu	/u/	Becomes [ʊ] in unstressed syllables and [u] in stressed syllables.
V	vi	/v/	Often indistinguishable from [b]. Exclusively written for words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language.
W	dobolyu	/w/
X	eks, ekis	/ks/, /s/	Normally rewritten as ⟨eks, ks, s⟩. Exclusively written for words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language.
Y	way	/j/
Z	zi	/z/	Often indistinguishable from [s]. Exclusively written for words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into the language. Alternatively pronounced as [zeɪ̯].

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. It was a major change to add these letters and thus modernise the writing system and to preserve sounds that are 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 behavior
avid	Ivatan	beauty
vakul	Ivatan	a traditional, protective woman's headdress from Batanes woven from Phoenix hanceana
kuvat	Ibaloy	war
tokwifi	Igorot	star
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.

See also

• Filipino orthography
• Abakada alphabet
• Suyat
• Philippine Braille

External links

• Commission on the Filipino Language website Archived 2020-04-12 at the Wayback Machine
• Commission on the Filipino Language wiki