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:
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). ↑
The orthographical accent is an important sign in Bisayan, in order to give to the words their proper pronunciation, and, consequently, their proper meaning.
Of the emission of the voice in pronouncing the Bisayan vowels, there are two ways: one is the ordinary way, like that of the English vowels, as in
| baga | (red-hot coal or wood), |
| dinhi | (here), |
| olo | (head), |
and the other is by a guttural suspended emission of the voice, like
| the last a in bagà | (lungs), |
| the last i in dirì | (not or no), and |
| the last o in torò | (drop). |
This guttural pronunciation is only used in the endings of words.
From the various combinations of these ways of pronouncing the vowels and the force with which they are pronounced, it follows that a vowel, no matter which one it is, has four different sounds:
[3]
The first way does not need any orthographical sign. But the last three ones require a special orthographical accent in each ease.
When a vowel is pronounced as ordinarily, but with more force than others in the same word, the proper accent is the acute (´).
When a vowel is pronounced with a suspended guttural sound, but without any force, the corresponding accent is the grave (`).
And when a vowel is pronounced with a suspended guttural sound with force, its accent is the circumflex (ˆ), which is simply the combination of the two foregoing accents, as this last represents a sound that is the combination of the two sounds, suspended guttural and with force.
Therefore, in writing the word quita, for example, in its three different meanings and according to its three different pronunciations, it must be as follows:
| quitá | (we) | quità | (see) | quitâ | (look at). |
RULE. There are three different accents in Bisayan: the acute (´); the grave (`); and the angular, which we may call improperly circumflex (ˆ).
The acute is located wherever it is needed, either at the beginning or in the middle or at the ending of the word. Examples:
| úpa | (reward) | upá | (rice chaff). |
The grave and angular, by their nature, are only used upon words ending in a vowel, and then only upon the last vowel. Examples:
| dacò | (large), | dacô | (larger) |
The signs of punctuation in Bisayan are the same as those in English, the rules for the use of the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), comma (,), parenthesis (), dash (—), quotation marks (“ ”) and apostrophe (’) being identical. [4]
But the rules are different for the use of the interrogation and exclamation points, and hyphen.
In Bisayan, the Spanish way is followed in using two points of interrogation and two of exclamation, the one at the beginning of the question or exclamation (¿) (¡), and the other at the ending (?) (!).
While the hyphen (-) is also used in Bisayan to connect parts of a word divided at the end of a line, and to connect two or more nouns, adjectives, or particles, so as to form them into a single compound, it has an additional use which is to separate distinctly the syllables of certain words that would have a different meaning or none at all without the said separation. Examples:
| sál-ong | (to hook) | sálong | (resin) |
| súl-ay | (belching of an infant) | súlay | (prop) |
| bac-ad | (to unroll) | ||
| os-og | (to draw near from afar) | ||
| im-im | (lip) | ||
| sid-ap | (to look at) | ||
| san-o | (when, future) | ||
| cacan-o | (when, past)1 | ||
NOTE.—The above separations are not of the same character as those caused by contractions or elisions, where the proper sign is not a hyphen, but an apostrophe. As,
| gáb’i | from gabii | (night) |
| cabitón’an, | from cabitoónan | (stars) |
| pabáy’i, | from pabayái | (leave him or her) |
| it’ im’ bugtò ng̃an hit’ ac’ patód, | from iton imo bugtò ng̃an hitón acon patód | (your brother or sister and my cousin). |
Therefore, it would not be correct to write gab-i, cabiton-an, pabay-i, where the apostrophe should be employed instead of the hyphen. However, the apostrophe is used only when needed to avoid wrong pronunciation or confusion. [5]So the last of the preceding examples is written without any sign of punctuation, thus: it im bugtò ng̃an hit ac patód.
The Bisayan people, especially in Leyte, always have a tendency to separate the vowels in pronouncing the words, there being no Bisayan dipthong. So it is bi-ol (small basket) and not biol; cá-on (eat), ti-il (foot), ma-opay (good), and not cáon, tiil, maopay. But this refers only to spoken language, not to written.
Some words, like uásay (axe), sabáo (broth) are pronounced ua-say, sa-bao, and not u-a-say, sa-ba-o. These syllables ua and ao are not dipthongs. The u in the syllable ua and the o in the syllable ao, are not the vowels u, o, but the consonant w. These words should be written more properly wásay, sabáw.1
Every vowel1 with the consonant or consonants pronounced with it and every vowel pronounced alone form one syllable, and are written as such. This is the rule applied to the division of a word at the end of a line. Examples:
| ca-ru-ca-yá-can | (conversation) |
| bác-dao | (stand) |
| a-ha-cá | (hemp), etc. |
In Bisayan, the following words should begin with capitals:
There is no contraction used in Bisayan, except that in the sign mg̃a (a particle employed to express the idea of plurality).
Mg̃a is for mang̃a composed of ma (an important prefix of the Bisayan and Tagalog dialects, which bears the idea of abundance or plurality) and ng̃a (a conjunctive particle which is necessarily employed to connect the variable parts of speech).
NOTE. It would be desirable to have the following contractions adopted in Bisayan, inasmuch as they are universally recognized:
| i.e. | for id est. | P.S. | for,, post scriptum. | |
| e.g. | for,, exempli gratia. | N.B. | for,, nota bene. | |
| viz. | for,, videlicet. | a.m. | for,, ante meridiem. | |
| etc. | for,, et cetera. | p.m. | for,, post meridiem.1 | |
| P.D. | for,, post data. |