Alibata uses 17 basic symbols and 3 of these symbols are vowels a, i, and u.

Each of the
13 basic consonants uses the “a” sound like ka, ga, nga and so on. Distinct markings known
as “kudlit” are used to modify the sounds of the symbols. These markings could be a dot,
an arrowhead or a short line. Usually, dots are being used. When you see a distinct marking
or “kudlit” above the symbol, which means that the basic consonant uses the “i” sound so
that makes it ki, gi, ngi, and so on. When a kudlit is placed below a symbol, the basic
consonant uses the “u” sound like ku, g u, nga

In tagalog scripts, each of the symbols used represents a complete syllable which is not
the case with the Latin alphabet that uses symbols to represent a sound or phoneme. Also,
in alibata, the symbols can only represent 2 kinds of syllables. It can represent a single
vowel (V) or a consonant and a vowel (CV). With words that uses the CVC type, the last
consonant is dropped thus it takes the form of a CV so a word like mas becomes ma. Take
note that “ng” is considered as 1 consonant.