Baybayin is an indigenous Indic script that has been widely used in traditional Tagalog domains. There were many variants of Babayin and the script continued to be used during the early part of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines until largely being supplanted by usage of the Latin alphabet.
Background:
- Can Mean "to spell" or "to write" (NOUN) or "to go to the shore/coast" (VERB)
- Used by pre-colonial Filipinos (Tagalog's)
- Diacritic are used in order to indicate vowels (a sign e.g. accent, cedilla above or below a letter to indicate different pronunciation from the same letter when unmarked or differently marked.
- It's syllabic - Words are created phonetically.
- It was used to write short writings like poems and announcements on organic materials such as bamboo or pots.
- Scripts that include Baybayin and other native scribes were destroyed by Spanish missionaries when they were converting the country to Catholicism.
- BUT - missionaries had to learn Baybayin first in order to spread the Spanish language and Catholicism – "Doctriana Christiana" written in Spanish and baybayin and was of the earliest books to be produced in the Philippines and one fo the last to have Baybayin script used within it.
- Natural development and desire for more power and knowledge added to the gradual lose of Baybayin with colonisation from Spain.
- Its origins are not specific and no history of it was made.
- Origin theories
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| origin theories |
(Doctrina Christiana)
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| Baybayin: Ancient Script of the Philippines: A Concise Manual |
The origin theories aren't very detailed nor is there even some kind of "sureness" it . They are also very vague which isn't very helpful. It may be because most of record noting in the pre-colonial era in Philippines were written on natural materials like bamboo or clay pots which degrade after a period of time or is affected by the weather directly which is why they were never retrieved or 'made' in the first place.
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| Baybayin Alphabet |
Practising Writing Baybayin
- Pre Spanish 'style' - in original form of baybayin standalone consonant with no vowel ending aren't written to avoid confusion, therefore it relies on the reader to fill in the consonant through context.
- It's difficult to learn and understand for the Spanish missionaries, so Fr. Francisco Lopez (1620 - Vocabulario de la lengua Ilocana) added 'kudlits' (accent, mark below or above a character) to cancel the 'a' on the character and for it to be used as a standalone consonant). * + 'kudlit' is used in reference to Christianity.
- 14 consonants in total
- 5 vowel sounds (a/e/i/o/u)
- It is written in a continuous flow, the only punctuation used are (/) for a comma and (//) for a period.
- only works accurately with pure Tagalog words (English words have sounds that isn't translatable with Baybayin)
- If I write in Baybayin, I will be using the Tagalog translation for accuracy, however I will always put English translations for understanding.
Examples
Sources:
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3020851/baybayin-ancient-philippine-written-script-making-comeback
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Learn-how-to-type-write-and-read-baybayin
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Learn-how-to-type-write-and-read-baybayin
https://youtu.be/ddghRtW9LpE
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