Bikol/Diacritics

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.

Diacritics are an optional aspect of the Bikol orthography. Most Bicolanos (and Philippine news journals) write Bikol without using any diacritic at all. However, pieces of Bikol writing which use diacritics can occasionally be found in some religious journals, old books, and others.

A word in Bikol spelled in a certain way without the diacritics can actually be pronounced in four ways, and each case results into a different meaning or a different word in itself. The four cases are:

Stressed end

This case is where a word is stressed in the last or end syllable. The vowel of the last syllable should contain an acute diacritic mark.

Examples: "akó" (me), "ika" (you), "lanob" (wall), "sangá" (branch), "talagá" (really)

Unstressed end

This case is where a word is unstressed in the last or end syllable. In Bikol, this entails the need to stress the penultimate or 2nd-to-the-last syllable. The vowel of the penultimate syllable should contain an acute diacritic mark.

Examples: "bóbo" (moron), "hábal-hábal" (motorcyle taxi), "salog" (river), "sáko" (sack), "ága" (morning)

Glottal stopped end

This case is where a word is applied with a glottal stop in the last or end syllable which is unstressed. The vowel of the last syllable should contain a grave diacritic mark.

Examples: "sampulò" (ten), "bagà" (lungs), "lahì" (race), "akò" (to accept)

Because the last syllable is unstressed, then just like the unstressed end case, the penultimate syllable is therefore stressed. This means we could spell it like "bágà". However, there is no need to add the acute diacritic mark in there. So "bagà" is okay.

Glottal stopped stressed end

This case is where a word is applied with a glottal stop in the last or end syllable which is stressed. The vowel of the last syllable should contain a circumflex diacritic mark. You can imagine "â" as "á" and "à" combined.

Examples: "gapô" (stone), "dagâ" (soil), "tahî" (sew)

Initial and medial glottal stops

This case is where a word contains glottal stops at the first syllable or sometimes within a word.

Examples: "Kinàban" (Earth), "làya" (ginger), "làtog" (erection)

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.