Filipino orthography

Filipino orthography

The Filipino alphabet (officially Makabagong alpabetong Filipino; English: Modern Filipino alphabet) is
made up of 28 letters, which includes the entire 20-letter set of the Abakada, the alphabet of Tagalog,
(including "ng") and 8 letters from the Spanish alphabet (namely C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z). It is intended
to replace the abakada which was introduced by Lope K. Santos during the American colonial period as
the alphabet for the "Wikang Pambansa Batay sa Tagalog" (English: "Tagalog-Based National Language"),
as well as Tagalog. It is used today as the writing system for all autochthonous Austronesian languages in
the Philippines and occasionally in writing Chabacano, a Spanish-derived creole.

Adoption of the Roman alphabet

When the Philippine languages were first written in the Roman alphabet, they used Spanish
orthography. This alphabet was called the abecedario. Relics of this can still be seen in the way
"Castilianized" indigenous and Chinese-origin surnames are written, such as "Macasáquit", "Guanzón",
"Dimaculañgan", and others. Many indigenous place names are also written using Spanish orthography,
often either coexisting or competing with their native forms if they exist ("Bulacán"/"Bulakan",
"Caloocan"/"Kalookan", "Taguig"/"Tagig", etc.). "Parañaque" would be written in the native system as
"Paranyake", but the latter spelling is so far unaccepted if at all heard of.

"Abakada" is the Tagalog alphabet, Tagalog having been selected as the basis of the national language in
1935, of 20 letters officially introduced by Lope K. Santos through his "Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa"
(but initially employed by José Rizal who suggested replacing the use of both C and Q by simply K) during
the American occupation of the country and adopted by the National Language Institute of the
Philippines in 1973. The alphabet was called "abakada" for the letters were pronounced with the sound
"a" at the end, for example "b" was pronounced "ba", "l" was pronounced "la", and so on. This alphabet
of 20 letters has only one letter to represent each distinct sound in Tagalog—unlike, say, the letters 'c'
and 'k' in English. The 20 letters of Abakada are written as "a b k d e g h i l m n ng (where "ng" is
considered as only one letter.) o p r s t u w y".

The National Language Institute initiated the new language in 1973. In 1976, the alphabet consisted of
31 letters—the 26 letters of the English alphabet, the Spanish "ñ", "ll", "rr", and "ch", and the "ng" of
Tagalog. In practice, however, the digraphs are considered as their two constituent letters.In 1973
Pilipino was defined by law as the official language. The national alphabet was again expanded in 1976
to include the letters "C", "Ch", "F", "J", "Ll", "Ñ", "Q", "Rr", "V", "X", and "Z" in order to accommodate
words of Spanish and English origin. The alphabet was then later reduced to 28 letters, "rr", "ll" and
"ch", all of which are of Spanish origin, were removed, leaving 28 letters, in 1987 when Pilipino was
renamed Filipino. ("Ch", "Rr", and "Ll" were themselves later abolished from the Spanish alphabet.) This
current alphabet is basically the entire English alphabet plus the letters "Ñ" and "Ng", alphabetized
separately in theory.

"The Orthography of the National Language" ("Ang Ortograpiya ng Wikang Pambansa")

As of August 2007, the Commission on the Filipino Language has made available a draft version of
Filipino orthography that is open for comment. [cite web|url = http://wika.pbwiki.com/f/ORTOPDF.pdf|
title = Ang Ortograpiya ng Wikang Pambansa|accessdate = 2008-01-28|author = Komisyon sa Wikang
Filipino|year = 2007|publisher = Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino] 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 marks, and describes the use of the acute, grave and circumflex accents
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 and the origin of
the word if it is borrowed.

Lastly, it provides spelling guidelines for words of foreign origin. It focuses mainly on the two languages
that have provided a large number of lexical items to the Filipino language, namely Spanish and English.
In short, regarding borrowings from these two languages, Spanish words of common usage are written
in a manner consistent with Filipino phonology. 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 spelling, the
spelling should be kept intact; it should not be spelled phonetically.

Examples:

Spanish teléfono = telepono NOT *telefono

English psychology = psychology NOT *saykoloji, but:

Spanish sicología = sikolohiya

Order/Collation of the Alphabet

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

amples of the Different Orthography Styles

Below is an example of the difference in orthography between the Spanish and Modern Filipino systems.
The text used for comparison is the Filipino version of the Lord's Prayer.: "SPANISH SYSTEM" (from the
Doctrina Cristiana): "Ama namin, nasa Lañgitca,": "Ypasamba Mo añg Ñgalanmo.": "Mouisaamin ang
pagcaharimo.": "Ypasonor mo ang loob mo" : "Dito sa lupa para sa Lañgit.": "Bigya mo cami ñgaion ng
amin cacanin para nañg 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."

: "MODERN FILIPINO SYSTEM" (Modern Translation): "Ama namin, sumasalangit ka,": "Sambahin ang
Ngalan mo.": "Mapasaamin ang kaharian mo.": "Sundin ang loob mo": "Dito sa lupa, para nang sa
langit.": "Bigyan mo kami ngayon ng aming kakanin sa araw araw.": "At patawarin mo kami sa aming
mga sala,": "Para nang pagpapatawad namin": "Sa mga nagkakasala sa amin.": "At huwag Mo kaming
ipahintulot sa tukso,": "At iadya Mo kami sa lahat ng masama.": "Sapagkat Iyo ang kaharian, at
kapangyarihan,": "At ang kadakilaan, magpakailanman.": "Amen"

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