Rinconada Bikol phonology

Diphthong (saəy)
Rinconada Bikol has several diphthongs or gliding vowel.

Diacritics (kul-it)
Rinconada uses a variation of Latin alphabet modeled on the Tagalog alphabet. But unlike the modern Tagalog - Filipino, Rinconada retains and uses diacritics ('kul-it' in Rinconada Bikol, and 'kudlit' in Tagalog). This is to highlight the meaning of the words and to differentiate words with different meanings but the same spelling. In return, the diacritics provide Rinconada Bikol with a unique orthography among Philippine languages. Diacritics for this language are limited to the macron and circumflex which is unlike other languages, for example Vietnamese that has several. However, due to technical difficulties and a scarcity of resources, diacritics are sometimes not available. Thus, two Rinconada alphabets were created to meet the needs of the speakers: the NATIVE and the SIMPLIFIED. Both can be used at the same time depending on the situation, purpose and availability of resources.

Glottal stop (rəgsad)
The Rinconada name for the letter which represents the glottal stop is "rəgsad". This can only be found in the native form of alphabet, and it is limited to final vowels or vowels at the end of a word. Rəgsad is represented by the circumflex ( ˆ ).

For examples of the glottal stop, consider the Rinconada words salâ (wrong) and turô (drop of water/fluid), often simply sala and turo in the simplified alphabet and in Filipino and English orthographies.


 * With rəgsad and kul-it, the translation of the phrase I love you in Rinconada is "PAYABÂ KO IKĀ" (transliteration: love me you).

Alphabet
Rinconada Bikol was historically written in a form of Abugida writing system called Baybayin in Tagalog and Kul-ītan in Rinconada.

Native
The Rinconada Native alphabet has 6 short vowels, 6 long vowels, and 17 consonants, a total of 29 letters representing all phonemes in Rinconada Bikol. A long or stressed vowel is written with a macron (a diacritic placed above a vowel). It also includes the velar nasal special character /ŋ/ that represents "NG". Native alphabet contains phonemes that are native to Rinconada, thus considering it as the standard Rinconada Bikol alphabet.

Example of a Filipino proverb written in the Rinconada native alphabet:

"A dirî tattaoŋ maglīlî sa pinaŋgalinan, dirî makaaābot sa pig-iyānan." (Tagalog: Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan)


 * Exceptions to the rules of native alphabet are formal names like Juan Dela Cruz and placenames such as Laguna, Cebu and Manila. Those names must retain their official and simplified spelling instead of their native spellings Huwan Delā Krus, Lagūna, Sebū and Manīla. With the exception of names and places, all words in the native alphabet must be written with their respective spellings with their designated diacritics.

Simplified
The Rinconada Simplified alphabet is just the same as the Philippine alphabet. It has 28 letters:

The letters F, V and Z are included because they are native to other Philippine languages like Itawis and Ibanag. Letters C, Ñ, and Q are also included, but their usages are limited to foreign names, Filipinized words of foreign origins or loans, especially from Spanish, English and Arabic.

The simplified alphabet doesn't use diacritics like the macron $\langle◌̄\rangle$ for stressed and long vowels, the circumflex $\langle◌̂\rangle$ for glottal stop, or the letters for velar nasal $\langleŋ\rangle$, schwa $\langleə\rangle$, or velar fricative $\langleɣ\rangle$, as they don't appear on a standard "qwerty" keyboard. The velar nasal $\langleŋ\rangle$ is replaced by the digraph $\langleng\rangle$, and the two latter sounds can be replaced by $\langleo\rangle$ and $\langleh\rangle$, $\langlew\rangle$, and $\langley\rangle$ respectively. But even with the absence of diacritics in the modern and simplified alphabet, pronunciations in the spoken language are not altered. Moreover, the long vowel sound in a word should not be omitted. One good example of this is "" (kind) and "bəət" (want/like). The word  in the native alphabet is written as bəət in the simplified alphabet making the two words the same in spelling albeit with different meanings. In this case, the pronunciation of the words depends on their place and usage in a sentence. To avoid confusion and aid in ease of reading, it is strongly recommended to use the native alphabet in writing Rinconada Bikol.