FRED’S BAYBAYIN RESEARCH

Excerpts from various web pages about the Baybayin Script (43 pages)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
1.) What is Baybayin? ……………………………………………………….……….. 2

2.) From Baybayin to Alibata ……………………………………………….…….. 3

3.) Origin of the Baybayin …………………………………………………….…….. 3

4.) Baybayin Symbols …………………………………………………………….……. 7

- How to Write the Ancient Script of the Philippines ………….……. 9

- Spanish Modified Baybayin ………………………………………………….… 15

5.) Extinction of the Baybayin …………………………………………………….. 16

6.) The Three Surviving Baybayins …………………………………………….. 19

- Buhid alphabet ………………………………………………………………………. 20
- Hanuno’o script ……………………………………………………………………… 21
- Tagbanwa alphabet ……………………………………………………………….. 22

Alibata Comparative Syllabaries Chart ………………………………….…... 29

- Variants of the Alibata Script ……………………………………………….. 30

7.) Historical Samples ……………………………………………………………..…… 34

8.) Related Links …………………………………………………………………………… 41

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1.) What is Baybayin?

Baybayin is the name of the former Filipino writing system. It comes from the word baybáy which means
spelling. According to David Diringer, the renowned expert on ancient scripts, the baybayin possibly came
directly from the ancient Kavi script of Java, Indonesia. Or, it may have its roots in Kavi but was introduced to
the Philippines by way of the ancient script used by the Buginese people of Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Another name for the Baybayin is Alibata. This term was just invented in 1914 by Dean Paul Versoza of the
University of Manila. it comes form alif, ba and t a, the first letters in the Arabic dialect of Maguindanao.
Versoza did not explain why he chose that particular language; it has absolutely no relationship to the
baybayin. http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-ilocano-baybayin.html

Prior to the coming of the Spaniards, the peoples of the Philippine Islands wrote in their languages using a syllabary (writing
system in which each symbol represents a syllable). The Ilocanos, Tagalogs, Pangasinenses, Visayans, and Kapampangans
shared a similar syllabary, composed of 16 characters (including three vowels, a, e/i and o/u). In the Tagalog script, syllable
final (coda) consonants were not reflected in the orthography, so the three syllable word pagdating would be written “pa-da-
ti”. The Ilocano script, however, was innovated to reflect coda consonants as they often contrast: asok = my dog, asom = your
dog.
Most scholars are reluctant to give an origin for the scripts, but they have been compared to the Indic writings in the Edicts of
Asoka (500BC), the Batak scripts in Sumatra, and the Buginese scripts in Celebes—all remarkably different from the
Philippine scripts.
http://iloko.tripod.com/scripts.html

2
2.) From Baybayin to Alibata

Though it is more commonly known as “Alibata”, “Baybayin” is its proper name. The term “Alibata” was
introduced in the early 1900s by Dean Paul Versoza of the University of Manila. He claims the term comes
from “alif,” “ba,” and “ta,” the first three letters of the Maguindanao arrangement of the Arabic letters. So
now that we know the truth, let’s use the proper term, shall we?
http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/intro.html

The term Alibata

The script is often referred to as alibata, a term coined inexplicably to mimic the first two letters of the
alphabet of the Maguindanao, used in the southern Philippines, which is derived from Arabic. (The term refers
to the first two letters, alif and bet.) It is also called baybayin, which means “to spell” in Tagalog.

http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/origin.html from http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/

3.) Origin of the Baybayin

The word baybayin is a very old Tagalog term that refers to all the letters used in writing a language, that is to say, an
“alphabet.” It is from the root baybáy meaning, “spell.” Baybayin became the specific name for the ancient writing of the
Philippines at some time before the early 20th century. Perdro Serrano Laktaw recorded this newer sense of the word in his
Diccionario tagálog-hispano in 1914 and he used it in this sense throughout the introductory essay of the dictionary.
Early Spanish accounts usually called the baybayin “Tagalog letters” or “Tagalog writing.” And, as mentioned earlier, the
Visayans called it “Moro writing” because it was imported from Manila, which was one of the ports where many products from
Muslim traders entered what are now known as the Philippine islands. The Bikolanos called the script basahan and the
letters, guhit.
Another common name for the baybayin is alibata, which is a word that was invented just in the 20th century by a member of
the old National Language Institute, Paul Versoza. As he explained in Pangbansang Titik nang Pilipinas in 1939,
In 1921 I returned from the United States to give public lectures on Tagalog philology, calligraphy, and linguistics. I introduced
the word alibata, which found its way into newsprints and often mentioned by many authors in their writings. I coined this
word in 1914 in the New York Public Library, Manuscript Research Division, basing it on the Maguindanao (Moro)
arrangement of letters of the alphabet after the Arabic: alif, ba, ta (alibata), “f” having been eliminated for euphony’s sake.

3
Versoza’s reasoning for creating this word was unfounded because no evidence of the baybayin was ever found in that part
of the Philippines and it has absolutely no relationship to the Arabic language. Furthermore, no ancient script native to
Southeast Asia followed the Arabic arrangement of letters, and regardless of Versoza’s connection to the word alibata, its
absence from all historical records indicates that it is a totally modern creation. The present author does not use this word in
reference to any ancient Philippine script.

Many of the writing systems of Southeast Asia descended from ancient scripts used in India over 2000 years ago. Although
the baybayin shares some important features with these scripts, such as all the consonants being pronounced with the vowel
a and the use of special marks to change this sound, there is no evidence that it is so old.
The shapes of the baybayin characters bear a slight resemblance to the ancient Kavi script of Java, Indonesia, which fell into
disuse in the 1400s. However, as mentioned earlier in the Spanish accounts, the advent of the baybayin in the Philippines
was considered a fairly recent event in the 16th century and the Filipinos at that time believed that their baybayin came from
Borneo.
This theory is supported by the fact that the baybayin script could not show syllable final consonants, which are very common
in most Philippine languages. This indicates that the script was recently acquired and had not yet been modified to suit the
needs of its new users. Also, this same shortcoming in the baybayin was a normal trait of the script and language of the Bugis
people of Sulawesi, which is directly south of the Philippines and directly east of Borneo. Thus most scholars believe that the
baybayin may have descended from the Buginese script or, more likely, a related lost script from the island of Sulawesi.
Whatever route the baybayin travelled, it probably arrived in Luzon in the 13th or 14th century. (see indomalayscripts.gif )
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

4
Alibata Family Tree

Alibata
Languages written with this script:
• Ilokano
• Pangasinan
• Tagalog language
More information
http://www.bibingka.com/d
Article:
ahon/tagalog/tagalog.htm
http://www.mts.net/~pmorr
Article:
ow/bayeng1.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/gr
Discussion forum:
oup/Alibata/
http://www.eaglescorner.co
Site about:
m/baybayin/
http://home.earthlink.net/~a
Site about:
swang/alibata/

http://www.ontopia.net/i18n/script.jsp?id=alibata from
http://www.ontopia.net/i18n/scripts.jsp

5
Theory: Originated in Celebes

One of the most common explanations, given by David Diringer, states that the Philippine scripts were
derived from Kavi script or Old Javanese, perhaps indirectly through the Buginese.4 The Buginese origin of
the Philippine scripts best accounts for the fact that the Philippine scripts cannot represent the final
consonants of syllables, since Buginese has the same limitation. In Buginese, however, this limitation is not
as noticeable, since fewer words in the language have these final consonants.5

Theory: Directly from India

Fletcher Gardner suggests that the writing system was directly transmitted to the Philippines by Indian
priests who were familiar with Brahmi scripts. 6 Isaac Taylor states that the writing system was derived from
scripts used on the Eastern coast of India, such as Vengi, Chalukya, or Assam, originally transmitted in the
8th century AD. In this case, the Philippine scripts would actually be the sources for the Bugis and Makassar
scripts of Celebes instead of the other way around.7

Map of putative sites of origin

FIGURE 1
Map derived from http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/middle_east_and_asia/Asia_pol_97.jpg

http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/origin.html from http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/

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4.) Baybayin Symbols

7
- From: Another Look at Tagalog by Norlito
Ison Cervo, page 15.

8
 How to Write the Ancient Script of the Philippines
by Paul Morrow
One Letter Equals One Syllable
In our modern alphabet, each letter is a basic sound or phoneme, either a vowel or a consonant. We combine these letters to
make syllables, and combine the syllables to make words. In a syllabic writing system, such as the baybayin, each letter is
already a syllable. It may be a combination of sounds or just a vowel, but usually it cannot be reduced to a single consonant.
So, a good way to check your baybayin spelling is to make sure that the number of letters in a word always equals the
number of syllables.

The Baybayin Characters

These are all the letters of the baybayin “alphabet”. There are many ways to draw each letter (See Baybayin Styles). This
example is my own modern composite of many old forms and the letters are arranged in the old abakada sequence. (See the
original sequence in the main article.)

The Consonants

Each consonant letter is one syllable that is pronounced with the a vowel. This means, for example, that the letter is not
just a b, it is actually the syllable ba. If we write the word basa (to read), we only need two letters:

and not four letters:

Here are a few more examples: (really, important, and able to do)

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The Kudlít
So, what do we do if we want to write something that doesn’t rhyme with a? In other syllabaries, like the Katakana or
Hiragana of Japan, this would require learning a whole other set of letters for each vowel sound. However, the baybayin is a
cross between a syllabary and an alphabet, or what is known as an abugida. We use the same consonant letters shown in
the list above and simply combine them with a special mark, called a kudlít, to change the sound of the vowel a.
The word kudlit means a small cut or incision, which is exactly what it was back in the days when Filipinos wrote on bamboo.
Since we now write with pen and paper, or a computer, the kudlit mark can be any shape. Usually it is a dot or tick, or
sometimes it is shaped like a v or an arrowhead >. The sound of a letter is not changed in any way by the shape of the kudlit;
it is changed by the position of the kudlit.

The kudlit is placed above a letter to signify the sound of I or E. As in the words:
(self, miss as in unmarried woman, and tickle)

And to change the sound of a letter to U or O, the kudlit is placed below. As in the words:
(island, trouble, and opinion)

The Vowel Characters

Although the kudlits do most of the work representing the vowels, the baybayin also has three special vowel letters:

Naturally, if a syllable doesn’t have a consonant, there is no place to put the kudlit. This is when the vowel characters must be
used.
For example:(mercy, to bring with, head, and possible)

10
There are only three vowels in the baybayin because ancient Filipinos of many linguistic groups did not distinguish between
the pronunciations of I and E, and U and O before Spanish words entered their languages. Even today these sounds are
interchangeable in words such as lalaki/lalake (man), babae (woman) and kababaihan (women in general), uód/oód (worm),
punò (tree trunk) and punung-kahoy (tree), and oyaye/oyayi/uyayi (lullaby). The situation is similar in English; there are only
five vowel letters but each one represents several different vowel sounds. (See the main article for more information.)

Final Consonants

Lone vowels have special characters but what about the consonants that have no vowel sound? These are the syllable final
consonants and they are the reason why it is much more difficult to read the baybayin than it is to write it. There is no way to
write syllable final consonants. For example, in a word like bundok (mountain) we cannot write the letters n and k because
they are not followed by a vowel and the baybayin consonants always contain a vowel sound. If we did write the n and the k,
the word would be pronounced bu-na-do-ka. So, we simply don’t write those letters. The meaning of the word and its
pronunciation must be guessed by reading it in context. Bundok is written:

not:

Here are a few more examples:

(peak, riddle, ask)

Special Consonants

The letters d and ng were not special to the ancient Filipinos but they deserve special attention here to avoid confusion.
The Letter for Da and Ra

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There is only one character for both d and r in the baybayin, the . The pronunciation of this letter in Tagalog changes
depending on its location within a word. It follows the same Filipino grammatical rule that we have today; when a d is between
two vowels, it becomes an r. There are many exceptions to this rule today, but it was more consistent in pre-Hispanic times.
For example, the word dangal (honour) becomes marangal (honourable) and the word dunong (knowledge) becomes
marunong (knowledgeable), but the baybayin letter, does not change. But the Bikolanos have a special character for Ra.

Other Philippine languages had different ways to write the r sound. Some used the d/ra character while others used the la
character or both. See the main article for more information.
The Letter for Nga

The ng is considered a single letter in the modern Filipino alphabet but it requires two characters to write it, n and g. In the
baybayin the ng really is a single character, , and it must be written that way. For example, if the word hanga (admiration)
were spelled with n and g, it would be pronounced ha-na-ga. It should be written like this:

not:

Punctuation
The only punctuation for the baybayin is a pair of vertical bars, || or a single vertical bar, | depending on the writer’s taste. The
vertical bar is used like a comma and a full stop (period). In fact, it can be used like any punctuation mark we have today. The
ancient Filipinos usually wrote their words with no spaces between them but sometimes they would separate a single word
between a set of bars. However, most of the time the bars were used in a random manner, dividing the sentences into word
groups of various sizes.

12
The Spanish Kudlit +

To solve the problem of writing final consonants, a Spanish Friar named Francisco Lopez invented a new kind of kudlit in
1620. It was shaped like a cross (which should be no surprise) and it was meant to be placed below a baybayin consonant
letter in order to cancel its vowel sound.
For example:
(mountain, peak, riddle, ask)

Filipinos never accepted this way of writing because it was too cumbersome and they were perfectly comfortable reading the
old way. However, it is popular today among people who have rediscovered the baybayin and who are not aware of the origin
of the Spanish kudlit. (See the main article for more about the Spanish kudlit.)

Here’s a verse from a modern song. On the left, the Spanish kudlit is used and the words have been separated to make it
easier to read. The pre-Hispanic Filipino method of writing is on the right.

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Numbers

Filipinos in the pre-Hispanic era mainly used the baybayin for writing poetry and short messages to each other. It was never
used for recording history or scientific data, so numerals were never developed. Numbers were spelled out the same as
words. There is a document with numbers on the page entitled Baybayin Handwriting of the 1600s.

Pre-Hispanic Writing Techniques – writing tools etc.

The pre-Hispanic Filipinos wrote on many different materials; leaves, palm fronds, tree bark and fruit rinds, but the most
common material was bamboo. The writing tools or panulat were the points of daggers or small pieces of iron. Among the
manuscripts in Charles R. Boxer’s collection, known as the Boxer Codex, there is an anonymous report from 1590 that
described their method of writing, which is still used today by the tribes of Mindoro and Palawan to write their own script:

When they write, it is on some tablets made of the bamboos which they have in those islands, on the bark. In using such a
tablet, which is four fingers wide, they do not write with ink, but with some scribers with which they cut the surface and bark of
the bamboo, and make the letters.

Once the letters were carved into the bamboo, it was wiped with ash to make the characters stand out more. Sharpened
splits of bamboo were used with coloured plant saps to write on more delicate materials such as leaves. But since the ancient
Filipinos did not keep long-term written records, more durable materials, such as stone, clay or metal, were not used. After
the Spaniards arrived Filipinos adopted the use of paper, pen and ink.

The bamboo document and the dagger used to write it.

From The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind

by David Diringer. 1948, p. 300.

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

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 Spanish Modified Baybayin
The Spaniards had a hard time trying to read in the original Baybayin script because the Filipinos dropped
any trailing consonants from syllables in the VC or CVC form To simplify things, they introduced the “+” mark
that was added at the bottom of the Baybayin symbols to mute the “a” sound.

= “ba” = “b”

“Bahay”

Original Baybayin With Spanish Modifications

ba-ha ba-ha-y

http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/faqt.html#Q3 from http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/faqt.html from

http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/baybayin.html

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5.) Extinction of the Baybayin

Baybayin Lost

Although the baybayin had spread so swiftly throughout the Philippines in the 1500s, it began to decline in
the 1600s despite the Spanish clergy’s attempts to use it for evangelization. Filipinos continued to sign their
names with baybayin letters throughout the 17th, and even into the 18th century, though most of the
documents were written in Spanish. Gaspar de San Agustín still found the baybayin useful in 1703. In his
Compendio de la lengua Tagala he wrote, “It helps to know the Tagalog characters in distinguishing accents.”
And he mentioned that the baybayin was still being used to write poetry in Batangas at that time. But in
1745 Sebastián Totanes claimed in his Arte de la lengua Tagala that,

Rare is the indio who still knows how to read [the baybayin letters], much less write them. All of them
read and write our Castilian letters now.

However, Totanes held a rather low opinion of Philippine culture and other writers of the period gave a more
balanced view. Thomas Ortiz felt it was still necessary to describe the Tagalog characters in his Arte y Reglas
de la lengua Tagala of 1729 and as late as 1792 a pact between Christians and Mangyans on the island of
Mindoro was signed with baybayin letters, which is not surprising because the Mangyans never stopped using
their script.

Many people today, both ordinary Filipinos and some historians not acquainted with the Philippines, are
surprised when they learn that the ancient Filipinos actually had a writing system of their own. The complete
absence of truly pre-Hispanic specimens of the baybayin script is puzzling and it has lead to a common
misconception that fanatical Spanish priests must have burned or otherwise destroyed massive amounts of
native documents as they did so ruthlessly in Central America. Even the prominent Dr. H. Otley Beyer wrote
in The Philippines before Magellan (1921) that, “one Spanish priest in Southern Luzon boasted of having
destroyed more than three hundred scrolls written in the native character.” Historians have searched for the
source of Beyer’s claim, but until now none have even learned the name of that zealous priest. Furthermore,
there has never been a recorded instance of ancient Filipinos writing on scrolls. The fact that they wrote on
such perishable materials as leaves and bamboo is probably the reason why no pre-Hispanic documents have
survived.

16
Although many Spaniards didn’t hide their disdain for Filipino culture, the only documents they burned were
probably the occasional curse or incantation that offended their beliefs. There simply were no “dangerous”
documents to burn because the pre-Hispanic Filipinos did not write at length about such things as their own
beliefs, mythology, or history. These were the subjects of their oral record, which, indeed, the Spanish priests
tried to eradicate through relentless indoctrination. But, in regard to writing, it can be argued that the
Spanish friars actually helped to preserve the baybayin by continuing to use it and write about it even after it
fell out of use among most Filipinos.

It is more likely that mere practicality was the main reason that the baybayin went out of style. Although it
was adequate for the relatively light requirements of pre-Hispanic writing, it could not bear the burdens of
the new sounds from the Spanish language and that culture’s demand for an accurate written representation
of the spoken word. The baybayin could not distinguish between the vowels i and e, or u and o, or the
consonants d and r. It lacked other consonants too, but more important, it had no way to cancel the vowel
sound that was inherent in each consonant. Thus consonants could not be combined and syllable final
consonants could not be written at all. Without these elements the meanings of many Spanish words were
confused or lost completely.

Social expediency was another reason for Filipinos to abandon the baybayin in favour of the alphabet. They
found the alphabet easy to learn and it was a skill that helped them to get ahead in life under the Spanish
regime, working in relatively prestigious jobs as clerks, scribes and secretaries. With his usual touch of
exaggeration, Fr. Pedro Chirino made an observation in 1604 that shows how easily Filipinos took to the new
alphabet.

They have learned our language and pronunciation and write it as well as we do, and even better,
because they are so clever that they learn everything very quickly... In Tigbauan [Panay] I had a small
boy in school who in three months, by copying letters that I received in good script, learned to write
much better than I, and translated important papers for me most accurately, without errors or
falsehoods.

But if reasons of practicality were behind the demise of the baybayin, why did it not survive as more than a
curiosity? Why was it not retained for at least ceremonial purposes such as inscriptions on buildings and
monuments, or practiced as a traditional art like calligraphy in other Asian countries? The sad fact is that
most forms of indigenous art in the Philippines were abandoned wherever the Spanish influence was strong
and only exist today in the regions that were out of reach of the Spanish empire. Hector Santos, a researcher

17
living in California, suggested that obligations to the Spanish conquerors prevented Filipinos from maintaining
their traditions.

Tributes were imposed on the native population. Having to produce more than they used to, they had less
time to pass on traditional skills to their children, resulting in a tightening spiral of illiteracy in their ancient
script.

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#lost from http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

Revival of the dead or conservation of the living?

Today, there are frequent calls for the revival of the Tagalog script as a symbol of national pride and identity.
Unfortunately, the Tagalog script died a long time ago while the spoken language continued to evolve and
they are very much out of step with each other today.

On the other hand, we have living scripts in the Philippines today that have been in continuous use for almost
a millennium. The same people who call for the revival of the Tagalog script have not shown any interest in
propagating and maintaining the living Philippine scripts used by our "second-class" citizens. These scripts
are in danger of disappearing because of cultural contamination.

This is a sad but accurate commentary on the divisions within Philippine society today: lowlanders vs.
highlanders, Christians vs. non-Christians, urban vs. taga-bundok, western vs. traditional, pants vs. bahags,
blouses vs. bare breasts, and so on.

Could it be that the disappearance of the Tagalog script marked that point in history when the Filipinos'
cultural will was finally broken? Are we now forever fragmented as a nation grasping for empty symbols when
there are so many real things that we should be proud of?

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/living/living.htm from http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/default.htm

18
6.) The Three Surviving Baybayins: Buhid, Hanunoo & Tagbanwa

Two Philippine scripts which remarkably differed from the scripts employed by the Ilocanos and Tagalogs on
Luzon Island, were those of the Mangyans (of Mindoro Island) and the Tagbanuas (of Palawan Island).
Because of the relative isolation of these ethnic groups, their scripts have fluorished. The Mangyan script is
still used to this day.

http://iloko.tripod.com/scripts.html
Although the Tagalog script quickly faded from the Philippine scene after the Spaniards arrived, three related
scripts survived. They are the scripts of the Hanunóos and Buhids of Mindoro and the Tagbanwas of Palawan.
http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/living/living.htm from
http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/tagalog/tagalog.htm

In some parts of the Philippines the baybayin was never lost but developed into distinct styles. The
Tagbanuwa people of Palawan still remember their script today but they rarely use it. The Buhid and
especially the Hanunóo people of Mindoro still use their scripts as the ancient Filipinos did 500 years ago, for
communication and poetry. Dr. Harold Conklin described Hanunóo literature in 1949:

Hanunóo inscriptions are never of magical import, nor are they on mythological or historical topics. Written
messages (love letters, requests etc.,) are occasionally sent by means of inscribed bamboos, but by far the
most common use of this script is for recording ambáhan [Hanunóo] and urúkai [Buhid] chants. Both of these
types consist largely of metaphorical love songs.
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

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Buhid Alphabet

Origin
The Buhid or Mangyan alphabet is thought to have descended from the Kawi script of Java, Bali and Sumatra,
which in turn descended from the Pallava script, one of the southern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi.

The Buhid alphabet is still used in the Philipines by the Buhid people of Mindoro.

Notable features

• This is a syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an inherent vowel [a]. Other vowels are
indicated by separate letter or by diacritics.

Used to write
Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines which is spoken by about 10.5 million people.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/buhid.htm
from http://www.omniglot.com/

20
Hanuno'o script

Origin
The Hanuno'o or Mangyan script is one of a number of closely related scripts used in the Philippines until the
17th Century. It is thought to have descended from the Kawi script of Java, Bali and Sumatra, which in turn
descended from the Pallava script, one of the southern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi.

Notable features

• Hanuno'o is a syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an inherent vowel [a]. Other vowels are
indicated by diacritics.
• Hanuno'o is traditionally written on bamboo in vertical columns from bottom to top and left to right.

Used to write
Hanuno'o, a Austronesian language spoken in the southern part of the Philippine island of Mindoro by about
10,000 to 12,000 people.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hanunuo.htm
from http://www.omniglot.com/

21
Tagbanwa alphabet

Origin
The Tagbanwa alphabet is one of a number of closely related scripts used in the Philippines until the 17th
Century AD. It is thought to have descended from the Kawi script of Java, Bali and Sumatra, which in turn
descended from the Pallava script, one of the southern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi.

Notable features

• Tagbanwa is a syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an inherent vowel /a/. Other vowels are
indicated either by separate letters, or by diacritics. When vowels appear at the beginning of words or
one they own, they are represented by separate letters.
• Tagbanwa is traditionally written on bamboo in vertical columns from bottom to top and left to right.

Used to write
Tagbanwa (a.k.a. Apurahuano), an Austronesian language with about 8,000 speakers in the central and
northern regions of the Philippine island of Palawan.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tagbanwa.htm
from http://www.omniglot.com/

22
Other Links
Paul Morrow's excellent site about Philippine history, language, writing, etc http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow
A fascinating introduction to the alphabets of the Philippines by Hector Santos
http://www.bibingka.com/dahon

Our Living Scripts

by Hector Santos
© 1995-96 by Hector Santos
All rights reserved.

Although the Tagalog script quickly faded from the Philippine scene after the Spaniards arrived, three related
scripts survived. They are the scripts of the Hanunóos and Buhids of Mindoro and the Tagbanwas of Palawan.

Three surviving scripts

These three cultural groups originally lived on coastal shores along the ancient trade and migration route
between Borneo and Manila on the western flanks of Mindoro and Palawan. They were incessantly forced to
move inland by raiders until they occupied only the highlands of their respective islands. By fleeing and
refusing to give up their way of life, they were able to preserve their knowledge of the ancient scripts.

Not much was known about them until recently. Knowledge that they had writing systems only came about at
the end of the 19th century.

Their scripts’ similarity to the Tagalog script was not only in the shapes of their symbols. They had the same
kudlits, had the same orthographic rule about dropping the final consonant in a CVC syllable, and had the
same uses for their scripts: writing poetry and personal communication. These facts reinforce and verify
earlier accounts of friar-historians regarding features of the Tagalog script.

Before we proceed further, let us enjoy some actual literature from these people some lowlanders consider
“primitive.” I especially enjoy poems from the Mangyans: urukay from the Buhids and ambahan from the

23
Hanunóos. Their imagery is quite contemporary and the ambahan spoken by a stillborn child reminds me of
the poems of Robert Herrick.

Buhid urukays from

The Mangyans of Mindoro by Violeta B. Lopez.

Kahoy-kahoy kot malago

Kabuyong-buyong sing ulo
Kaduyan-duyan sing damgu,
Dalikaw sa pagromedyu
Singhanmu kag sa balay barku
Anay umabut ka nimu.

Like a tree overgrown with branches

My mind is full of turmoil
Though loaded with pain and grief
My dreams continually seek for an end,
Let it be known that I am on my way
Perchance you’ll catch up with me.

Gusto ko lamang kag si Inambay sa dalan

Kag managun latay
Sa batang kag managaytay
Pag-uli kaw sa balay kita ga araway
Gaamigos kita anay

I want Inambay to stay only on the pathway

So we can roam freely in the woods
And when I reach home, you and I
Will not quarrel
And we could remain together

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Hanunóo ambahans from
Treasure of a Minority by Antoon Postma

Magkunkuno ti anak lunas Says the baby, lifeless born:

Anong suyong muyuan My beloved mother dear,
Anong bansay kayasan Father, oh, my father dear!
Kang di way sa bilugan When I was resting in your womb,
Ako kanmo nga amban Closely united with you,
Ako kan bansay huywan I was my father’s favorite.
Pagka ngap ak nirwasan Taken from my safe abode,
Pag idnas sa salsagan plac’d upon the bamboo floor,
Ud binabaw sa pupwan no one put me on your lap,
Ud linilang sa duyan no one rock’d me in a crib.
Ti lumilang bay aban What became my crib at last,
Uyayi bansanayan was a hammock strongly built:
Sud-an sa bagunbunan as a bed, a burial hill!
Ako inaghon diman Discarded I was, unlov’d.
Tinakip dagaynaan Cov’ring me was the cold earth
Dapat bay una kunman and the weeping sky above.
Aba hulin lumbadan But although it be like this,
Kanta nga aldaw masdan a happier day will come.
Hinton di nguna aban Maybe it’ll be coming soon!
Girangon yi rug-usan And what will be happ’ning then?
Ti may pa-oy linyawan The old people weeping, sad,
Kang hulin talisigan in a dark’ning, mourning sky:
I will fin’lly leave behind!

Kawayan sa tumalo Bamboo bush along the stream;

Kawo no kang itudlo If I could show it to you,
Kawo balaw dumayo you would like the glossy gleam.
Hurok nakaburino Beautiful the young shoots too,
Ga panabasan panyo like a headdress cut supreme!

Tagbanwan accounts from

Indic Writings of the Mindoro-Palawan Axis
by Fletcher Gardner and Ildefonso Maliwanag

Marriage Custom
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 Adatit magpangasawa sito amon magsorogidon. Imagkasawa na moganait bandi
ama. Iirog mi na mangasawa ako na. Imangasawa ono ari pangasawaan mo nga
duwan pulo may lima, mapanisan ni lana kaiyani. Adat namon.

The custom of marriage among us will be discussed. The man

about to marry gives money, (tells) father, "I wish to marry now."
If you marry, (give) whom you will marry twenty and five pesos,
wipe on hands oil. That's our custom.

Kinship

solsog / nagtasan / nagduwa / si ina / si ama / inao ko / amayan / apo ko / aka ko / ali
ko / kamana ko / anak ko

sibling / cousin / second cousin / the mother / the father /

my aunt / uncle / my grandchild / my older sibling / my
younger sibling / my relative / my child

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/living/living.htm from http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/default.htm

26
 http://iloko.tripod.com/Hanunoo.html from http://iloko.tripod.com/scripts.html

There may have been a time long ago when these people were culturally close to the Tagalogs. Isolation and different
influences could have made the Tagalogs, Buhids, Hanunóos, and Tagbanwas develop along divergent cultural paths.

There is new evidence (the Laguna Copperplate Inscription) that ancient Philippines may have been more politically united
than was the case when the Spaniards came, that linked settlements rather than independent barangays were the norm, and
that material culture was at a higher level than at the time of contact with the West. But like Mycenaean Greece which
degenerated into independent city-states, some unknown event caused the breakup of the older Philippine civilization into
independent barangays. Greece eventually bounced back and reinvented most of her material culture, developing into the
classical Greece that we know of. The Philippines was on its way to new levels of cultural development when Western
civilization intervened.

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/living/living.htm from http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/default.htm

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Computer Fonts, Living Scripts

Fonts for the Buhid, Hanunóo, and Tagbanwa scripts still used in the
Philippines are available. They come in two styles each based on actual
historical and stylistic samples.

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/misc/livfonts.htm from http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/living/living.htm from

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/literacy/literacy.htm from http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/default.htm ( The Philippine Leaf )

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29
 Variants of the Alibata Script
Baybayin Lopez (1620)
This font is based on the typeface of the Ilkoano book, Libro a naisurátan amin ti bagás ti Doctrina Cristiana…
written by Francisco Lopez in 1620 but bearing the publishing date of 1621. It also appeared in two earlier
Tagalog books, Arte y reglas de la lengua Tagala (1610) by Francisco Blancas de San Jose and Vocabulario de
lengua Tagala (1613) by Pedro de San Buenaventura. Lopez also used this font in his Arte de la lengua yloca
of 1627. There are at least two versions of this typeface. This version was most likely hand-traced. The 1895
reprint of the Ilokano Doctrina shows a more compact version with exaggerated curves and loops. Lopez
introduced his “reformed” spelling with this typeface in 1621 but it did not succeed. This was the only
typeface to include his + kudlit while the baybayin script was still in common use among Filipinos.
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/fonts.htm and http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm

Bikol Mintz (1835)

Bikol Mintz is modelled after the cover art on the Bikol-English Dictionary (1985) by Malcolm Warren Mintz &
José Del Rosario Britanico. It’s source was an 1835 table of “Ancient characters with which these natives of
the Tagalogs and Camarines used to write” (Carácteres antíguos con los que escribian estos Naturales del
Tagalog y Camarínes), from the Pascual Enrile collection 18 of the Biblioteca del Museo Naval in Madrid. (ms.
2287, doc. 32:214-214v.) Many thanks go to Dr. Mintz for providing the source information for this font.
Ancient Bikolanos called the baybayin basahan and the characters were called guhit. The V shaped vowel
kudlíts were called kaholowan and they were placed beside the letters (to the left for the e and i vowels and
30
to the right for o and u) instead of above and below. According to Marcos de Lisboa (1628), the people of
Bikol wrote vertically from the bottom upwards but the 1835 document showed horizontal writing that flowed
from left to right. This font only allows for placing the kudlits above or below the characters but they can be
moved to other positions in a drawing programme. Notice that there is a special character for Ra, and the
Spanish + shaped kudlít has been added to this font.
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/fonts.htm and http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm

Bisaya Hervás (1787)

Bisaya Hervás is based on a typeface that appeared in 1787 in an Italian work by Lorenzo Hervás y Pandura,
Saggio prattico delle lingue… (Practical examples of languages with prologues and a collection of the Lord’s
prayer in over 300 languages and dialects). Because this book was not written specifically about the
Philippines or Philippine languages, I believe that the type style is taken from an earlier source. It most
closely resembles Ezguerra’s typeface of 1663 in his Arte de la lengua Bisaya en la provincia de Leyte. The
samples used to create this font are from two Austrian books that reproduced Cebuano text in this baybayin
style, Illustrirte Geschichte der Schrift (The Illustrated History of Writing) by Karl Faulman, 1880 and
Sprachenhalle (Hall of Languages) by Alois Auer, 1847.
Although the Spanish + shaped kudlít was not used in these documents, it is available in this font. There was
also no letter for Wa; the U/O character was used instead. The R sound was represented by the letter Da in
Bisayan words and the La character was used for Spanish words. Many thanks go to Mr. Wolfgang Kuhl for
providing scans of these documents and some source infromation.
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/fonts.htm and http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm

Ilocano Paterno (see “Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas” )

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#variant
Kapampangan Paterno (see “Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas”)
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#variant

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Panggasinan Paterno (see “Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas”)
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#variant

Tagalog Paterno (see “Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas”)

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#variant

Tagalog Stylized (1992)

Tagalog Stylized is a modern composite of many examples from the past. It is based primarily, though
loosely, on what was my first acquaintance with the baybayin, an excerpt from Lope K. Santos’ Balarilà,
1946. His script resembles one found in Fr. Gaspar de San Agustin’s Compendio de la Lengua tagala, 1703.
This present font should not be considered a historically accurate example of the baybayin. The characters’
shapes, sizes and weights have been made uniform in order to present a neat and elegant printed
appearance. http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/fonts.htm

OTHER BAYBAYIN VARIANTS

Batangas (Comintang)
- see “Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas”
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm from http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#variant

(?) Riedel’s – the language used for this variant is still unknown.
http://alibataatpandesal.com/pilipino.html from http://alibataatpandesal.com/examples.html

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Variants of the Bisaya Script
Hervás (1787)
Bisaya Hervás is based on a typeface that appeared in 1787 in an Italian work by Lorenzo Hervás y
Pandura, Saggio prattico delle lingue…http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/fonts.htm and
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm

Méntrida (1637)
From Alonso de Méntrida’s Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiligayna de la isla de Panay, 1637. Méntrida’s font has
been listed in some charts as the Visayan alphabet. However, like other early Spanish writers, Méntrida
considered all the variant letter shapes to be part of one Philippine script. He wrote the following about his
typeface:
It is to be noted that our Bisayans have some letters with different shapes, which I place here; but even
they themselves do not agree on the shapes of their letters; for this reason, and because of the limited types
available, I have shown the characters according to the Tagalogs.
This sample was taken from the web site Promotora Española de Lingüistica. It was probably based on a
chart by Juan R. Francisco in his work “Philippine Palaeography” in the Philippine Journal of Linguistics,
special monograph 3, 1973. His chart, in turn, was based on examples in a book by Pardo de Tavera,
Contribución para el estudio de los antiguos alfabetos filipinos. (1884)
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm

Bisaya Paterno (see “Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas”)

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm from http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm#variant

33
8.) Baybayin Historical Samples

Paterno’s Chart

34
About Paterno’s Chart:

Paterno’s Cuadro Paleografico de las Islas Filipinas

This is an example of the kind of charts that were assembled in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It shows
various samples of the baybayin from earlier sources. The Tagalog (en general) is from Pedro Chirino’s
Relación de las islas Filipinas of 1604. The other samples from Luzon were collected by Sinibaldo de Mas from
handwritten sources and published in Informe sobre el estado de las islas Filipinas en 1842 (1843). (See
Baybayin Styles.)

However, these samples of baybayin writing are listed here under the heading Alfabeto de..., implying that
each sample is a distinct alphabet belonging to a certain region or people. The chart further reinforces this
misinterpretation by comparing the baybayin samples to scripts from nearby islands and other totally
unrelated alphabets such as Hebrew and Arabic. Unfortunately, later historians reproduced these charts in
their books without questioning the original source of each sample. The early Spanish writers are unanimous
in reporting that there was only one “alphabet” in the Philippines when they arrived. (See Baybayin
Variants.)

This particular chart by Pedro Paterno was scanned from Philippine Saga: a pictorial history of the
archipelago by H. Otley Beyer and Jaime C. de Veyra (1947). It was translated and reproduced in Eufronio M.
Alip’s high school textbook entitled Political and Cultural History of the Philippines (Vol. 1, 1950). It is
probably the most copied source for examples of supposedly regional Philippine “alphabets”. This image was
provided by Charity Beyer Bagatsing. http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm

35
 Baybayin Styles & Their Sources

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm from http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

36
Baybayin Lopez

37
 The Lord’s Prayer from the Doctrina Christiana, 1593

The first book printed in the Philippines.

On the left is the prayer as it was written in 1593. On the right, it has been transcribed into the modern
alphabet. The blue letters show the consonants that were not written on the left.

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/lordpray.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/transcrp.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

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A Fragment of the Ilocano Lord’s Prayer, 1620,
including an Introduction of the 1621 Dotrina
Cristiana.

Courtesy of Paul Morrow - E-mail

pmorrow@escape.ca -
http://www.escape.ca/~pmorrow
Contributed by Wolfgang Kuhl - E-mail
WKuhl44238@aol.com

Main source:
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-
ilocano-baybayin.html

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 The Lord’s Prayer in Sugbuhanon a.k.a. Cebuano

Transcription Text
1 Amahan namu nga itotat ka sa langit | ipapagdayag ang
2 imong ngalan | moanhi kanamun ang imong pagkahadi | tumanun ang
3 imong huot dinhi sa huta (yuta) maingun sa langit | Ihatagmo damun ang
4 kanun namun sa matag adlao | ug pauadunmo kami san manga-sala namu
5 maingun ginuara namun sa manga nakasala damun ngan gira (dili) imo
6 tugotan kama (kami) maholog sa manga panulai sa amun manga kaauai |
7 apan bauiun mo kami sa manga maraut ngatanan. Amin

Source: Karl Faulmann, Illustrirte Geschichte der Schrift, Wien 1880

”Illustrated History of Writing”, Vienna 1880.
(Line numbers added by the author of this web page.)

This book shares its source with an earlier work by Lorenzo Hervás y Pandura, Saggio
prattico delle lingue con prolegomeni e una raccolta di Orazioni Domincale in più di trecento
40
 lingue e dialetti (Practical examples of languages with prologues and a collection of the
Lord’s prayer in over 300 languages and dialects), 1787. The ultimate source is unknown to
the author of this web page.
Contributed by Wolfgang Kuhl

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/amahan.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/transcrp.htm from
http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

9.) Related Links

A Philippine Leaf by Hector Santos. The first web site about the baybayin on the Internet. It also covers the Living scripts of
Mindoro and Palawan, the Laguna Copperplate Inscription of 900 C.E. and many other areas of ancient Philippine history.

Ating Baybayin - Our Filipino Script by Victor Quimson. A really clever site with Victor's own Baybayin Online Translator. You
just type in a word and the programme will transcribe and display the word in either the original baybayin or the modified Spanish
baybayin. Incidentally, my Tagalog Stylized font is used throughout Victor's site.

Baybayin.com. A great website by Christian Cabuay with lots of information about the current state of baybayin usage in Filipino
culture. He also offers his own online baybayin transcriber.

Pinoy Tattoos.com Another web site by Christian Cabuay devoted to, you guessed it, Pinoy Tattoos!

Malaya Designs is Ray Haguisan's company. He makes beautiful and wearable baybayin art.

Suku Art. by Christine Balza makes baybayin art in stone, silver, glass and ceramics.

Filipino Tattoos.com is tattoo artist Aleks Figueroa's web site. It has a large gallery of baybayin and other Filipino tattoo art as well
as advice for people who want to get a tattoo.

Nordenx. Norman del Santos is a digital artist, font designer and game programmer. Explore all his projects and websites from his
blog page.

Doctrina Christiana, 1593. The Project Gutenburg online edition of the first book ever printed in the Philippines. It contains the
oldest known example of baybayin writing in existence.
41
Reflections of Asia sells some books about the baybayin. If you are really interested in the baybayin, the best deal is the facsimile
of the entire Doctrina Christiana of 1593. This is the earliest surviving example of baybayin writing. You will learn a lot and the
book is very reasonably priced.

Urduja.com by Mary Ann Ubaldo, sells beautiful custom made Baybayin jewellery on-line. Read about her in a Philippine Daily
Inquirer article and check out her Flash presentation called Baybayin and the Atom

Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources. Unicode and Multilingual Support in HTML, Fonts, Web Browsers and Other Applications.

Omniglot is fascinating site by Simon Ager about scripts from all over the world.

Travel Phrases by David Mc Creedy is a site devoted to four basic phrases that every traveller should know. David is collecting
these phrases in every possible language and written script. Unicode fonts are also available at this site.

Ancient Philippine Scripts by Dr. Carl Rubino, a linguist and author of Tagalog and Ilokano dictionaries. Here the baybayin is
viewed from an Ilokano's point of view.

Alfabetos de Ayer y de Hoy at PROEL is a Spanish web page with many examples of the baybayin.

The Travelling Tattoo Artist is an article by Elz Cuya about Aleks Figueroa's baybayin tattoo creations.

Teaching ABCs the alibata way is an article by Tina G. Santos that was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in which she
interviewed Raymond M. Cosare of Far Eastern University. In the article Cosare provided many insights about baybayin writing –
most of them were copied directly from my web article, Baybayin, The Ancient Script of the Philippines. See this alternate link if
the first link is dead: Teaching alibata

Missing attributions a disservice to scholarship is my letter to the editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer concerning the plagiarism
in the PDI article listed above.

Baybayin, The Ancient Script of the Philippines is the main baybayin article. It covers the history and describes the script. In
English and Filipino

How to write the Ancient Script of the Philippines is also in English and Filipino.

42
How do I write my name in baybayin? This page offers strategies for writing difficult non-Filipino words and names in the
baybayin script.

Baybayin Styles & Their Sources shows many different forms of the baybayin and tells where they originated.

The Baybayin as Written by Filipinos is a chart by William Henry Scott that shows the wide variety of Tagalog handwriting styles
in the 1600s.

Cuadro Paleografico is a chart drawn up in 1892 (?) by Pedro Paterno. It has been misinterpreted in several books as a chart of
distinct alphabets instead of just variations in handwriting.

Baybayin Transcriptions Examples of 16th and 17th century baybayin documents from the three major language groups of the
Philippines are transcribed into the modern alphabet.

Down Load Baybayin Fonts Free! Four baybayin typefaces available in TrueType format for both IBM and Macintosh computers
and in PostScript Type 1 format. They are all free.

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