Capiznon Language & Alphabet

Capiznon, the language of Capiz, is written in the Latin alphabet in the same order as Filipino: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ NG O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. NG is one letter in this alphabet, the sound at the end of English 'sing', and it starts common words such as nga, the word that links an adjective to its noun (maayo nga aga, good morning). It has no character of its own, so it is typed as N followed by G and filed after N and Ñ in dictionaries.

Native Capiznon words need only twenty of those letters, the old abakada set A B K D E G H I L M N NG O P R S T U W Y. C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z come in with names, loanwords and Spanish-era spellings, which is why the province itself is still written Capiz, with a C and a Z, while a native word such as kaadlawan (birthday) is spelled with K.

Capiznon spelling: Ñ, the hyphen and o/u

Ñ (enye) is the only letter of the alphabet that is not plain A–Z. It appears in Spanish-derived names and words such as Niño and Señor, and without the tilde they read differently, so it is worth copying the real ñ.

Capiznon spelling is phonetic, with one letter per sound and k, not c, in native words. As in other Visayan languages such as Hiligaynon, o and u (and e and i) are variants of each other in many native words, so spellings can vary from writer to writer. Accent marks are not used in ordinary writing: stress and the glottal stop (the catch in the throat in English 'uh-oh') are left to the reader, except that a hyphen marks a glottal stop after a consonant, as in gab-i (night) in Maayong gab-i, good evening.

How to type ñ, ₱ and Capiznon words

Philippine computers and phones use the ordinary US keyboard, so everything in Capiznon except ñ and ₱ is already on it. On Windows, hold Alt and type on the number pad: ñ Alt+0241 (or Alt+164), Ñ Alt+0209 (or Alt+165). With the US-International layout, type ~ then n. On a Mac, press Option+N, then n (Shift+N for Ñ). On Android and iPhone keyboards, hold down n and slide to ñ. In HTML, write ñ and Ñ.

The peso sign ₱ (U+20B1) has no key: on Windows type 20b1 and press Alt+X in Word, on a phone look among the currency symbols of the keyboard, or copy it from this page. Many people simply write P or PHP before the amount, as in ₱150 or P150.

Where the Capiznon language is spoken

Capiznon is the language of Capiz province on the north-eastern side of Panay island in the Western Visayas of the Philippines 🇵🇭, with its capital Roxas City at the mouth of the Panay River. CLDR estimates roughly 780,000 speakers. Most of them also use Filipino and English, and many also speak Hiligaynon, the regional language of Iloilo and Negros.

Capiz is known for the shell that carries its name: the thin, translucent windowpane oyster (Placuna placenta), cut into the small square panes of the sliding capiz windows of old Philippine houses and into lamps and Christmas lanterns 🦪 🪟 ⭐. Roxas City calls itself the Seafood Capital of the Philippines 🦀 🦐 🐟, and the church of Pan-ay holds a great bell that is said to be the largest church bell in Asia 🔔.

Capiznon vs Hiligaynon, Tagalog and its other neighbours

Capiznon is a Visayan language of the Central Philippine family, and its closest relative is Hiligaynon (Ilonggo): the two are largely mutually intelligible and share most everyday words, such as salamat (thank you) and maayo (good), so Capiznon is often treated as a dialect of Hiligaynon. Speakers hear it as distinct mainly through its intonation and some words of its own. On Panay it also neighbours Aklanon and Kinaray-a, which belong to a different Visayan branch and are further apart. See the Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, Cebuano and Filipino collections.

Capiznon and Tagalog share one alphabet, but much of their vocabulary differs: Capiznon maayong aga is Tagalog magandang umaga (good morning), palangga ta ka is mahal kita (I love you), and namit is masarap (delicious). Salamat is the same in both.