Pre-Hispanic scripts (c. 900) During the
Pre-Hispanic Era, most of the
languages of the Philippines were written in
abugida, an ancient
segmental writing system. Examples of this ancient Philippine writing system which descended from the
Brāhmī script are the
Kawi,
Baybayin,
Buhid,
Hanunó'o,
Tagbanwa,
Butuan,
Kulitan and other
Brahmic family of scripts 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 groups of the Philippines are the Buhid and the Hanunó'o script.
Adoption of the Latin script of
Iloilo in 1855 When the
Spaniards arrived in 1521 and began to
colonize the islands of the
Philippines in 1565, they introduced the
Latin script 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 Filipinos in the different independent
sultanates of
Mindanao during the Spanish colonization shifted from
abugida script to
Arabic alphabet while the writing system of most of the Catholicized
Chinese Filipinos shifted from
Written Chinese 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 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,
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 or
Kalookan,
Taguig 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 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 and
Ilocos were spelled
archaically 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, 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 () in the orthographies of most
Philippine languages 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 , "c" was used before the vowels "a", "o", and "u" (i.e.
cayo,
cong,
culang) and at final positions (pumaso
c) while a silent "u" was used between "q" and "e" or "i" (i.e. "a
quing", "
quilala") reflecting Spanish orthography. This is because should "c" be utilized before either "i" or "e", the sound produced would instead be representing (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 . Likewise, in representing , "g" was used before "a", "o", "u" (i.e. "
gamit", "ta
go", "
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 and "gui" represents . The letter W as used today was absent. Instead, "u" was utilized ("ga
ua", "a
ua", "
uala") and diphthongs written as "aw" today (ar
aw) was written with "ao" (ar
ao). Words like "huwag" and "kapwa" were written as h
ouag and cap
oua. 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 written over
g̃, a letter which was notably used to shorten the words
nang (
ergative case 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 () – syllabicated as [pa-n͠ga-lan], not [pan-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 – syllabicated as [sa-ngay]. The
Ng digraph letter is similar to, but not the same as, the prepositional word
ng (), 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 ( ) from the Tagalog word
balan͠gay since it is syllabicated as [ba-rang-gay].
Ilonggo used to be written as
Ylongo or
Ilongo without a tilde over the
ng since it is syllabicated as [i-long-go]. Another example is Zamboanga syllabicated as [zam-bo-ang-ga]. Words that end in
ng digraph such as
ang (),
utang () and
saguing () 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 were also utilized.
Acute ( ´ ),
grave ( ` ) and
circumflex ( 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 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 were pronounced in a short
vowel length [A (ah), E (eh), I (ih), O (oh), U (uh)] while the
consonants 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 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 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'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 Serrano y 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. 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 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 were pronounced with a short
vowel length, while
consonants 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. 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 itself abandoned the use of
Ch and
Ll as separate listings in alphabetical
collations 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 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
languages of the Philippines. Collation of the Modern Filipino Alphabet (28 letters): ==The Orthography of the National Language==