Bikol/Bicol

Bikol, or Bicol, is one of the Bikol languages, which are members of the Central Philippine group of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. Bikol is spoken by about 2.4 million people mainly on the Bicol Peninsula on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, and also on the islands of Catanaduanes, Masbate, Burias and Ticao.

Before the Spanish conquest of the Philippinse in the 1570s, Bikol was written with a syllablic script simliar to the Tagalog one, which was used to some extent until the mid-19th century. The Spanish used the Latin alphabet to write Bikol and one of the earilest Bikol publications was the Vocabulario de la lengua Bicol, compiled by Father Marcos de Lisboa, a Franciscan friar, between 1602 and 1611.

Bikol alphabet and pronunciation

Letters in italics are only used in foreign loan words.

Download an alphabet chart for Bikol (Excel)

Sample text in Bikol

An gabos na tawo ipinangaking may katalinkasan asin parantay sa dignidad asin derechos. Sinda gabos tinawan nin pag-isip asin conciencia kaya dapat na makipag-iriba sa lambang saro bilang mga magturugang.

A recording of this text by Josh Montarde

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample video in Bikol

Information about Bikol | Phrases | Numbers | Tower of Babel

Links

Information about the Bikol languages
http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/Bikol/view?searchterm=bikol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikol_language

Bikol phrases
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bikol_phrasebook
https://saminovic.wordpress.com/language/business/
http://wowlegazpi.com/useful-bicol-phrases/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Bikol_phrasebook

Philippine languages

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboard can help. It enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets, and is free.

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