The Abakada was replaced in 1976 with an expanded alphabet containing an additional 11 letters (C, CH, F, J, LL, Ñ, Q, RR, V, X, and Z) which was in turn replaced with the current 28-letter modern alphabet. Santos developed the Ang Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa (The Grammar of the National Language) which, apart from containing grammar rules, contained the 20-letter alphabet designated as Abakada. Following this, the development of a dictionary and grammar book for this 'national language' started. Initially, these reforms were not broadly adopted when they were proposed but gradually became popular into the early 20th century.įollowing the establishment of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935, the government selected Tagalog as basis for a 'national language' (i.e. Like other proponents, he suggested to 'indigenize' the alphabet of the Philippine languages by replacing the letters C and Q with K. José Rizal was one of several proponents (including Trinidad Pardo de Tavera) of reforming the orthographies of the various Philippine languages in the late 19th-century. Main article: Tagalog language § Writing systemĭuring the pre-Hispanic era, Old Tagalog was written using the Kawi or the Baybayin script.įor three centuries Tagalog was written following, to some extent, the Spanish phonetic and orthographic rules.ĭr. Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters) Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters) This is also the reason for the system’s name. When spelling or naming each consonant, its sound is always pronounced with an 'a' at the end (e.g. The collation of letters in the Abakada closely follows those of other Latin-based spelling systems, with the digraph ng inserted after n.

The Abakada alphabet has since been superseded by the modern Filipino alphabet (with eight more letters and the repositioning of the letter K) adopted in 1987. The alphabet was officially adopted by the Institute of National Language ( Filipino: Surián ng Wikang Pambansâ). Santos for the newly-designated national language based on Tagalog. The alphabet, which contains 20 letters, was introduced in the grammar book developed by Lope K. The Abakada alphabet was an 'indigenized' Latin alphabet adopted for the Tagalog-based Filipino national language in 1940.

For other uses, see Tagalog alphabet (disambiguation).

Abakada cover book