Tagalog phonology
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This article is about the phonology of the Tagalog language. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including variants (for details, see the articles on Filipino language, Filipino orthography, and Tagalog language).
Tagalog has allophones, so it is important here to distinguish phonemes (written in slashes / /) and corresponding allophones (written in brackets [ ]).
Contents |
[edit] Consonants
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ʔ | |||||
| Fricative | f | β | s | z | h | |||||||
| Affricate | tʃ | dʒ | ||||||||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||||
| Phoneme | Major Allophones | Spelling | Distribution and quality of allophones |
| Plosives | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| /p/ | voiceless bilabial plosive | "p" (pula) | |
| /b/ | voiced bilabial plosive | "b" (bughaw) | |
| /t/ | voiceless dental plosive | "t" (tao) | When followed by /j/ may be pronounced [tʃ], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. |
| /d/ | voiced dental plosive | "d" (dilaw) | When followed by /i/ may be pronounced [dʒ], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. [ɾ] and [d] are in free variation for some speakers as they once were allophones. |
| /k/ | voiceless velar plosive | "k" (kamay) | /k/ has a tendency to become [x] intervocalically and [kx] word-initially.
Intervocalic /k/ tends to become [ɰ], as in bakit or takot. |
| /ɡ/ | voiced velar plosive | "g" (gulay). | Intervocalic /ɡ/ tends to become [ɰ], as in sige. |
| /ʔ/ | glottal stop | "-" (mag-uwi), normally not written when appearing at the end of a word (galâ) or between vowels (buang) | A glottal stop that occurs at the end of a word is often elided when it is in the middle of a sentence, especially by speakers of the Metro Manila area. The vowel it follows is then usually lengthened. However, it is preserved in many other dialects. In the diacrtical system used in Filipino, it is denoted by the circumflex accent called the "pakupyâ". |
| Fricatives | |||
| /s/ | voiceless alveolar fricative | "s" (sanga) | When followed by /j/, it is often pronounced [ʃ], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. |
| /z/ | voiced alveolar fricative | "z" (zakat) | Is pronounced /s/ by most Filipinos. |
| /f/ | voiceless labiodental fricative | "f" (fabanga, Filipino) | Is pronounced /p/ by most Filipinos. |
| /β/ | Voiced bilabial fricative | "v" (Ivatan) | Is pronounced /b/ by most Filipinos. |
| /h/ | voiceless glottal fricative | "h" (hawak) | Sometimes elided in rapid speech. |
| Affricates | |||
| /tʃ/ | /tʃ/, voiceless postalveolar affricate [ts], voiceless alveolar affricate |
"ts" (tsokolate) | May be pronounced [ts], especially by but not limited to speakers in rural areas. |
| /dʒ/ | /dʒ/, voiceless postalveolar affricate [dz], voiced alveolar affricate |
"j" (jarupakal, jaket) | May be pronounced [dz], especially in rural dialects. |
| Nasals | |||
| /m/ | bilabial nasal | "m" (mata) | |
| /n/ | alveolar nasal | "n" (nais) | |
| /ɲ/ | palatal nasal | "ny" (anyo) | May be pronounced [ni], especially by rural speakers. |
| /ŋ/ | velar nasal | "ng" (ngiti) | Assimilates to [m] before /b/ and /p/ (pampasigla) and to [n] before "d", "l", "s", and "t" (pandiwa). |
| Laterals | |||
| /l/ | alveolar lateral approximant | "l" (larawan) | |
| Rhotics | |||
| /ɾ/ | alveolar tap | "r" (sarap, kuryente) | See corresponding entry for /d/. |
[edit] Vowels and semivowels
| Phoneme | Sound | Spelling | Allophones |
| Vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | open central unrounded vowel | "a" | /a/ is raised slightly to [ɐ] in unstressed positions and also occasionally in stressed positions (inang bayan [iˈnɐŋ ˈbɐjən]).
The diphthong /aɪ/ and the sequence /aʔi/ have a tendency to become [eɪ ~ ɛː]. The diphthong /aʊ/ and the sequence /aʔu/ have a tendency to become [oʊ ~ ɔː]. |
| /ɛ/ | open-mid front unrounded vowel | "e" | /ɛ/ can sometimes be pronounced [i ~ ɪ ~ e]. |
| /i/ | close front unrounded vowel | "i" | Unstressed /i/ is usually pronounced [ɪ].
In final syllables, /i/ can be pronounced [ɪ ~ i ~ e ~ ɛ], as [e ~ ɛ] was formerly an allophone of [ɪ ~ i]. /i/ before s-consonant clusters has a tendency to be dropped, as in isports [sports] and istasyon [sta'ʃon]. See also /j/ below. |
| /o/ | close-mid back rounded vowel | "o" | /o/ can sometimes be pronounced [u ~ ʊ ~ ɔ]. [o~ ʊ ~ ɔ] and [u ~ ʊ] were also former allophones. Morphs into [u] before "mb" and "mp" (Bagumbayan, kumbento). |
| /u/ | close back rounded vowel | "u" | Unstressed /u/ is usually pronounced [ʊ]. |
| Semivowels and/or Semiconsonants | |||
| /j/ | palatal approximant | "y" (yugto) | |
| /w/ | labio-velar approximant | "w" (wakas, yawyaw) | |
[edit] Stress
Stress is phonemic in Tagalog. Primary stress occurs on either the last or the next-to-the-last (penultimate) syllable of a word. Vowel lengthening accompanies primary or secondary stress except when stress occurs at the end of a word. Stress on words is very important, they differentiate words with the same spelling, but with different meanings, e.g. tayô (to stand) and táyo (us; we).
[edit] See also
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