LETTERS.

The Bisayan letters are twenty:[1]

a,	as a in large		h,	as h in hat		qu,	as the English k
b,		as in English	i,	sounding ee		r,		as in English
c,			l,		as in English	s,
d,			m,			t,
e,	as e in well		n,			u,	sounding oo as in good
g,	as g in good		o,	as o in long		y,	as y in young
ng̃,	as ng in long		p,	as in English

[[2]]

After knowing the respective sounds of these letters, according to the preceding table, no rule is necessary for the pronunciation of Bisayan words.

[1] According to the nature of the Bisayan dialect and according to what some Filipino philologists have written, Rizal among them, referring to the dialects in the Philippines, the letters of the Bisayan language must be the following:

a, b, d, e, g, g̃, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, y, w.

As it can be noticed, the letters c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x and z are omitted from the preceding list, and g̃ and w are introduced. The reason for this is as follows:

c, in its sound as in city, can be substituted by the letter s; and, in its sound like c in cup, it can be substituted by k.
f is never used in Bisayan.
j, in its Spanish sound, can be substituted by h, which has an aspirate pronunciation in Bisayan in all cases. In Bisayan, there is no sound like that of the English j; however, in some places on the western and southern coasts of Leyte, the y is pronounced like the English j, as in maayo (pronounced mah-ah-joh) good.
The Spanish letter ñ, or a sound like it, can be written in Bisayan more properly with the combination of these two letters ny, as in minyo (pr. mean-yo) married.
q is not necessary, since the k can be used in all cases, where q is needed. The phrase quiquilàon co (I shall see it) can be perfectly written kikiláon ko.
v is never used in Bisayan.
x, in its Spanish sound, can be substituted by ks; and, in its English sounds, it can be substituted by gs or ks, respectively.
z, in either its English or its Spanish sound, is never used in Bisayan.
The g̃ is for the nasal sound that is very often used in Bisayan, like the ng in song, longing. The g is preferable to the combination ng̃, which would sometimes lead to confusion; because this combination ng in Bisayan, is not pronounced as one letter, in many instances, but each of these letters is pronounced; as, for example, the word bug̃a (fruit), if written bunga, should sound booong-ghah, which means to dart or to be darted.
w is needed in all cases of sounds like Spanish dipthongs; but it must be used in Bisayan always as a consonant, never as a vowel.

Notwithstanding the preceding considerations, the orthography used in this book is the old one, but simplified to a certain extent, on account of the fact that this alphabet (if it can be properly called an alphabet, it having no f or sound of f) is not yet used, even known, but by very few persons among the Bisayan speaking people.

It would be very desirable for the people to adopt the new orthography proposed in this note, because it is evidently more simple and proper for the particular nature of the Bisayan dialect. [[2]]

A study of the method of reducing the number of Bisayan vowels is also to be desired, as it seems that not more than three are needed, to wit: a, e or i, o or u.

The nature of the Bisayan tongue argues for such a simplicity. Dr. T.H. Pardo de Tavera, referring to the ancient Filipino alphabet, says: “The alphabet was composed of seventeen letters, three of which were vowels. A consonant standing alone was always pronounced with an a sound following; by the use of a dot or dash near and above the consonant stem, in much the same fashion as is used in certain systems of shorthand, instead of the sound of the a, the sound of the vowels e or i was produced: when the dot or dash was placed below the consonant stem the vowel sound given was equivalent to o or u.” (See Census of the Philippine Islands: 1903 Volume One, page 327). [↑]

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