What to do with the marker ng

How to write mga

What to do with the enclitic -ng

How to render words/names from non-Austronesian languages

Alibata HOW-TO

Please consult the usage guide for basic information about writing in alibata.

The following are my own personal interpretations with regards to writing in alibata. I haven't been able to find any corroborating support for these conjectures. These are only extrapolations from my rudimentary knowledge of Tagalog and of linguistics in general.

What to do with the marker ng

(as in "dahon ng puno") While this word is pronounced as /nang/, and therefore should theoretically be written as , I have decided to mimic the romanized spelling, therefore writing it as in order to prevent confusion with the marker na (as in "malamig na tubig") It seems curious that ng and mga (the indicator for a collective/plural noun) are not phonetically spelled out like most words in Tagalog are.

How to write mga

This sounds like /ma nga/ and seems like it should be written as but I have typically written it as to mimic the romanized spelling.

What to do with the enclitic -ng

Since this has the same function as the marker na and cannot be written in alibata without the use of the cross kudlit, I usually write it out as , as a separate word. In any case, a phrase like "malaking bundok" is semantically equivalent to "malaki na bundok," although the latter is typically not spoken or written out in Roman letters. Perhaps the enclitic form was never a separate lexical unit to begin with, and is merely a convention of spoken Tagalog.

How to render words/names from non-Austronesian languages

This situation most likely applies when trying to convert names that are not derived from Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, or any other related Southeast Asian language. It is close to impossible to satisfactorily render words and names from English or Spanish in alibata, though many have tried. My favorite way of dealing with it is to actually determine the etymology of the name and then translate it into one of the aforementioned languages. For example, my name "Victor," Latin for conqueror, can be loosely translated into Cebuano as "Mandadaog" and rendered as Of course, the connotation of the words are not quite the same, and all the hazards of translating across cultures apply.

For writing out such names literally, I suggest the following conventions. The methods are ordered from my most favorite to my least favorite, and are more based on my personal aesthetic sensibilities than on any scholarly insight.

1. Approximate the word phonetically. There are two ways to do it, and I don't really favor one or the other. At this point, it is mostly a matter of taste. The first way is to insert vowels wherever consonant clusters or consonant codas occur, so that there are only consonant-vowel syllables. As an example, the name "Christine" would become something like "ku ri su ti nu" and rendered as I think the way I do it somewhat resembles how the Japanese incorporate English words into their language, although in reality, the vowels I choose are somewhat random. The second way to do it is only worthwhile if there aren't any consonant clusters at all. In this case, simply spell the name out phonetically and use the normal conventions of writing in alibata. (Most notably, discard the consonantal coda.) For example, "Cynthia" can be approximated as "sintiya" and therefore rendered as "si ti ya" (Note that the "n" of the first syllable is ignored.) In my opinion, the best way to figure out the most useful phonetic spelling of a name is to listen to how a Tagalog (or related) speaker pronounces it.
2. Simply write the word in Roman characters, amidst the alibata. This is similar to the convention in Japanese writing of representing English words in Romanji. Although not particularly aesthetic, I prefer it to the final alternative.
3. Use the cross kudlit extensively.

If you have any suggestions with regards to these conjectures, please let me know. I would very much like to find actual evidence proving or disproving them.