Most Filipinos know the ABAKADA, despite it no longer being the official alphabet, partly because of a popular children’s song that goes through this traditional group of letters - a, ba, ka, da, e, ga, ha, i, la, ma, na, nga, o, pa, ra, sa, ta, u, wa, ya 🎶 It consists of 15 consonants and 5 vowels - a total of 20 letters.Ī, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, n, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, yĪ, ba, ka, da, e, ga, ha, i, la, ma, na, nga, o, pa, ra, sa, ta, u, wa, ya Available on Amazon #aff The abakada was developed by language scholar Lope K Santos in the 1930s.

The Metamorphosis of Filipino as National Language, by Jessie Grace U.This word comes from the first four letters of the basic Tagalog alphabet, which is different from the modern Filipino alphabet.

Still confused? For more, please follow these links: Spell these words as 'bi-o-ti-ey' and 'ti-i-ti-i-key' or something to that effect. For example,īote (bottle) and titik (letters) are spelled Abakada style as 'ba-o-ta-e' and 'ta-i-ta-i-ka,' which even make children die laughing! The accepted way is to

Part of the reason is that the traditional Abakada is limited and sometimes sounds funny or becomes the butt of jokes, as in the way certain words are spelled.

'Modernization' of the Philippine national language has incorporated these new characters into the alphabet since 1987, junking the old Abakada (or baybayin). It becomes Pinay when referring to aįemale, although Pinoy is also used to refer to both male and female. Pinoy is the shortened, colloquial version for Filipino to mean the people, but never the language. Philippine Islands or P.I., when it was still a colony).The 'Ph' is from Philip, the English equivalent of the Spanish King Felipe II. It is derived from the Hispanized word Filipinas, the old Spanish name of the country Las Islas Filipinas (Anglicized equivalent: The same goes for Pilipinas, which is the Today, the Filipino alphabetĬonsists of 28 characters, with the letters F, Ñ and Ng added on top of V, Q, X, Z and other Latin characters. The 'P' or 'Ph' is used because most Filipino languagesĭo not have the 'F' sound (with the exception of some native people in the Cordillera and Mindanao, like the Ifugao and the Teduray). Pilipino is synonymous with Tagalog, the language widely spoken in Manila, Bulacan, Bataan, and Batangas.

On the other hand, Pilipino, is how the locals from the Philippines refer to themselves, or to their national language. Never use or say Philippino, because that doesn't sound right. Note that it is also correct to sayįilipino for a male and Filipina for a female. Filipino, Pilipino, Pilipinas, Philippines - What's the Difference?įilipino, Pilipino, Pinoy, Pilipinas, Philippines - What's the Difference?įilipino is the Hispanized (or Anglicized) way of referring to both the people and the language in the Philippines.

Ano ang tawag sa abakada