Philippine Indic Studies

A Note on the Orthography

In orthographic systems that have been used to write Ilocano since the 1600s, two systems have
predominated. The older system is based on Spanish orthography and the newer system is the
standardized alphabet accepted for the Tagalog language, as used in the weekly Ilocano
magazine, Bannawag. The orthography is mostly phonemically based for the consonants, but not
for the vowels. Among the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) used in Ilocano writing, the letter e
corresponds to two separate phonemes in the Southern dialects, a mid front vowel, and a high
back unrounded vowel. The orthographic symbols o and u originally represented one phoneme
with alternative pronunciations in specific environments (o word-finally). Due to the large
number of foreign loans in the language and high degree of bilingualism, however, these letters
now represent two contrastive vowel sounds, e.g. oso 'bear' vs. uso 'use, in fashion'.

The older Spanish system vs. the modern system

Although perhaps the majority of Ilocanos continue to use the older Spanish spelling system,
I choose to abide by the conventions accepted in most modern publications and the Bannawag
magazine. Here, I briefly outline the two systems:

Vowels are the same in both: a, e, /, o, u; where e represents two distinct sounds in the Southern
dialects (see Phonology).

Consonantal representation varies as follows. Differences between the systems are highlighted in
boldface. The starred consonants in the second (Spanish orthography) column are used only in
loanwords:

Ilocano sound [IP A]

Spanish orthography

Standardized orthography

P

P

P

*f

P

b

b

b

*v

b

t

t

t

d

d

d

k

c

k

qu

k

kk

ck

kk

g

g

g

ge»gi

gue, gui

ge>gi

s

s

s

*z

s

se, si

ce, ci

se, si

chitn

ch

ts, ti + vowel

Jld3l

di + vowel

di + vowel, dy

h

*j

h

he, hi

ge,gi

he, hi

1

1

1

ly + vowel [lj]

*11

li + vowel

r

r

r

*rr

r

m

m

m

n

n

n

ny + vowel

ft

ni + vowel

ng[ij]

ng,ng

ng

w

o, u, w '

w

y

y

y

Examples of words:

Old Spanish spelling

Modern Ilocano Spelling

Gloss

acero

asero

steel

tucac

tukak

frog

dackel

dakkel

big

achara

atsara

pickles

fiesta

piesta

party, fiesta

ginebra

hinebra

gin

daguiti

dagiti

plural article

trabajo

trabaho

work

taller

talier

car repair shop

ngata

ngata

perhaps

vaca

baka

cow

zapatos

sapatos

shoes

pizarra

pisara

chalkboard

The idiosyncrasies of the older Spanish-based system are eliminated in the modern
system as follows:

The letters c and g used in the older Spanish spelling system no longer represent two
sounds. In the old system, c and g before a front vowel (/, e) represented [s] and [h] respectively.
In other environments, they represented [k] and [g], respectively:

Old Spanish spelling

gelatina

ginebra

hacendero

Modern Ilocano spelling

helatina

hinebra

asendero

Gloss

gelatin

gin

estate owner

The velar stops [k] and [g] before front vowels used to be represented in Spanish
orthography as 'qu' and 'gu\ respectively. They are now represented without the V.

Old Spanish spelling

daguiti

manggued

naganaquen

baquet

Modern Ilocano spelling

dagiti

mangged

naganaken

baket

Gloss

plural article

worker

gave birth already

old lady

The Pre-Hispanic Syllabary

Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, the Ilocanos employed a syllabary
resembling the Vedic scripts of India used in various other languages found throughout the
Philippines and Indonesia. It is similar to the scripts used by the Tagalogs and Pangasinenses,
although unlike these, the Ilocano script was innovated to designate coda consonants. In the
Tagalog script, readers were expected to supply the coda consonants from the context, as only
consonants in initial syllable position were written, with a diacritic representing the appropriate
vowel. Although this script is no longer in use in modern Ilocano, I show it below, taken from
the Ilocano Doctrina Cristiana of 1 62 1 .

The Ilocano Syllabary

i * — i o — ■ ti

ba be— bi bo — bu b h to— M

& & tz •&.

to — ta k da it -a

do — *i * |i $e — {L go — gft I

b — lu I ma me — mi ina — mu m

H8 te-nl no-nu a pa p« — pi

fc* 1 &$* fc* <** ^ *<*

po-p | ha h© — hi ho — hu h

vj ^ V "9 *" **.

e» « — si §0 — su I ti t» — ti

is* t? 3 & . 9 §

to-ta t "** ve — ii w — to *

Rubino, Carl. 2000. Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

—80-

$b

a>

ILOCANO ALPHABET
The accompanying alphabet is

|> ^ i 1 bo tnat of P - L °P ez anc * is taken from

3 \ Q v\c\ jS? tne Hocano dictionary of P. Carro 11

^ vj ^i an( a emD i ved also in the Belarmi-

and employed also in the Belarmi-

no of P. Lopez, a specimen page of

which is shown as Fig. 16, facing

O /-K page 74 of this volume. This vo-

_ r^. ^4 cabulary is very much stylized

o ^w when compared with other Phil-

** ippine alphabets. It should be not-

{^ ed that Ilocano lacks h and w. Ap-

^_ Q parently, iv is substituted by u, as

!> cS ^ would be the case in Spanish,

^ ^ since P. Cairo's 11 Vocabulary cott-

er tains a section in which initial u

is employed before a, e, and to
~ form words which would employ
^ w in other Philippine languages.
►_> Another peculiarity is the innova-

♦— ; ^ tion introduced by P.Lopez, which

fv, consists of a small cross append-

<3 « gg

^^ > ^^ ed to a character which annuls the

*° ^ \ ^ "<3 vowel and permits a word to end

<*

^ in a consonant. This is repeated-
ly ly shown in Fig. 16, referred to
above.

feS

< !^\ s a

S 8 P,

P*

I Gardner, Fletcher. 1943.

Philippine Indie Studies.
San Antonio, TX: Witle
Memorial Museum.