One of
the priceless and historically important writing system in the Philippines that
is worth saving is the Baybayin. This
unique treasure shows that the Filipino people already had a thriving literate
and intellectual culture even before the Spanish came.
Baybayin
or Sulat Baybayin is a Tagalog alphabet system used by native Filipinos. It is an ancient Philippine script derived
from Brahmic scripts of India and first recorded in the 16th century. It continued to be used during the Spanish
colonization of the Philippines up until the late 19th century. The alphabet is
well known because it was carefully documented by Catholic clergy living in the
Philippines during the colonial era.
The term
baybay literally means "to spell" in Tagalog. Baybayin was extensively
documented by the Spaniards. Some have
incorrectly attributed the name Alibata to it, by Paul RodrÃguez Verzosa.
Other
Brahmic scripts used currently among different ethnic groups in the Philippines
are the Buhid, Hanunó'o, Kulitan and Tagbanwa.
However, if one will compare the scripts in the various alphabet system
in the different ethnic groups in the Philippines, one will see the almost similarity
of most of the characters used.
Baybayin
is one of a number of individual writing systems used in Southeast Asia, nearly
all of which are abugidas where any consonant is pronounced with the inherent
vowel “a” following it—diacritics being used to express other vowels (this
vowel occurs with greatest frequency in Sanskrit, and also probably in all
Philippine languages). Many of these writing systems descended from ancient
alphabets used in India over 2000 years ago. Although Baybayin does share some
similarities with these ancient alphabets, there is no evidence that it is this old nor is
there evidence that it is recent.
The
Archives of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, one of the largest
archives in the Philippines, currently possesses the biggest collection of
extant ancient Baybayin alphabets in the world.
A Baybayin
bill, House Bill no.4395 and Senate Bill 1899, which is also known as the
National Script Act of 2011, has been filed in the 15th Congress since 2011. It
was refiled in the 17th Congress of the Philippines through Senate Bill 433 in
2016. It aims to declare Baybayin as the national script of the Philippines.
The bill mandates to put a Baybayin translation under all business and
government logos. It also mandates all primary and secondary schools to teach
Baybayin to their students, a move that would save the ancient script from pure
extinction and revitalize the indigenous writing roots of Filipinos. The
writing system being pursued by the bill is a modernized version of the
Baybayin which incorporates the common segments of numerous indigenous writing forms
throughout the country. The system is a more nationalistic approach due to its
comprehensive range, contrary to reports saying the bill will create further
regionalism or cultural disintegration.
With
this, it is encouraged that Baybayin be practiced and taught in schools, inspire
some people to specialize on it and create a way to incorporate this unique
Filipino heritage in Philippine art and culture in order to preserve this very
important ancient alphabet system.
Sample Exercises on How to Write the Baybayin:
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