Symbols
76Click a symbol to copy it and open its page.
Alphabet
One row per letter in Filipino alphabetical order, which Rinconada writing follows (Ñ after N; the digraph Ng, written n+g, comes after Ñ). The vowels also appear with a circumflex, used in dictionaries and careful writing for stress plus a glottal stop in one syllable; Rinconada does not use macron letters. C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z appear mainly in names and loanwords.
Punctuation
The hyphen marks a glottal stop after a prefix and joins repeated words; the apostrophe stands for dropped sounds in casual spelling; quotation marks are the English curly ones.
Currency
The Philippine peso.
Where it's spoken
The Rinconada district of Camarines Sur, Philippines.
Rinconada life
Mount Iriga over the rice plains, Bicol cooking with chili and coconut milk, and the 🙏 that goes with Dios mabalos.
On the map
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Rinconada Bikol language and where it is spoken
Rinconada Bikol is the language of the Rinconada district of Camarines Sur, in the Bicol region of the Philippines: Iriga City and the towns around it such as Nabua, Bula, Baao, Balatan and Bato, on the plains below Mount Iriga . The name is usually traced to Spanish rincón, 'a corner, a nook', though this etymology is traditional rather than firmly documented. The KWF repository reports a population of 418,407 in the 2020 census and 102,050 households using the language.
It is one of several Bikol languages, not a dialect of the Bikol spoken in Naga and Legazpi. Linguists group it with the Inland Bikol languages, and speakers of Central Bikol can find Rinconada hard to follow, even though the region shares much vocabulary, such as Dios mabalos for 'thank you'. Rinconada speakers also read and write Filipino and English every day; see the Bikol, Filipino, Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray collections for neighbouring languages, and Philippines for the country's flag, peso and emoji.
The Rinconada Bikol alphabet
Rinconada is written in the Latin-based 29-letter alphabet set out in the KWF's Ortograpiyang Rinkonada: A B C D E Ë F G H I J K L M N Ñ Ng O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. Its 20 non-borrowed letters are A B D E Ë G I K L M N Ng O P R S T U W Y; C, F, H, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z are borrowed and appear in names and loanwords such as Peñafrancia or Señor.
Ng is one letter for the sound at the end of English 'sing', and in Filipino-style spelling it can start a word too. Unicode has no single Ng character, so it is typed as n g; some linguistic texts write the sound as ŋ, but everyday Rinconada spelling does not. Rinconada has a glottal stop, the catch in the throat in 'uh-oh'; KWF marks one between syllables with a grave accent and a hyphen.
What the Rinconada accent marks do in words
Rinconada orthography marks stress and vowel length with an acute accent: á é í ó ú. The KWF repository gives the language's name as Rinkonáda, with an acute accent on á.
The grave accent à è ì ò ù marks a vowel followed by a glottal stop; the circumflex â ê î ô û marks stress plus a glottal stop in one syllable. In text messages and on social media many people leave both marks off and write plain vowels; dictionaries, learning materials and literary writing keep them, which is when you need to copy them.
How to type Rinconada Bikol accent marks
On a phone, press and hold a vowel and choose its accent; hold e for ë and n for ñ. On a Mac, press OptionE then a vowel for á é í ó ú, Option then a vowel for à è ì ò ù, and OptionI then a vowel for â ê î ô û; OptionU then e gives ë and OptionN then n gives ñ (add Shift for capitals).
On Windows, choose English (United States) and the United States-International keyboard: type ' then the vowel for acute (á é í ó ú), then the vowel for grave (à è ì ò ù), then the vowel for circumflex (â ê î ô û), and " then e for ë. You can also copy the marked letters from this page.
Punctuation and the peso sign
Rinconada punctuation follows current writing conventions: full stops, commas, question marks and curly quotation marks “like this”; KWF marks a glottal stop between syllables with a grave accent and hyphen, and uses hyphens to separate repeated words. Prices are in Philippine pesos, written with the sign (50, 1,500.00) or simply as PHP or P; in Word type 20B1 then AltX, and in HTML use ₱.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyRinconada Bikol Alphabet & Letters combos
9Worth knowing
- The name Rinconada is usually traced to the Spanish word for a corner or nook.
- The KWF Rinconada alphabet has 29 letters, including Ë ë for the schwa; acute accents mark stress and vowel length, while grave and circumflex accents mark glottal stops.
- Ng counts as one letter in the Filipino alphabet, but Unicode has no single character for it, so it is always typed as two.
- The peso sign joined Unicode in version 3.2 in 2002, as U20B1.
Questions people ask
6What is Rinconada Bikol?
A Bikol language of the Philippines, spoken in the Rinconada district of Camarines Sur around Iriga City, Nabua, Bula, Baao, Balatan and Bato. The KWF repository reports a population of 418,407 in the 2020 census and 102,050 households using the language.
Is Rinconada Bikol the same as Bicol?
No. Bikol (Bicol) is a family of related languages; the best known is Central Bikol of Naga and Legazpi. Rinconada is a separate Bikol language that shares many words with it but can be hard for Central Bikol speakers to follow.
What alphabet does Rinconada Bikol use?
The KWF sets out a 29-letter Latin alphabet: A–Z plus Ë, Ñ and Ng. Ë represents schwa; acute accents mark stress and length, grave accents mark a following glottal stop, and circumflex accents mark stress plus a glottal stop in one syllable.
How do I type Rinconada accent marks?
On Windows, use the United States-International keyboard: type ' then a for á, then a for à, and then a for â; type " then e for ë. You can also copy the marked letters from this page.
What is thank you in Rinconada Bikol?
Dios mabalos, the thank-you used across the Bikol region.
How do I type the peso sign?
Copy from this page; in Word type 20B1 then AltX, and in HTML write ₱. Many people also simply write PHP or P before the amount.
