Alphabet

The Bontoc man has not begun even the simplest form of permanent mechanical record in the line of a written language, and no vocabulary of the language has before been published. Page 228

The following alphabet was used in writing Bontoc words in this study:

a as in far; Spanish ramo

â is in law; as o in French or

ay as in ai in aisle; Spanish hay

ao as ou in out; as au in Spanish auto

b as in bad; Spanish bajar

ch as in check; Spanish chico

d as in dog; Spanish dar

e as in they; Spanish hallé

ĕ as in then; Spanish comen

f as in fight; Spanish firmar

g as in go; Spanish gozar

h as in he; Tagalog bahay

i as in pique; Spanish hijo

ĭ as in pick

k as in keen

l as in lamb; Spanish lente

m as in man; Spanish menos

n as in now; Spanish jabon

ng as in finger; Spanish lengua

o as in note; Spanish nosotros

oi as in boil

p as in poor; Spanish pero

q as ch in German ich

s as in sauce; Spanish sordo

sh as in shall; as ch in French charmer

t as in touch; Spanish tomar

u as in rule; Spanish uno

û as in but

ü as in German kühl

v as in valve; in Spanish volver

w as in will; nearly as ou in French oui

y as in you; Spanish ya

The sounds which I have represented by the unmarked vowels a, e, i, o, and u, Swettenham and Clifford in their Malay Dictionary represent by the vowels with a circumflex accent. The sound which I have indicated by û they indicate by ă. Other variations will be noted.

The sound represented by a, it must be noted, has not always the same force or quantity, depending on an open or closed syllable and the position of the vowel in the word.