Appendix:Tagalog alphabet

The Tagalog alphabet follows the basic 26-letter Roman alphabet, with addition of 2 letters between N and O: Ñ and Ng, totaling 28. From 1940 to 1971, Tagalog followed the abakada alphabet, which excluded the letters C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X, and Z, but included Ng. The eight additional letters are used only in loanwords and sometimes in proper nouns conserving archaic spellings. The baybayin script was used to write Tagalog, but fell out of use in the Spanish era; it is seldom used, but attempts to revive the script have been repeatedly made.

Filipino alphabet
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ Ng O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Abakada
A B K D E G H I L M N Ng O P R S T U W Y

Letter names
Each letter has two names, one based on English, and one based on the Abakada.

Abecedario
Before 1940, Tagalog and most other Philippine languages were written using a Spanish-based orthography, and the alphabet called.

A B C CH D E F G H I J L LL M N Ñ ÑG/NG̃/N͠G/GÑ O P Q R RR S T U V X Y Z

Baybayin
Dots placed above or below the consonant letters are used to indicate i/e and u/o, respectively, but what word is meant has to be inferred from context. Old Tagalog only have the sounds /a/, /i/ and /u/; A is implied in each consonant, I is represented by a dot above, and U is represented by a dot below.

A cross below any consonant letter serves as the virama, which cancels the vowel implied in their respective transliteration; this symbol was invented by Spanish missionaries first in the Ilocano variant of the script, as historical Baybayin did not allow for final consonants. Alternatively, the pamudpod virama used in the descendant Hanunoo script can be used in place of the cross.

Orthography
See Appendix:Tagalog spellings.

Resources

 * Ortograpiya ng Wikang Pambansa, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino.