This article deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments of the phonology of the Tagalog language, including variants.
Tagalog has allophones, so it is important here to distinguish phonemes (written in slashes / /) and corresponding allophones (written in brackets [ ]).
Contents |
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | ʔ | |||||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | h | |||||||||
| Affricate | ts | tʃ | dʒ | |||||||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||||||
| Phoneme | Spelling | Distribution and quality of allophones | |
| Plosives | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| /p/ | "p" (pulá) | ||
| /b/ | "b" (bughaw) | ||
| /t/ | "t" (tao) | When followed by /j/ may be pronounced [tʃ], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. | |
| /d/ | "d" (diláw) | When followed by /j/ may be pronounced [dʒ], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. [ɾ] and [d] are in free variation for some speakers if /d/ is at the word-initial and word-final positions and attached by prefixes and suffixes with vowels touching /d/ as they once were allophones, but this is only applied to native words. | |
| /k/ | "k" (kamáy) | /k/ has a tendency to become [kx] word-initially. Intervocalic /k/ tends to become [x], as in bakit or takot. | |
| /ɡ/ | "g" (gulay). | Intervocalic /ɡ/ tends to become [ɰ], as in sige. | |
| /ʔ/ | "-" (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 Tagalog, it is denoted by the circumflex accent called the "pakupyâ". | |
| Fricatives | |||
| /s/ | "s" (sanga) | When followed by /j/, it is often pronounced [ʃ], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. | |
| /ʃ/ | "sy" (sya)(form of siya) | May be pronounced [s], especially by but not limited to speakers in rural areas. | |
| /h/ | "h" (hawak) | Sometimes elided in rapid speech. | |
| Affricates | |||
| /tʃ/ | "ts" (tsokolate)"ty"(tyan)(a form of tiyan(stomach)) | May be pronounced [ts], especially by but not limited to speakers in rural areas. | |
| /dʒ/ | "dy" (dyan)(a form of diyan(there)) | May be pronounced [dz], especially by but not limited to speakers in rural areas. In some speakers in urban areas it is pronounced [ʒ], but not limited to urban areas. | |
| /ts/ | "zz" ("pizza")"ts" tatsulok | May be pronounced [tʃ], especially by but not limited to speakers in rural areas and in some urban areas. | |
| Nasals | |||
| /m/ | "m" (matá) | ||
| /n/ | "n" (nais) | ||
| /ɲ/ | "ny" (anyo) | May be pronounced [ni], especially by rural speakers. | |
| /ŋ/ | "ng" (ngitî) | Assimilates to [m] before /b/ and /p/ (pampasigla) and to [n] before "d", "l", "s", and "t" (pandiwà), some people pronounce /ŋɡ/ as a geminate consonant [ŋŋ] like in angono. | |
| Laterals | |||
| /l/ | "l" (larawan) | ||
| Rhotics | |||
| /ɾ/ | "r" (saráp, kuryente) | See corresponding entry for /d/.May be pronounced [ɹ] or [r], particularly by but not limited to speakers in urban areas. | |
| Phoneme | Spelling | Allophones | |
| Vowels | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | "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/ | "e" in any position, "i" in final syllables (except for English loanwords) | /ɛ/ can sometimes be pronounced [i ~ ɪ ~ e], or sometimes diphtongized to [ai]. | |
| /i/ | "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 [staˈʃon]. See also /j/ below. |
|
| /o/ | "o" | /o/ can sometimes be pronounced [u ~ ʊ ~ ɔ]. [o~ ʊ ~ ɔ] and [u ~ ʊ] were also former allophones, or sometimes diphtongized to [au]. Morphs into [u] before "mb" and "mp" (Bagumbayan, kumbento). | |
| /u/ | "u" | Unstressed /u/ is usually pronounced [ʊ]. | |
| Semivowels and/or Semiconsonants | |||
| /j/ | "y" (yugtô) | ||
| /w/ | "w" (wakás) | ||
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).
Unstressed ti, di, and si become [tʃ], [dʒ], [ʃ] before a, u, e, and o.
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