5. Alphabet

Ko e ‘alafapeti’ ko ha seti ‘o ha ngaahi mata’itohi kuo faka’otu’otu maau ‘o ne fakafofonga’i ‘a e tefito’i ongo ‘o e lea’ mei a A kia ‘. Ko e ‘alafapeti faka-Tonga’ ‘oku ‘i ai ‘a e vauele mo e konisonānite. Ko e ongo seti ‘eni ‘e ua ‘o e vauele’. Ko e vauele angamaheni pe vauele ‘ikai fakau’a Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu pea mo e ngaahi vauele fakau’a’ ‘A‘a ‘E‘e ‘I‘i ‘O‘o ‘U‘u. Ko e ngaahi konisonānite’ ‘eni. Ff Hh  Kk Ll Mm Nn Ngng Pp Ss Tt Vv ‘. ‘Oku fakataha’i leva ‘a e ngaahi vauele ‘ikai fakau’a’ mo e ngaahi konisonānite’ ‘o ma’u ai ‘a e ‘alafapeti faka-Tonga’. ‘A‘a ‘E‘e ‘I‘i ‘O‘o ‘U‘u. Ff Hh  Kk Ll Mm Nn Ngng Pp Ss Tt Vv ‘.  Fakatokanga’i ange ‘a hono pu’aki atu ko ‘eni ‘o e vauele ‘ikai fakau’a’ Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu ‘i he ‘alafapeti ‘o ongo ‘ikai ha fakau’a ai. Ko ‘ene tonu ia hono pu’aki’ he ‘oku ‘ikai ha faka’ilonga fakau’a ‘i mu’a ‘ia kinautolu neongo kuo laui ta’u hono ako’i hala ke pu’aki hangē ha vauele fakau’a’. Kiliki ‘i he hokonga ‘i lalo’ ki ha toe ‘ekisasaisi lahi ange ‘i he tōpiki ko ‘eni mo ha toe ngaahi fakamatala mahu’inga kau ki he ngaahi koosi ‘a e Akoola’.

Kiliki heni ki he fakiikiiki: Lea faka’ilonga taimi, Veape, ‘Etiveape, Etisekitivi, ‘Ātikolo, Nauna   Peleposisini

The alphabet is a set of letters or symbols arranged in a fixed order and used to represent the basic set of speech sounds of the set of letters from A to ‘. The Tongan alphabet contains vowels and consonants. These are the two sets of vowels. The normal vowels or non glottal-stopped vowels Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu and the glottal-stopped vowels ‘A‘a ‘E‘e ‘I‘i ‘O‘o ‘U‘u. These are the consonants  Ff Hh  Kk Ll Mm Nn Ngng Pp Ss Tt Vv ‘. Putting the non glottal-stopped vowels and the consonants together they produce our alphabet like this  Aa Ee Ff Hh Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Ng ng Oo Pp Ss Tt Uu Vv ‘.  Take note of how I pronounce the normal vowels Aa Ee Ii Oo Uu in the alphabet without the sound of the glottal-stop. That is the correct way of how to spell them, despite being normally taught in schools for years, to be incorrectly spelt with the sound of the glottal-stop. Click the links above for more exercises on this topic and some important information about the Akoola courses.