Alphabet

The Bontoc man has not begun even the simplest form of permanent mechanical record in the line of a written language, and no vocabulary of the language has before been published.

The following alphabet was used in writing Bontoc words in this study: 

A as in far; Spanish Ramo
A is in law; as O in French or
ay as in Ai in aisle; Spanish Hay
ao as Ou in out; as Au in Spanish Auto
B as in bad; Spanish BAJAR
CH as in check; Spanish Chico
D as in dog; Spanish Dar
E as in they; Spanish Halle
E as in then; Spanish COMEN
F as in fight; Spanish FIRMAR
G as in go; Spanish Gozar
H as in he; Tagalog BAHAY
I as in Pique; Spanish HIJO
I as in pick
K as in keen
L as in Lamb; Spanish Lente
M as in man; Spanish MENOS
N as in now; Spanish JABON
Ng as in finger; Spanish LENGUA
O as in note; Spanish NOSOTROS
OI as in boil
P as in poor; Spanish Pero
Q as CH in German ICH
S as in Sauce; Spanish SORDO
SH as in shall; as CH in French charmer
T as in touch; Spanish Tomar
U as in rule; Spanish Uno
U as in but
U as in German Kuhl
V as in valve; in Spanish VOLVER
W as in will; nearly as Ou in French oui
Y as in you; Spanish ya

The sounds which I have represented by the unmarked vowels A, E, I, O, and U, Swettenham and Clifford in their Malay Dictionary represent by the vowels with a circumflex accent.  The sound which I have indicated by U they indicate by A. Other variations will be noted.

The sound represented by A, it must be noted, has not always the same force or quantity, depending on an open or closed syllable and the position of the vowel in the word.

So far as I know there is no R sound in the Bontoc Igorot language.  The word “Igorot” when used by the Bontoc man is pronounced Igolot.  In an article on “The Chamorro language of Guam"[42] it is noted that in that language there was originally no R sound but that in modern times many words formerly pronounced by an L sound now have that letter replaced by R.

Linguistic inconsistencies

The language of the Bontoc area is not stable, but is greatly shifting.  In pueblos only a few hours apart there are not only variations in pronunciation but in some cases entirely different words are used, and in a single pueblo there is great inconsistency in pronunciation.

It is often impossible to determine the exact sound of vowels, even in going over common words a score of times with as many people.  The accent seems very shifting and it is often difficult to tell where it belongs.