Chavacano alphabet

The Chavacano alphabet has 30 letters including /ch/, /ll/, /ñ/ and /rr/:

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, rr, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

Letters and letter names
Other letter combinations include rr (erre), which is pronounced or, and ng, which is pronounced. Another combination was ñg, which was pronounced but is now obsolete and is only written as ng.

Some sounds are not represented in the Chavacano written language. These sounds are mostly from words of Philippine and foreign origin. Furthermore, the pronunciation of some words of Spanish origin have become distorted or Philippinized in modern Chavacano. Some vowels have become allophonized ('e' and 'o' becomes 'i' and 'u' in some words) and some consonants have changed their pronunciation. (i.e. escoger became iscují in informal speech; tiene ; Dios ; Castilla became instead of ).

Glottal stops, as in Filipino languages, are not also indicated (â, ê, î, ô, û). These sounds are present mostly in words of Philippine origin and are indicated only in dictionaries. (i.e. jendê = not; olê = again). When indicated, circumflex marks are used.

Other pronunciation changes in some words of Spanish origin include:


 * f ~
 * j, g (before 'e' and 'i') ~ // (in common with dialects of Caribbean and other areas of Latin America and southern Spain)
 * ch ~
 * rr ~
 * di, de ~ (when followed or preceded by other vowels: Dios ~ /jos/ ; dejalo ~ /jalo/)
 * ti, te ~ (when followed or preceded by other vowels: tierra ~ /chehra/; tiene ~ /chene/)
 * ci, si ~  (when followed or preceded by other vowels: conciencia ~ /konshensha/)

[b, d, g] between vowels which are fricative allophones are pronounced as they are in Chavacano.