The Cuyonon Alphabet

Cuyonon (also called Cuyunon or Kuyonon) is a Bisayan Austronesian language spoken by around 97,000 people ^[1] on Cuyo Island and the coast of northern Palawan, in the Philippines.

It remains one of the dominant local languages of Palawan province ^[2], spoken alongside Tagalog and Tagbanua in many coastal communities.

Cuyonon belongs to the Bisayan branch of the Central Philippine Austronesian languages, specifically the West Bisayan Kuyan subgroup ^[3].

This places Cuyonon alongside Hiligaynon, Kinaray-a, and Aklanon as part of the wider West Bisayan group of languages.

Cuyonon is closely related to Kinaray-a, the Bisayan language spoken around Miag-ao in Iloilo province on Panay Island ^[1].

Both languages share the West Bisayan Kuyan lineage, reflecting historical migration and trade links between Panay and the Cuyo Islands.

The Cuyonon alphabet has 20 letters: four vowels, fourteen consonants, the digraph Ng, and the glottal stop ^[4].

This is more compact than English, since Cuyonon writing excludes C, F, J, Q, V, X, and Z in native vocabulary.

Cuyonon's standard orthography recognises only four vowels — a, e, i, and o ^[4] — with no separate letter for u, unlike most neighbouring Philippine languages.

Words that other Visayan languages spell with u are consistently written with o in Cuyonon, keeping the vowel system simple.

The glottal stop, written as an apostrophe, is treated as a full letter of the Cuyonon alphabet ^[4].

It can appear mid-word or word-finally after a vowel, as in be'ras (uncooked rice), but is never written at the very start of a word.

These letters are excluded from native Cuyonon spelling ^[4], though C is kept in proper nouns such as Cuyo and Cuyonon itself.

Spanish and English loanwords and proper names often keep their original spelling, so F, J, V, X, and Z appear occasionally in borrowed terms.

Cuyonon remains a dominant local language of Palawan province, used alongside Tagalog in homes, markets, and local media ^[2].

Its vocabulary has also spread to neighbouring indigenous languages such as Batak through migration and long-standing contact with Cuyonon-speaking communities.

The code cyo is the official ISO 639-3 identifier assigned to Cuyonon by the international standards registration authority ^[5].

This code distinguishes Cuyonon from other Philippine languages in international language databases and library catalogues worldwide.

The current standard orthography was devised by Ester Ponce de Leon Timbancaya Elphick and Virginia Howard Sohn ^[4] of the Cuyonon Language and Culture Project.

Their system was developed in consultation with Leonard Newell, a noted linguist of Philippine languages, replacing earlier inconsistent spelling practices.