Baybayin -- The Ancient Filipino Alphabet

            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 Rodríguez 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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