3. The Vowel System of Pilipino

Front Central Back

 

upper

high /i/ /u/

lower

 

upper

high /e/ /o/

lower

 

upper

high /a/

lower

 

 

Pilipino vowels may be classified on the basis of three interacting criteria: tongue advancement, tongue height, and lip rounding.

 

Pilipino vowel phonemes can be described as:

 

/a/: low central unrounded

/e/: mid front unrounded

/i/: high front unrounded

/o/: mid back rounded

/u/: high back rounded

 

According to tongue height, we have two front vowel phoneme /i e/, two back vowel phoneme /o u/, and one central vowel /a/.

 

 

 

4. Dipthongs

 

The occurrences of swift transitional sounds in the steam of speech are called glides. A glide before another sound is called an on glide, and glide coming after another sound is called an off glide. In Pilipino, the glides are /w/ and /y/. A sequence of a syllabic vowel and a semi vowel in the same syllable is called a dipthong. Dipthongs are complex vowels and are articulated with the tongue and jaw starting in one position and then gliding upward toward the position for one of the semi-vowels /y/ and /w/. Pilipino dipthongs are /ay, ey. Iy, oy, uy, aw, uw/ as in bignay, kami’y, baboy, kasuy, kalabaw, and aliw.

 

 

 

 

5. Consonant Clusters

 

A sequence of two consonants, both pronounced and without the intervention of a vowel, is called consonant clusters. These sounds, since they are sounded are both spelled in phonemic transcription and in conventional writing.

Since native Pilipino words do not have consonant clusters, consonant clusters occur frequently in borrowed or loan words. They occur initially, medially, and finally in words.

 

Initial occurences of Consonant Clusters:

 

-s -l -r -w -y

p - plato preso pwesto pyano

b - blusa braso bwenas Biyernes

m - - - mwelye Myerkoles

t - - trapo twalya tyange

d - - drama dwende dyunyor

k - klima krema kweba kyuteks

g - gloria gripo gwantes gyera

n - - - nwestra -

h - - - hwebes -

s - - - hwes syudad

swero

sweater

 

Medial occurrences of Consonant Clusters:

 

kontrata kongreso ekstra

konstityusyon eskwela demonstrasyon

kongklusyon sumbrero bibliya

 

Final occurrences of Consonant Clusters:

 

Bert kyuteks biks

Ronald nars saniteks

Digraph

Ng or / h / is a digraph or 2 letters in conventional writing pronounced as one, that is why phonemically it is transcribe as /h / as in /h uya?/ nguya and /h u:nit/ ngunit.

 

 

 

 

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