Is it always only vowels that have accents ? In the dipthongs, a

@stevesmi
I've only seen it on vowels. The only other example I can think of is for pseudo-vowels like "y" in Taglish...Ex: "to try" in English, could become " matrý " in Taglish...with the accent over the "y."

@stevesmi Yes, because a Filipino syllable needs a vowel to be pronounceable in a proper word. The Filipino alphabet is readable with just the letters, but they rely on the sound of the “a” vowel in pronouncing them. In English, you can read “ABCD” just as is, but in Tagalog, “ABKD” would make a strange sound. It has to be written as “ABAKADA” for it to be read correctly. “Try” is possible, but that’s in Taglish. In case a Filipino does not know any foreign word, he will find “try” as an invalid word and may end up pronouncing it like “tri (tree)” or “triya (treeya)” or “tiri (teeree)” or “tiriya (teereeya)”, none of which would match a valid Filipino word. For us to pronounce “try” correctly, it has to be written as “tray” and “triad” will be written as “trayad”.

@Tagamanila
Thank you for your reply which answers some questions beyond the initial post question.
But can I, with all due respect, inquire about the ABaKaDa? Has it not now been superceeded with the Makabagong Alpabetong Filipino ?

@stevesmi Yes, the Makabagong Alpabetong Filipino with 28 letters is now the official alphabet. It is for the purpose of being able to spell all the foreign or borrowed words without having to re-spell them in Pilipino or enclose them in quotation marks. The pure Filipino words though only need the 20 letters of the "old" alphabet, which we refer to as the "Abakadang Pilipino".