Filipino
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
( fil, Ortograpiyang Filipino) specifies the correct use of the
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...
of the
Filipino language
Filipino (; , ) is an Austronesian language. It is the national language ( / ) of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of Tagalog based on the native dialect, sp ...
, the
national
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
and co-
official
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
language of the Philippines.
In 2013, the
Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
, logo =
, logo_width =
, logo_caption =
, seal = Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF).svg
, seal_width =
, seal_caption =
, formed = 1937 (first formation)1991 (reformed)
, preceding1 ...
released the ''Ortograpiyang Pambansa'' (“National Orthography”), a new set of guidelines for writing the Filipino language.
Alphabet
The modern Filipino alphabet introduced since 1987 consists of 28 letters.
Notes on Filipino orthography
* C, F, J,
Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z are used mostly for
loanwords, regional words and proper nouns.
* The vowels are A, E, I, O, and U.
* Usual
diacritic marks
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
are
acute
Acute may refer to:
Science and technology
* Acute angle
** Acute triangle
** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology
* Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset.
** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
( ´ ),
grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
( ` ),
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
( ˆ ),
diaeresis ( ¨ ) which are optional, and only used with the vowels.
Grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
( ` ) and
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
( ˆ ) may only appear at the end of a word ending in a vowel.
Diacritics
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
have no impact on collation or alphabetical order. Possible combinations include: ''á, à, â, é, è, ê, ë, í, ì, î, ó, ò, ô, ú, ù, û''. Historically, the tilde was used with
(''g̃'') in many Philippine languages
The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languag ...
. It was notably used to shorten the words ''nang'' (ergative case marker) and ''man͠gá'' (pluralization particle) into ''ng̃'' and ''mg̃á'' respectively. Today, these two words are usually just simply written as ''ng'' and ''mga''.
* Ñ is considered as a separate letter, instead of a letter-diacritical mark combination.
* The alphabet also uses the Ng digraph, even originally with a large tilde that spanned both n and g (as in n͠g) when a vowel follows the digraph. This tilde
The tilde () or , is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish, which in turn came from the Latin '' titulus'', meaning "title" or "superscription". Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) i ...
indicates that the "''n͠g''" and the vowel should be pronounced as one syllable, such as "''n͠ga''" in the three-syllable word "''pan͠galan''" ("name") – syllabicated as a-n͠ga-lan not an-ga-lan The use of the tilde over the two letters is now rare. Due to technical constraints, machine-printed variants of "''n͠ga''" emerged, which included "''ñga''", "''ng̃a''", and even "''gña''" (as in the case of Sagñay
Sagñay, , officially the Municipality of Sagñay ( bcl, Banwaan kan Sagñay; tl, Bayan ng Sagñay), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Camarines Sur in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 36,841 peo ...
, Camarines Sur
Camarines Sur ( bcl, Habagatan na Camarines; tl, Timog Camarines), officially the Province of Camarines Sur, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bicol Region on Luzon. Its capital is Pili and the province borders Camarines Norte an ...
).
* The Ng digraph letter is similar to, but not the same as, the prepositional word ''ng'' ("of"/"of the"), originally spelled ''ng̃'' (with a tilde over the ''g'' only). The words ''ng'' and ''ng̃'' are shortened forms of the word ''nang''.
* ''Ë'' is a new variant of ''e'' introduced in 2013 to represent /ə/ in Austronesian words of non-Tagalog origin.
* D and R are commonly interchangeable depending on the letter's location: "D" becomes "R" if there is a preceding vowel, e.g. ''dagat'' ("sea") to ''mandaragat'' ("seafarer"), ''dunong'' ("intelligence") to ''marunong'' ("knowledgeable"). This does not, however, apply to some words such as ''dumadagundong'' ("booming") as well as loanwords and proper nouns.
History
Pre-Hispanic scripts
During the Pre-Hispanic Era, most of the languages of the Philippines
There are some 120 to 187 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called C ...
were written in abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel n ...
, an ancient segmental writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...
. Examples of this ancient Philippine writing system which descended from the Brāhmī script are the Kawi, Baybayin, Buhid, Hanunó'o, Tagbanwa, Butuan
Butuan (pronounced ), officially the City of Butuan ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Butuan; Butuanon: ''Dakbayan hong Butuan''; fil, Lungsod ng Butuan), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the region of Caraga, Philippines. It is the ''de facto'' c ...
, Kulitan
Kulitan (Spanish: ''cúlitan''), also known as súlat Kapampángan and pamagkulit, is one of the various indigenous suyat writing systems in the Philippines. It was used for writing Kapampangan, a language mainly spoken in Central Luzon, until it ...
and other Brahmic family of scripts
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...
known to antiquity. A controversial and debatable script of the Philippines is the Eskayan script.
Baybayin script began to decline in the 17th century and became obsolete in the 18th century. The scripts that are still in use today by the indigenous Mangyan
Mangyan is the generic name for the eight indigenous groups found on the island of Mindoro, southwest of the island of Luzon, the Philippines, each with its own tribal name, language, and customs. The total population may be around 280,001, ...
groups of the Philippines are the Buhid and the Hanunó'o script.
Adoption of the Latin script
When the Spaniards
Spaniards, or Spanish people, are a Romance ethnic group native to Spain. Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both in ...
arrived in 1521 and began to colonize
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
the islands of the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
in 1565, they introduced the Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
to the Catholicized Filipinos. When most of the Philippine languages were first written in the Latin script, they used the Spanish alphabet. This alphabet was called the Abecedario, the original alphabet of the Catholicized Filipinos, which variously had either 28, 29, 31, or 32 letters. Until the first half of the 20th century, most Philippine languages were widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography.
The writing system of the Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Filipinos in the different independent sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
ates of Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
during the Spanish colonization shifted from abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel n ...
script to Arabic alphabet while the writing system of most of the Catholicized Chinese Filipino
Chinese Filipinos; tl, Tsinoy, / Tsinong Pilipino, ; Hokkien in the Philippines, Philippine Hokkien , Mandarin Chinese in the Philippines, Mandarin (also known as Filipino Chinese in the Philippines) are Filipinos of Chinese descent, mo ...
s shifted from Written Chinese
Written Chinese () comprises Chinese characters used to represent the Chinese language. Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly logosyllabic; that is, a character generally r ...
to Abecedario alphabet.
Virtually unutilized from the Abecedario were the letters ''K'' and ''W'', which are both used extensively in most Philippine languages today due to the imposition of the Abakada alphabet. Relics of this Abecedario alphabet can still be seen in the way " Castilianized" indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
and Chinese-origin surnames are written. Some examples of indigenous Filipino surnames are ''Macasáquit'', ''Guintô'', ''Bañaga'', ''Guipit'', ''Abucajo'', ''Abueg'', ''Bangachon'', ''Dagohoy'', ''Valarao'' and ''Dimaculañgan''. Some examples of Chinese-origin surnames are ''Guanzón'', ''Cojuangco
The Cojuangco (Pampangan: oˈxwəŋkuor oˈwəŋku ; ; ) clan is a prominent Filipino family descended from Co Yu Hwan (), who migrated to the Philippines in 1861 from Hongjian Village, Jiaomei Township, Zhangzhou, Fujian. He was commonly calle ...
'', ''Siapuatco'', ''Yapchulay'', ''Locsín'', ''Quisumbing'', ''Tuazon'' and ''Yuchengco''. Many indigenous place names are also written using Spanish orthography, often either coexisting or competing with their indigenized forms if they exist ('' Bulacán'' or ''Bulakán'', ''Caloocan
Caloocan, officially the City of Caloocan ( fil, Lungsod ng Caloocan; ), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 1,661,584 people making it the fourth-most ...
'' or ''Kalookan'', ''Taguig
Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig ( fil, Lungsod ng Taguig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 886,722 people. Located in the northwestern shores of ...
'' or ''Tagig'', etc.). '' Parañaque'' would be written in the indigenized system as ''Paranyake'', but the latter spelling is so far unaccepted and not known in use. ''Marikina
Marikina (), officially the City of Marikina ( fil, Lungsod ng Marikina), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 456,159 people.
It is loca ...
'' on the other hand gained acceptance over the older ''Mariquina''.
Quite notable are proper nouns wherein the letter ''Y'' is written before consonants and is pronounced ''I''. Iloilo
Iloilo (), officially the Province of Iloilo ( hil, Kapuoran sang Iloilo; krj, Kapuoran kang Iloilo; tl, Lalawigan ng Iloilo), is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital is the City of Iloilo, the ...
and Ilocos
Ilocos Region ( ilo, Rehion/Deppaar ti Ilocos; pag, Sagor na Baybay na Luzon/Rehiyon Uno; tl, Rehiyon ng Ilocos) is an administrative region of the Philippines, designated as Region I, occupying the northwestern section of Luzon and part of ...
were spelled archaically
In language, an archaism (from the grc, ἀρχαϊκός, ''archaïkós'', 'old-fashioned, antiquated', ultimately , ''archaîos'', 'from the beginning, ancient') is a word, a sense of a word, or a style of speech or writing that belongs to a hi ...
as ''Yloylo'' or ''Yloílo'' and ''Ylocos''. Surnames in the Philippines such as ''Ybañez'', ''Ysagan'', ''Ybarra'', ''Yldefonso'' and ''Ylagan'' are evidences of the Old Spanish writing system. ''Ylang Ylang
''Cananga odorata'', known as ylang-ylang ( ) or cananga tree, is a tropical tree that is native to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is also native to parts of Thailand and Viet ...
'', a native Philippine tree valued for its perfume, is another example. The use of the letter ''Y'' at the beginning of words, however, gradually shifted to the letter ''I'' reflecting revisions in Spanish orthography.
The representation of certain sounds were largely derived from Spanish orthography but differed in several ways. The letter ''H'' was utilized to represent the voiceless glottal fricative
The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition, and sometimes called the aspirate, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that patterns like a fricative or approximant consonant '' phonologically'', b ...
(/h/) in the orthographies of most Philippine languages
The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languag ...
during the Spanish period in contrast to the orthography of Spanish which uses the letter ''J'' (the letter ''H'' in Spanish is silent). Spanish loanwords like ''Jesús'', ''Justicia'', or ''Jardín'', however, often retained their original spelling in Spanish. Archaic use of the letter ''X'' in the Old Spanish writing system that is pronounced in a guttural way (quite similar phonetically to ''H'' in English even though the sound is different) is evident in surnames such as ''Roxas''. Another example is '' México, Pampanga''.
To represent /k/, "c" was used before the vowels "a", "o", and "u" (i.e. cayo, cong, culang) and at final positions (pumasoc) while a silent "u" was used between "q" and "e" or "i" (i.e. "aquing", "quilala") reflecting Spanish orthography. This is because should "c" be utilized before either "i" or "e", the sound produced would instead be representing /s/ (like Spanish ''ciudad''). These two combination of letters ("ci" and "ce") were not used in native words and "s" was used in all cases to represent /s/. Likewise, in representing /g/, "g" was used before "a", "o", "u" (i.e. "gamit", "tago", "gutom") and at final positions while a silent "u" was used between "g" and "e" or "i" to (i.e. "guitna") so that "gue" represents /ɡe/ and "gui" represents /ɡi/.
The letter W as used today was absent. Instead, "u" was utilized ("gaua", "aua", "uala") and diphthongs written as "aw" today (araw) was written with "ao" (arao). Words like "huwag" and "kapwa" were written as houag and capoua.
A common practice in the orthography of some of the Philippine languages during the Spanish Colonial Period up to the 1960s was the use of tilde
The tilde () or , is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish, which in turn came from the Latin '' titulus'', meaning "title" or "superscription". Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) i ...
written over '' g̃'', a letter which was notably used to shorten the words ''nang'' (ergative case
In grammar, the ergative case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that identifies the noun as the agent of a transitive verb in ergative–absolutive languages.
Characteristics
In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most ...
marker) and ''man͠gá'' ( pluralization particle) into ''ng̃'' and ''mg̃á'' respectively. No literature could be found that pertained to the rules that governed the usage of this letter or that explained its disappearance. Today, these two words are usually just simply written as ''ng'' and ''mga''.
Originally, there was a large tilde that spanned both ''n'' and ''g'' (as in n͠g) when a vowel follows the Ng digraph. This tilde indicates that the ''n͠g'' and the vowel should be pronounced as one syllable, such as ''n͠ga'' in the three-syllable word ''pan͠galan'' ( en, name) – syllabicated as a-n͠ga-lan not an-ga-lan The use of the tilde over the two letters is now virtually non-existent.
Due to technical constraints, machine-printed variants of ''n͠ga'' emerged, which included ''ñga'', ''ng̃a'', and even ''gña'' as in the case of Sagñay
Sagñay, , officially the Municipality of Sagñay ( bcl, Banwaan kan Sagñay; tl, Bayan ng Sagñay), is a 4th class municipality in the province of Camarines Sur in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 36,841 peo ...
– syllabicated as a-ngay The Ng digraph letter is similar to, but not the same as, the prepositional word ''ng'' ( en, of/of the), originally spelled ''ng̃'' with a tilde over the ''g'' only. The words ''ñg'' and ''ng̃'' are shortened forms of the word ''nang''. There are some words with no tilde written over the ''ng'' digraph as in the case of barangay
A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolita ...
( fil, baranggay es, barangay) from the Tagalog word ''balan͠gay'' since it is syllabicated as a-rang-gay Ilonggo used to be written as ''Ylongo'' or ''Ilongo'' without a tilde over the ''ng'' since it is syllabicated as -long-go Another example is Zamboanga syllabicated as am-bo-ang-ga Words that end in ''ng'' digraph such as ''ang'' ( en, the), ''utang'' ( en, debt) and ''saguing'' ( en, banana) also didn't have tildes over the ''n'' or ''g'' or both ''ng''.
Contraction of certain words were indicated by two commas such as ''iba'' and ''at'' → "''iba, t,''"; Indicated today by a single quotation mark as in English (i.e. iba't).
Diacritic marks
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
were also utilized. Acute
Acute may refer to:
Science and technology
* Acute angle
** Acute triangle
** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology
* Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset.
** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
( ´ ), grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
( ` ) and circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
( ˆ ) were required and only used with the vowels. The latter two may only appear at the end of a word ending in a vowel. Diacritics
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
had no impact on the primary alphabetical order. Possible combinations include: ''á, à, â, é, è, ê, í, ì, î, ó, ò, ô, ú, ù and û''.
Punctuation marks were also borrowed from Spanish. Quotation marks like ''« »'' instead of the quotation marks (''" "'') were used. The inverted question mark (¿) and inverted exclamation mark (¡) were also utilized at the beginning of phrases ending with either the regular question mark/exclamation mark.
The vowels
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
were pronounced in a short vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
'' (ah), E (eh), I (ih), O (oh), U (uh)' while the consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
were pronounced as ''B (be), C (se), Ch (che), D (de), F (efe), G (he), H (ache), J (hota), K (ka), L (ele), LL (elye), M (eme), N (ene), NG (nang), Ñ (enye), Ñg or Ng̃ or N͠g or Gñ (ñga or ng̃a or n͠ga or gña), P (pe), Q (ku), R (ere), RR (er-re), S (ese), T (te), V (ve), W (wa), X (ekis), Y (ya or i griega or ye), Z (zeta).'' This alphabet gradually fell out of use since 1940 due to the imposition of the Abakada alphabet.
Collation of the ''Abecedario'' (32 letters):
Late 19th-century orthographic reforms
Filipino doctor and student of languages Trinidad Pardo de Tavera
Trinidad Hermenegildo José María Juan Francisco Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho (13 April 1857 – 26 March 1925) was a Filipino physician, historian and politician of Spanish and Portuguese descent who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Phil ...
in his 1887 essay ''El Sanscrito en la lengua Tagalog'' made use of a new Tagalog orthography rather than what had then been in use. In 1889, the new bilingual ''La España Oriental'', of which Isabelo de los Reyes
Isabelo de los Reyes Sr. y Florentino, also known as Don Belong (July 7, 1864 – October 10, 1938), was a prominent Filipino politician, writer, journalist, and labor activist in the 19th and 20th centuries. He was the original founder of the ...
was an editor, newspaper began publishing using the new orthography stating in a footnote that it would "use the orthography recently introduced by ... learned Orientalis". This new orthography, while having its supporters, was also not initially accepted by several writers. Soon after the first issue of ''La España'', Pascual H. Poblete
Pascual H. Poblete ( Filipino: ''Pascual Poblete Hicaro''; May 17, 1857—February 5, 1921) was a Filipino writer, journalist, and linguist, remarkably noted as the first translator of Dr. José Rizal's novel '' Noli Me Tangere'' into the Ta ...
's ''Revista Católica de Filipina'' began a series of articles attacking the new orthography and its proponents. A fellow writer, Pablo Tecson was also critical. The attacks included that the letters "k" and "w" were of German origin and foreign in nature, thus those promoting it were deemed "unpatriotic". These two publications would eventually merge as ''La Lectura Popular'' in January 1890 and would eventually make use of both spelling systems in its articles.
Pedro Laktaw, a schoolteacher, published the first Spanish-Tagalog dictionary using the new orthography in 1890. In April 1890, Jose Rizal authored an article ''Sobre la Nueva Ortografia de la Lengua Tagalog'' in the Madrid-based periodical La Solidaridad. In it, he addressed the logicality, in his opinion, of the new orthography and its criticisms, including those by Pobrete and Tecson. Rizal described the orthography promoted by Tavera as "more perfect" than what he himself had developed. José Rizal had also suggested a reform of the orthography of the Philippine languages by replacing the letters ''C'' and ''Q'' with ''K''. Rizal got the idea after reading an 1884 essay by Trinidad Pardo de Tavera about the ancient Baybayin script. The new orthography was however not broadly adopted initially and was used inconsistently in the bilingual periodicals of Manila.
The revolutionary society Kataás-taasan, Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng̃ mg̃á Anak ng̃ Bayan or Katipunan
The Katipunan, officially known as the Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK; en, Supreme and Honorable Association of the Children of the Nation ...
made use of the k-orthography and the letter k featured prominently on many of its flags and insignias.
Filipino as the national language, the Abakada, and expanded alphabet (1940–1987)
Article XIII, section 3 of the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines provided for the "...development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages". For this purpose, the Institute of National Language (INL) was subsequently set-up. After numerous debates among the different language representatives of the Philippines, the NLI passed a resolution dated November 9, 1937 recommending that Tagalog serve as basis for the national language. President Manuel L. Quezon
Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, (; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier and politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 until his de ...
issued Executive Order 134 in December 1937 officially proclaiming this decision.
In 1940, the ''Balarílà ng Wikang Pambansâ'' ( en, Grammar of the National Language) of grammarian Lope K. Santos
Lope K. Santos (born Lope Santos y Canseco, September 25, 1879 – May 1, 1963) was a Filipino Tagalog-language writer and former senator of the Philippines. He is best known for his 1906 socialist novel, '' Banaag at Sikat'' and to his contrib ...
introduced the Abakada
The Abakada alphabet was an "indigenized" Latin alphabet adopted for the Tagalog-based Filipino national language in 1940.
The alphabet, which contains 20 letters, was introduced in the grammar book developed by Lope K. Santos for the newly-d ...
alphabet. This alphabet consists of 20 letters and became the standard alphabet of the national language. The alphabet was officially adopted by the Institute for the Tagalog-Based National Language to “ indigenize" the writing system (The Latin script itself (the alphabet) was introduced by the Catholic missionaries of Spain, leaving nothing really to "indigenize").
The Spanish-based orthographies of other Philippine languages that were still using its old orthography began to be gradually replaced with the propagation of the new K-orthographies as more people became familiar with it. The Spanish-based orthographies were gradually wiped out since 1940, due to the imposition of Abakada. The Abakada orthography gradually influenced the languages of the Philippines.
The Abakada orthography was guided by the ''Balarilà'' of Santos. Vowels
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...
were pronounced with a short vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
, while consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
were pronounced by appending short ''A's'' at the end. Hence, the name Abakada, from the first 4 letters of the alphabet.
Collation of the ''Abakada'' (20 letters):
The ''Wikang pambansa'' (national language) was designated as ''Pilipino'' in 1959. In 1971, the alphabet was expanded to 31 letters: a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, ng, o, p, q, r, rr, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.
Modern Filipino alphabet (1987–present)
In 1987, the official language called Pilipino was renamed to Filipino
Filipino may refer to:
* Something from or related to the Philippines
** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines.
** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
. Article XIV Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution states that "the National language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages".
The Pilipino alphabet was reduced to 28 letters, with the Spanish ''Ch'', ''Ll'' and ''Rr'' digraphs being dropped from being considered as distinct letters (The Association of Spanish Language Academies
The Association of Academies of the Spanish Language ( es, Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, ASALE) is an entity whose end is to work for the unity, integrity, and growth of the Spanish language. It was created in Mexico in 1951 an ...
itself abandoned the use of ''Ch'' and ''Ll'' as separate listings in alphabetical collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...
s in 1994. Since 2010, ''ch'' and ''ll'' are no longer considered distinct letters. Each digraph is now treated as a sequence of two distinct characters, finding occasional use as conjoined pairs.).
The Modern Filipino alphabet is primarily English alphabet
The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word ''alphabet'' is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, '' alpha'' and '' beta''. ...
plus the Spanish '' Ñ'' and Tagalog '' Ng'' digraph; these are alphabetised separately in theory. Today, the Modern Filipino alphabet is used, and may also serve as the alphabet for all autochthonous
Autochthon, autochthons or autochthonous may refer to:
Fiction
* Autochthon (Atlantis), a character in Plato's myth of Atlantis
* Autochthons, characters in the novel ''The Divine Invasion'' by Philip K. Dick
* Autochthon, a Primordial in the ...
Philippine languages
The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languag ...
.
Collation of the Modern Filipino Alphabet (28 letters):
The Orthography of the National Language
In August 2007, the Commission on the Filipino Language
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made available a draft
Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to:
Watercraft dimensions
* Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel
* Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail
* Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...
version of Filipino orthography open for comment. This document is a result of a series of consultations with various teachers, instructors, linguists and others in the field that took place between 2006 and 2007.
The document begins by detailing the letters of the alphabet, their order and their names. One set of names is based on English letter names; the other, similar to the former ''Abakada''. Some exceptional names are those letters which were not part of the ''Abakada'': ''C'', ''se'', ''Q'', ''kwa'' and ''X'', ''eksa''.
It goes on to name punctuation
Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
marks, and describes the use of the acute
Acute may refer to:
Science and technology
* Acute angle
** Acute triangle
** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology
* Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset.
** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
, grave
A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grave ...
and circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
accents Accent may refer to:
Speech and language
* Accent (sociolinguistics), way of pronunciation particular to a speaker or group of speakers
* Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase
** Pitch acce ...
in Filipino. Words that already exist in the language are preferred over a borrowed term, for example, ''tuntunin'' vs. ''rul'' (derived from English ''rule''). In terms of spelling, issues concerning the use of ''y-/iy-'' and ''w-/uw-'' are codified according to the number of preceding consonants
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
and the origin of the word if it is borrowed.
Lastly, it provides spelling guidelines for words of foreign
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* United S ...
origin. It focuses mainly on the two languages that have provided a large number of lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
items to the Filipino language
Filipino (; , ) is an Austronesian language. It is the national language ( / ) of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of Tagalog based on the native dialect, sp ...
, namely Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
. In short, regarding borrowings from these two languages, Spanish words of common usage are written in a manner consistent with Filipino phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
. These words are already in common usage, thus they will not revert to their Spanish spelling. On the other hand, if the words come from English or another foreign source or if the term is derived from Spanish that does not already have a phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
spelling, it should be spelled phonetically and the use of the 8 new letters is allowed.
Examples:
*Spanish teléfono = telépono NOT *teléfono
*English psychology = saykoloji
*Spanish psicología or sicología = sikolohíya
*Spanish silla = silya
*Spanish cuchara = kutsara
*Spanish caballo = kabayo
Evolution example
Below is an example of orthography between the Tagalog (Early Spanish-style system) and Filipino (derived from multiple tribe coalitions.) The text used for comparison is the Filipino version of the Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...
. The phrase in square brackets is the doxology
A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , '' doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derive ...
"for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever".
: Early Tagalog System (taken from ''Doctrina Christiana
The ''Doctrina Christiana'' ( eng, Christian Doctrine) was an early book on the catechism of the Catholic Church, written in 1593 by Fray Juan de Plasencia, and is believed to be one of the earliest printed books in the Philippines.
Title
...
'',)
: ''Ama namin, nasa Lan͠gitca,''
: ''Ypasamba Mo ang N͠galanmo.''
: ''Mouisaamin ang pagcaharimo.''
: ''Ypasonor mo ang loob mo''
: ''Dito sa lupa para sa Lan͠git.''
: ''Bigya mo cami n͠gaion ng amin cacanin para nang sa arao-arao.''
: ''At patauarin Mo ang amin casalanã,''
: ''Yaiang uinaualan bahala namĩ sa loob''
: ''Ang casalanan nang nagcacasala sa amin.''
: ''Houag Mo caming æwan nang dicami matalo ng tocso,''
: ''Datapouat yadia mo cami sa dilan masama.''
: 'Sapagcat iyo an caharian at capaniarihan''
: ''At caloualhatian, magpacailan man.'': ''Amen Jesús.''
: Modern Filipino orthography
: ''Amá namin, sumasalangit Ka,''
: ''Sambahín ang Ngalan Mo.''
: ''Mapasaamin ang kaharián Mo.''
: ''Sundín ang loób Mo''
: ''Dito sa lupà, para nang sa langit.''
: ''Bigyán Mo kamí ngayón ng aming kakanin sa araw-araw.''
: ''At patawarin Mo kamí sa aming mga salà,''
: ''Para nang pagpápatawad namin''
: ''Sa mga nagkakasalà sa amin.''
: ''At huwág Mo kamíng ipahintulot sa tuksó,''
: ''At iadyâ Mo kamí sa lahát ng masamâ.''
: 'Sapagkát sa Iyó ang kaharián, at ang kapangyarihan,''
: ''At ang kaluwálhatian, magpakailanmán.'': ''Amen'' ''Hesús''.
See also
*Dambana
Indigenous Philippine shrines and sacred grounds are places regarded as holy within the indigenous Philippine folk religions. These places usually serve as grounds for communication with the spirit world, especially to the deities and ancestra ...
*Filipino alphabet
The modern Filipino alphabet ( fil, makabagong alpabetong Filipino), otherwise known as the Filipino alphabet ( fil, alpabetong Filipino), is the alphabet of the Filipino language, the official national language and one of the two official langua ...
*Filipino language
Filipino (; , ) is an Austronesian language. It is the national language ( / ) of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of Tagalog based on the native dialect, sp ...
*Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
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References
Notes
Wika.PBWorks.com
Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, August 1, 2007
The Orthography of the National Language (Final)
Republic of the Philippines, Department of Education, No. 104 s.2009.
''Proyectos-Saluda''
KWF Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, Proyectos-Saluda.org
''Proyectos-Saluda''
''Part I: Definitions'', KWF Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, Proyectos-Saluda.org
Nang or ng? – The long and the short of it
''In Other Words'' by Paul Morrow, ''Pilipino Express''
Pilipino-Express.com
July 1, 2006.
The evolution and disappearance of the "Ğ" in Philippine orthographies since the 1593 ''Doctrina Cristiana''
by Richard C. Signey, Instituto Cervantes, Manila. Accessed May 25, 2009.
External links
Commission on the Filipino Language website
Commission on the Filipino Language wiki
Ortograpiyang Pambansa
(2013 edition) KWF
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filipino Orthography
Filipino language
Latin-script orthographies