Tagalog alphabet

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The Tagalog alphabet (officially Makabagong Alpabetong Filipino; English: Modern Filipino Alphabet) comprises of 28 letters, which includes the entire English alphabet and two additional letters, ñ and ng. It was once formerly known as the abakada when it was created by Lope K. Santos during the American colonial period.

History

Tagalog was first written in the Roman alphabet using 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 was the Tagalog alphabet of 20 letters introduced by Lope K. Santos during the American occupation of the country and adopted by the National Language Institute of the Philippines in 1973. The 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 20 letters of the abakada were written as a b k d e g h i l m n ng o p r s t u w y. The alphabet was intended to be entirely adequate for phonetic representation of the language but subsequent additions extended it first to 33 letters then later reduced to 28 letters in 1987 when a new Tagalog-based language called Filipino was officially created. (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.

Tagalog alphabet

History

See also