How to read and say Bikol

Accent marks

Diacritics (tandang panduon) are normally not written in everyday usage, be it in publications or personal correspondence. The teaching of diacritics is inconsistent in Philippine schools and many Bicolanos do not know how to use them. However, diacritics are normally used in dictionaries and in textbooks aimed at teaching the language to foreigners.

There are three kinds of diacritics used in Bikol:

Acute accent or pahilíg

Used to indicate primary or secondary stress on a particular syllable; marháy. It is usually omitted on words that are stressed on the penultimate (second to the last) syllable; babáyi = babayi. It is possible that there is more than one stressed syllable in a word, meaning that that pahilíg mark may appear multiple times, as in Repúbliká. If there is no diacritic on the last two syllables of a word, then it means that there is stress on the penultimate syllable.

Grave accent or paiwà

It indicates that there is a glottal stop (/ʔ/) at the end of the word. This mark may only appear at the end of a word that ends in a vowel. This mark does not indicate stress. Therefore, following the previously stated rule on stress, sampulò is stressed on the second to the last syllable.

Circumflex accent or pakupyâ

It indicates that the final syllable of a word receives stress while there is a glottal stop that follows; udô. This is because it is a combination of the pahilíg and paiwà marks. This mark may only appear at the end of a word that ends in a vowel.

Stress

Although Bikol is pronounced as it is spelled, stress is very unpredictable and stressing the wrong syllable can lead to misinterpretation; for that reason, almost every book and dictionary concerning the Bikol language will put an accent mark (´) on the stressed syllable.

Vowels

In Bikol, vowels are pronounced like in Spanish. Note that two consecutive vowels are pronounced separately.

a

open central unrounded vowel IPA [a]; like the a in far

e

close-mid front unrounded vowel IPA [e]; like the e in hen

i

close front unrounded vowel IPA [i]; like the ee in see

o

closed-mid back rounded vowel IPA [o]; like the o in order

u

close back rounded vowel IPA [u]; like the oo in soon

Consonants

b

as in bee

k

as in key

d

as in dough

g

as in gold

h

as in heat

l

as in let

m

as in me

n

as in nice

ng

as in song

p

as in pea

r

as in raw

s

as in sea

t

as in tea

w

as in weak

y

as in you

Some consonants are borrowed from Spanish and English and are used in writing names of places and personal names.

c

like c in call, corn, cure (before a, o, u)

like c in cell, cinder (before e or i)

f

like f in fine

j

like h in ham

ll

although not a letter in the Philippines but of Spanish influence, pronounced as ly

ñ

like ny in canyon

q

like q in quest (always with a silent u)

v

pronounced the same way as b (see above) like b in bow.

x

like x in flexible

like ss in hiss (at beginning of a word)

like h as in he in the family name Roxas

z

like s in supper

Digraphs

Some digraphs appear in Spanish and English loan words.

diy

as in just

ts

as in chew

siy

as in shoe

ny

as in canyon

ly

as in million

Common diphthongs

In the spelling of many places and personal names, ao is used and is pronounced as in how just like the Spanish way of spelling.

aw

as in how

iw

as in kiwi

ay

as in high

oy

as in boy