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(, ''pre-kudlít'': , ''virama-krus-kudlít'': , ''virama-pamudpod'': ; also formerly commonly incorrectly known as alibata) is a Philippine script. The
script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...
is an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel n ...
belonging to the family of the
Brahmic scripts The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient Ind ...
. Geographically, it was widely used in
Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...
and other parts of the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
prior to and during the 16th and 17th centuries before being replaced by the
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
during the period of Spanish colonization. It was used in the
Tagalog language Tagalog (, ; ; '' Baybayin'': ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its standardized form, ...
and, to a lesser extent,
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
-speaking areas; its use spread to the Ilocanos in the early 17th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, survived and evolved into multiple forms—the
Tagbanwa script Tagbanwa is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines, used by the Tagbanwa and the Palawan people as their ethnic writing system. The Tagbanwa languages (Aborlan, Calamian and Central), which are Austronesian languages with about 25,000 ...
of
Palawan Palawan (), officially the Province of Palawan ( cyo, Probinsya i'ang Palawan; tl, Lalawigan ng Palawan), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in t ...
, and the Hanuno'o and
Buhid script Surat Buhid is an Abugida used to write the Buhid language. As a Brahmic script indigenous to the Philippines, it closely related to Baybayin and Hanunó'o. It is still used today by the Mangyans, found mainly on island of Mindoro, to write the ...
s of
Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ) and has a population of 1,408,454 as of 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of Luz ...
—and was used to create the constructed modern
Kulitan script Kulitan (Spanish: ''cúlitan''), also known as súlat Kapampángan and pamagkulit, is one of the various indigenous suyat writing systems in the Philippines. It was used for writing Kapampangan, a language mainly spoken in Central Luzon, until it ...
of the
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
and the Ibalnan script of the
Palawan people The Palawan tribal people, also known as the Palawano or the Palaw'an, are an indigenous ethnic group of the Palawan group of islands in the Philippines. Palawanos are more popularly known as Palawans, which is pronounced faster than the name of ...
. Under the
Unicode Standard Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, whic ...
and ISO 15924, the script is encoded as the Tagalog block. The
Archives of the University of Santo Tomas The Archives of the University of Santo Tomas (AUST), also known in Spanish as the ''Archivo de la Universidad de Santo Tomas'', is located at the Miguel de Benavides Library in Manila. The AUST is the central repository of historical and rare do ...
in Manila, one of the largest archives in the Philippines, currently possesses the world's biggest collection of ancient writings in . The chambers which house the writings are part of a tentative nomination to
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
that is still being deliberated on, along with the entire campus of the
University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (also known as UST and officially as the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila) is a private, Catholic research university in Manila, Philippines. Founded on April 28, 1611, by Spanish friar Migue ...
. Despite being primarily a historic script, the script has seen some revival in the modern Philippines. It is often used in the insignia of
government agencies A government or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, such as an administratio ...
and books are frequently published either partially or fully, in . Bills to require its use in certain cases and instruction in schools have been repeatedly considered by the
Congress of the Philippines The Congress of the Philippines ( fil, Kongreso ng Pilipinas, italic=unset) is the legislature of the national government of the Philippines. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, although colloquially the te ...
. For modern computers and typing, characters are in the
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) and were first proposed for encoding in 1998 by
Michael Everson Michael Everson (born January 9, 1963) is an American and Irish linguist, script encoder, typesetter, type designer and publisher. He runs a publishing company called Evertype, through which he has published over a hundred books since 2006. H ...
together with three other known indigenous scripts of the Philippines.


Terminology

The term means "to write" or "to spell (syllabize)" in Tagalog. The entry for "ABC's" (i.e., the alphabet) in San Buenaventura's ''Vocabulary of the Tagalog language'' (1613) was translated as ("", ). The word is also occasionally used to refer to the other indigenous writing systems of the Philippines, such as the Buhid, Hanunó'o, Tagbanwa, and
Kulitan Kulitan (Spanish: ''cúlitan''), also known as súlat Kapampángan and pamagkulit, is one of the various indigenous suyat writing systems in the Philippines. It was used for writing Kapampangan, a language mainly spoken in Central Luzon, until it ...
scripts, among others. Cultural organizations such as Sanghabi and the Heritage Conservation Society recommend that the collection of distinct scripts used by various indigenous groups in the Philippines, including ', ''iniskaya'', ''kirim jawi'', and ''batang-arab'' be called '' suyat'', which is a neutral
collective noun In linguistics, a collective noun is a word referring to a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing. For example, the collective noun "group" can be applied to people (" ...
for referring to any pre-Hispanic Philippine script. is occasionally referred to as ''alibata'', a neologism coined by Paul Rodríguez Verzosa in 1914, after the first three letters of the Arabic script (, , ; the ''f'' in ''ʾalif'' having been dropped for
euphony Phonaesthetics (also spelled phonesthetics in North America) is the study of beauty and pleasantness associated with the sounds of certain words or parts of words. The term was first used in this sense, perhaps by during the mid-20th century and ...
's sake), presumably under the erroneous assumption that was derived from it. Most modern scholars reject the use of the word ''alibata'' as incorrect. In modern times, has been called ''badlit, kudlít-kabadlit'' by the
Visayans Visayans ( Visayan: ''mga Bisaya''; ) or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. When taken as a single ethnic group ...
, ''kurditan'', ''kur-itan'' by the Ilocanos, and ''basahan'' by the Bicolanos.


Origins

The origins of are disputed and multiple theories exist as to its origin.


Influence of Greater India

Historically
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...
was under the influence of
Ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...
, where numerous Indianized principalities and empires flourished for several centuries in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam. The influence of Indian culture into these areas was given the term ''Indianization''. French archaeologist George Coedes defined it as the expansion of an organized culture that was framed upon Indian originations of royalty, Hinduism and Buddhism and the sanskritization, Sanskrit language. This can be seen in the Indianization of Southeast Asia, Hinduism in Southeast Asia and the spread of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Indian honorifics also influenced the Malay styles and titles, Malay, Thai royal ranks and titles, Thai, Filipino styles and honorifics, Filipino and Indonesian names#Honorifics, Indonesian honorifics. Examples of these include raja, rani, maharlika, and datu, which were transmitted from Indian culture to Philippines via Malays (ethnic group), Malays and the Srivijaya empire. Indian Hindu colonists played a key role as professionals, traders, priests and warriors. Inscriptions have proved that the earliest Indian colonists who settled in Champa and the Malay archipelago, came from the Pallava dynasty, as they brought with them their Pallava script. The earliest inscriptions in Java exactly match the Pallava script. In the first stage of adoption of Indian scripts, inscriptions were made locally in Languages of India, Indian languages. In the second stage, the scripts were used to write the local Southeast Asian languages. In the third stage, local varieties of the scripts were developed. By the 8th century, the scripts had diverged and separated into regional scripts. Isaac Taylor (canon), Isaac Taylor sought to show that was introduced into the Philippines from the Bengal, Coast of Bengal sometime before the 8th century. In attempting to show such a relationship, Taylor presented graphic representations of Kistna and Assam letters like g, k, ng, t, m, h, and u, which resemble the same letters in . Fletcher Gardner argued that the Philippine scripts have "very great similarity" with the Brahmi script, which was supported by Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, T. H. Pardo de Tavera. According to Christopher Miller, evidence seems strong for to be ultimately of Gujarati script, Gujarati origin; however, Philippine and Gujarati languages have final consonants, so it is unlikely that their indication would have been dropped had been based directly on a Gujarati model.


South Sulawesi scripts

David Diringer, accepting the view that the scripts of the Malay archipelago originate in India, writes that the South Sulawesi scripts derive from the Kawi script, probably through the medium of the Batak script of Sumatra. The Philippine scripts, according to Diringer, were possibly brought to the Philippines through the Buginese script, Buginese characters in Sulawesi. According to Scott, 's immediate ancestor was very likely a South Sulawesi script, probably Makasar script, Old Makassar or a close ancestor. This is because of the lack of final consonants or Virama, vowel canceller markers in . South Sulawesi languages have a restricted inventory of syllable-final consonants and do not represent them in the Bugi (script), Bugis and Makasar script, Makassar scripts. The most likely explanation for the absence of final consonant markers in is therefore that its direct ancestor was a South Sulawesi script. Sulawesi lies directly to the south of the Philippines and there is evidence of trade routes between the two. must therefore have been developed in the Philippines in the fifteenth century CE as the Bugis-Makassar script was developed in South Sulawesi no earlier than 1400 CE.


Kawi script

The Kawi script originated in Java (island), Java, descending from the Pallava script, and was used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription is the earliest known written document found in the Philippines. It is a legal document with the inscribed date of Saka era 822, corresponding to 21 April 900 AD. It was written in the Kawi script in a variety of Old Malay containing numerous loanwords from Sanskrit and a few non-Malay vocabulary elements whose origin is ambiguous between Old Javanese and Old Tagalog. A second example of Kawi script can be seen on the Butuan Ivory Seal, found in the 1970s and dated between the 9th and 12th century. It is an ancient seal made of ivory that was found in an archaeological site in Butuan. The seal has been declared as a national cultural treasure. The seal is inscribed with the word ''Butwan'' in stylized Kawi. The ivory seal is now housed at the National Museum of the Philippines. One hypothesis therefore reasons that, since Kawi is the earliest attestation of writing in the Philippines, then may have descended from Kawi.


Cham script

could have been introduced to the Philippines by maritime connections with the Champa, Champa Kingdom. Geoff Wade has argued that the characters "ga", "nga", "pa", "ma", "ya" and "sa" display characteristics that can be best explained by linking them to the Cham script, rather than other Indic abugidas. seems to be more related to southeast Asian scripts than to Kawi script. Wade argues that the Laguna Copperplate Inscription is not definitive proof for a Kawi origin of , as the inscription displays final consonants, which does not.


History

From the material that is available, it is clear that was used in Luzon, Palawan, Mindoro, Pangasinan, Ilocos, Panay, Leyte and Iloilo, but there is no proof supporting that reached Mindanao. It seems clear that the Luzon and Palawan varieties started to develop in different ways in the 1500s, before the Spaniards conquered what we know today as the Philippines. This puts Luzon and Palawan as the oldest regions where was and is used. It is also notable that the script used in Pampanga had already developed special shapes for four letters by the early 1600s, different from the ones used elsewhere. There were three somewhat distinct varieties of in the late 1500s and 1600s, though they could not be described as three different scripts any more than the different styles of Latin script across medieval or modern Europe with their slightly different sets of letters and spelling systems.


Early history

An earthenware burial jar, called the "Calatagan Pot," found in Calatagan, Batangas, Batangas is inscribed with characters strikingly similar to , and is claimed to have been inscribed ca. 1300 AD. However, its authenticity has not yet been proven. Although one of Ferdinand Magellan's shipmates, Antonio Pigafetta, wrote that the people of Visayas, the Visayas were not literate in 1521, the had already arrived there by 1567 when Miguel López de Legazpi reported from Cebu that, "They [the Visayans] have their letters and characters like those of the Malays (ethnic group), Malays, from whom they learned them; they write them on bamboo bark and palm leaves with a pointed tool, but never is any ancient writing found among them nor word of their origin and arrival in these islands, their customs and rites being preserved by traditions handed down from father to son without any other record." A century later, in 1668, Francisco Ignacio Alcina, Francisco Alcina wrote: "The characters of these natives [Visayans], or, better said, those that have been in use for a few years in these parts, an art which was communicated to them from the Tagalogs, and the latter learned it from the Borneans who came from the great island of Borneo to Manila, with whom they have considerable traffic... From these Borneans the Tagalogs learned their characters, and from them the Visayans, so they call them Moro characters or letters because the Moros taught them... [the Visayans] learned [the Moros'] letters, which many use today, and the women much more than the men, which they write and read more readily than the latter." Francisco de Santa Inés explained in 1676 why writing was more common among women, as "they do not have any other way to while away the time, for it is not customary for little girls to go to school as boys do, they make better use of their characters than men, and they use them in things of devotion, and in other things that are not of devotion." The earliest printed book in a Philippine language, featuring both Tagalog in and transliterated into the Latin script, is the 1593 Doctrina Christiana, ''Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Española y Tagala''. The Tagalog text was based mainly on a manuscript written by Juan de Plasencia, Fr. Juan de Placencia. Friars Domingo de Nieva and Juan de San Pedro Martyr supervised the preparation and printing of the book, which was carried out by an unnamed Chinese artisan. This is the earliest example of that exists today and it is the only example from the 1500s. There is also a series of legal documents containing , preserved in Spanish and Philippine archives that span more than a century: the three oldest, all in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville, are from 1591 and 1599. was noted by the Spanish priest Pedro Chirino in 1604 and Antonio de Morga in 1609 to be known by most Filipinos, and was generally used for personal writings and poetry, among others. However, according to William Henry Scott (historian), William Henry Scott, there were some datus from the 1590s who could not sign affidavits or oaths, and witnesses who could not sign land deeds in the 1620s. In 1620, ''First book of the Spanish Philippines, Libro a naisurátan amin ti bagás ti Doctrina Cristiana'' was written by Fr. Francisco Lopez, an ''Ilocano Doctrina'' the first Ilocano language, Ilocano baybayin, based on the catechism written by Cardinal Belarmine. This is an important moment in the history of , because the krus-kudlít was introduced for the first time, which allowed writing final consonants. He commented the following on his decision: "The reason for putting the text of the Doctrina in Tagalog type... has been to begin the correction of the said Tagalog script, which, as it is, is so defective and confused (because of not having any method until now for expressing final consonants - I mean, those without vowels) that the most learned reader has to stop and ponder over many words to decide on the pronunciation which the writer intended." This krus-kudlít, or virama kudlít, did not catch on among users, however. Native experts were consulted about the new invention and were asked to adopt it and use it in all their writings. After praising the invention and showing gratitude for it, they decided that it could not be accepted into their writing because "It went against the intrinsic properties and nature that God had given their writing and that to use it was tantamount to destroy with one blow all the Syntax, Prosody and Orthography of their Tagalog language." In 1703, was reported to still be in use in the ''Comintan'' (Batangas and Laguna (province), Laguna) and other areas of the Philippines. Among the earliest literature on the orthography of Visayan languages were those of Jesuit priest Ezguerra with his in 1747 and of Mentrida with his in 1818 which primarily discussed Grammar, grammatical structure. Based on the differing sources spanning centuries, the documented syllabary, syllabaries also differed in form. The Ticao stone inscription, also known as the Monreal Stones, Monreal stone or Rizal stone, is a limestone tablet that contains characters. Found by pupils of Rizal Elementary School on Ticao Island in Monreal town, Masbate, which had scraped the mud off their shoes and Flip-flops, slippers on two irregular shaped limestone tablets before entering their classroom, they are now housed at a section of the National Museum of the Philippines, which weighs 30 kilos, is 11 centimeters thick, 54 cm long and 44 cm wide while the other is 6 cm thick, 20 cm long and 18 cm wide.


Decline

The confusion over vowels (i/e and o/u) and final consonants, missing letters for Spanish phonology, Spanish sounds and the prestige of Spanish culture and writing may have contributed to the demise of over time, as eventually fell out of use in much of the Philippines. Learning the Latin alphabet also helped Filipinos to make socioeconomic progress under History of the Philippines (1565–1898), Spanish rule, as they could rise to relatively prestigious positions such as clerks, scribes and secretaries. By 1745, wrote in his ''Arte de la lengua tagala'' that "The Indian [Filipino] who knows how to read [] is now rare, and rarer still is one who knows how to write []. They now all read and write in our Castilian letters [Latin alphabet]." Between 1751 and 1754, Juan José Delgado wrote that "the [native] men devoted themselves to the use of our [Latin] writing". The complete absence of pre-Hispanic specimens of usage of the script has led to a common misconception that fanatical Spanish priests must have burned or destroyed massive amounts of native documents. One of the scholars who proposed this theory is the anthropologist and historian H. Otley Beyer who 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 no one has verified the name of the said priest. There is no Direct evidence, direct documentary evidence of substantial destruction of native pre-Hispanic documents by Spanish missionaries, and modern scholars such as Paul Morrow and Hector Santos have accordingly rejected Beyer's suggestions. In particular, Santos suggested that only the occasional short documents of incantations, curses and spells that were deemed evil were possibly burned by the Spanish friars, and that the early missionaries only carried out the destruction of Christian manuscripts that were not acceptable to the Church. Santos rejected the idea that ancient pre-Hispanic manuscripts were systematically burned. Morrow also noted that there are no recorded instances of ancient Filipinos writing on scrolls, and that the most likely reason why no pre-Hispanic documents survived is because they wrote on perishable materials such as leaves and bamboo. He also added that it is also arguable that Spanish friars actually helped to preserve by documenting and continuing its use even after it had been abandoned by most Filipinos. The scholar Isaac Donoso claims that the documents written in the native language and in the native script (particularly ) played a significant role in the judicial and legal life of the colony and noted that many colonial-era documents written in are still present in some repositories, including the library of the University of Santo Tomas.: "What is important to us is the relevant activity during these centuries to study, write and even print in Baybayin. And this task is not strange in other regions of the Spanish Empire. In fact indigenous documents placed a significant role in the judicial and legal life of the colonies. Documents in other language than Spanish were legally considered, and Pedro de Castro says that "I have seen in the archives of Lipa and Batangas many documents with these characters". Nowadays we can find Baybayin documents in some repositories, including the oldest library in the country, the University of Santo Tomás." He also noted that the early Spanish missionaries did not suppress the usage of the script but instead may have even promoted it as a measure to stop Islamization, since the Tagalog language was moving from to Jawi script, Jawi, the Arabized script of Islamized Southeast Asian societies. While there were recorded at least two records of burning of Tagalog booklets of magic formulae during the early Spanish colonial period, scholar Jean Paul-Potet (2017) also commented that these booklets were written in Latin characters and not in the native script. There are also no reports of Tagalog written scriptures, as they kept their theological knowledge unwritten and in oral form while reserving the use of the script for secular purposes and talismans.


Modern descendants

The only surviving modern scripts that descended directly from the original script through natural development are the
Tagbanwa script Tagbanwa is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines, used by the Tagbanwa and the Palawan people as their ethnic writing system. The Tagbanwa languages (Aborlan, Calamian and Central), which are Austronesian languages with about 25,000 ...
inherited from the Tagbanwa people by the
Palawan people The Palawan tribal people, also known as the Palawano or the Palaw'an, are an indigenous ethnic group of the Palawan group of islands in the Philippines. Palawanos are more popularly known as Palawans, which is pronounced faster than the name of ...
and named Tagbanwa script#Ibalnan, Ibalnan, the
Buhid script Surat Buhid is an Abugida used to write the Buhid language. As a Brahmic script indigenous to the Philippines, it closely related to Baybayin and Hanunó'o. It is still used today by the Mangyans, found mainly on island of Mindoro, to write the ...
and the Hanunuo script, Hanunóo script in
Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ) and has a population of 1,408,454 as of 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of Luz ...
. Old Kapampangan, the precolonial Indic script used to write
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
, has been Spelling reform, reformed in recent decades into the modern Kulitan, Kulitan script and now employs consonant stacking.


Characteristics

is an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel n ...
(alphasyllabary), which means that it makes use of consonant-vowel combinations. Each character or ''titik'', written in its basic form, is a consonant ending with the vowel "A". To produce consonants ending with other vowel sounds, a mark called a ''kudlít'' is placed either above the character (to produce an "E" or "I" sound) or below the character (to produce an "O" or "U" sound). To write words beginning with a vowel, three characters are used, one each for ''A'', ''E/I'' and ''O/U''.


Characters

Note that the second to last row features the pamudpod virama " ᜕" (U+1715), which was introduced by Antoon Postma to the Hanunuo script. The last row of clusters with the krus-kudlít virama "+", were an addition to the original script, introduced by the Spanish priest Francisco Lopez in 1620. There is only one symbol or character for Da or Ra as they were allophones in many languages of the Philippines, where Ra occurred in intervocalic positions and Da occurred elsewhere. The grammatical rule has survived in modern Filipino, so that when a d is between two vowels, it becomes an r, as in the words ''dangál'' (honour) and ''marangál'' (honourable), or ''dunong'' (knowledge) and ''marunong'' (knowledgeable), and even ''raw'' for ''daw'' (he said, she said, they said, it was said, allegedly, reportedly, supposedly) and ''rin'' for ''din'' (also, too) after vowels. However, script variants like Sambal, Basahan, and Ibalnan, to name a few, have separate symbols for Da and Ra. The same symbol is also used to represent the Pa and Fa (or Pha), Ba and Va, and Sa and Za which were also allophonic. A single character represented nga. The current version of the Filipino alphabet still retains "ng" as a digraph (orthography), digraph. Beside these phonetic considerations, the script is monocameral and does not use letter case for distinguishing proper names or initials of words starting sentences. File:Surat guhit (basahan).jpg, The ''surat guhit'' (basahan) of the Bikol region. File:Abakada tagalog.png, The Abakada alphabet, abakada in the Old Tagalog, Tagalog script. File:Ayasib2.jpg, Various ''badlit'' styles. File:Kulitan.svg, The word kulitan in Kulitan alphabet, Modern Kulitan. File:Buhid urukay.jpg, Buhid urukay, from Violeta B. Lopez's book ''The Mangyan of Mindoro''. File:Mayadpagyabi.jpg, ''Mayad pagyabi'' (good morning), written in Hanunuo script using the ''b17'' and ''b17x'' methods respectively. File:Ma symbol baybayin.jpg, Every variant has letters with stylistic variants, just as the Q#Typography, tail of the letter can be written in different ways.


''Virama kudlít'' (''krus-kudlít'')

The original writing method was particularly difficult for the Spanish priests who were translating books into the Philippine languages, vernaculars, because originally omitted the final consonant without a vowel. This could cause confusion for readers over which word or pronunciation a writer originally intended. For example, 'bundok' (mountain) would have been spelled as 'bu-du', with the final consonants of each syllable omitted. Because of this, Francisco López introduced his own kudlít in 1620, called a ''sabat'' or ''krus'', that cancelled the implicit ''a'' vowel sound and which allowed a final consonant to be written. The kudlít was in the form of a "+" sign, in reference to Christianity. This cross-shaped kudlít functions exactly the same as the ''virama'' in many other
Brahmic scripts The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient Ind ...
. In fact, Unicode calls this kudlít "tagalog sign virama". ()


''Virama pamudpod''

The pamudpod () is part of the Hanunuo script and functions as a virama. As of Unicode 14.0, a separate pamudpod for the Baybayin script () is encoded in the Tagalog (Unicode block), Tagalog Unicode block.


Punctuation and spacing

originally used only one punctuation mark (), which was called ''Bantasán''. Today uses two punctuation marks, the Philippine single () punctuation, acting as a comma or verse splitter in poetry, and the double punctuation (), acting as a period or end of paragraph. These punctuation marks are similar to single and double danda signs in other Indic Abugidas and may be presented vertically like Indic dandas, or slanted like forward slashes. The signs are unified across Philippines scripts and were encoded by Unicode in the Hanunoo alphabet, Hanunóo script block. Space separation of words was historically not used as words were written in a continuous flow, but is common today.


Collation

* In the ''Doctrina Christiana'', the letters of were collated (without any connection with other similar script, except sorting vowels before consonants) as: *: A, U/O, I/E; Ha, Pa, Ka, Sa, La, Ta, Na, Ba, Ma, Ga, Da/Ra, Ya, NGa, Wa. * In Unicode the letters are collated in coherence with other Indic scripts, by phonetic proximity for consonants: *: A, I/E, U/O; Ka, Ga, Nga; Ta, Da/Ra, Na; Pa, Ba, Ma; Ya, Ra, La, Wa, Sa, Ha.Unicode Baybayin Tagalog variant
/ref>


Usage


Pre-colonial and colonial usage

historically was used in Tagalog and to a lesser extent
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
-speaking areas. Its use spread to the Ilocano people, Ilocanos when the Spanish promoted its use with the printing of Bibles. was noted by the Spanish priest Pedro Chirino in 1604 and Antonio de Morga in 1609 to be known by most Filipinos, stating that there is hardly a man and much less a woman, who does not read and write in the letters used in the "Luzon, island of Manila". It was noted that they did not write books or keep records, but used for personal writings like small notes and messages, poetry and signing documents. Traditionally, was written upon palm leaves with styli or upon bamboo with knives, the writing tools were called ''panulat''. The curved shape of the letter forms of is a direct result of this heritage; straight lines would have torn the leaves. Once the letters were carved into the bamboo, it was wiped with ash to make the characters stand out more. An anonymous source from 1590 states: During the era of Spanish colonization, most began being written with ink on paper using a sharpened quill, or printed in books (using the Woodblock printing, woodcut technique) to facilitate the spread of Christianity. In some parts of the country like
Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ) and has a population of 1,408,454 as of 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of Luz ...
the traditional writing technique has been retained. Filipinos began keeping paper records of their property and financial transactions, and would write down lessons they were taught in church, all in . The scholar Isaac Donoso claims that the documents written in the native language and in played a significant role in the judicial and legal life of the colony. The University of Santo Tomas Baybayin Documents cover two legal real estate transactions in 1613, written in , (labelled as ''Document A ''dated 15 February 1613) and 1625 (labelled as Document B dated 4 December 1625)


Modern usage

A number of legislative bills have been proposed periodically aiming to promote the writing system, among them is the "National Writing System Act" (House Bill 1022/Senate Bill 433). It is used in the most current Banknotes of the Philippine peso#New Generation Currency series (current), New Generation Currency series of the Philippine peso issued in the last quarter of 2010. The word used on the bills was "Pilipino" (). It is also used in Philippine passports, specifically the latest Biometric passport, e-passport edition issued 11 August 2009 onwards. The odd pages of pages 3–43 have "" (""/"Righteousness exalts a nation") in reference to Book of Proverbs, Proverbs 14:34. File:Philippine revolution flag magdiwang.svg, Flag of the Katipunan Magdiwang (Katipunan faction), Magdiwang faction, with the letter ''ka''. File:National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).svg, Seal of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, with the two Baybayin ''ka'' and ''pa'' letters in the center. File:National Library of the Philippines (NLP).svg, Logo of the National Library of the Philippines. The Baybayin text reads as ''karunungan'' (''ka r(a)u n(a)u nga n(a)'', wisdom). File:National Museum of the Philippines.svg, Logo of the National Museum of the Philippines, with a Baybayin ''pa'' letter in the center, in a traditional rounded style. File:CulturalCenterPH.svg, Logo of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, with three rotated occurrences of the Baybayin ''ka'' letter. File:Gawad Lakandula.png, The insignia of the Order of Lakandula contains an inscription with Baybayin characters represents the name ''Lakandula'', read counterclockwise from the top. File:Panitik Silangan, September 1963.png, The front page of the publication "Panitik Silangan", mostly printed in Baybayin, September 1963.


Examples


The Lord's Prayer (''Ama Namin'')


Universal Declaration of Human Rights


Motto of the Philippines


National anthem

Below are the first two verses of the Philippine national anthem, ''Lupang Hinirang'', in Baybayin.


Example sentences


Unicode

was added to the
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
Standard in March, 2002 with the release of version 3.2.


Block

is included in Unicode under the name 'Tagalog'. Tagalog Unicode range: U+1700–U+171F


Keyboard


Gboard

The virtual keyboard Mobile app, app Gboard developed by Google for Android (operating system), Android and iOS devices was updated on 1 August 2019 its list of supported languages. This includes all Unicode blocks. Included are "Buhid", "Hanunuo", ''baybayin'' as "Filipino (Baybayin)", and the Tagbanwa script as "Aborlan". The ''baybayin'' layout, "Filipino (Baybayin)", is designed such that when the user presses the character, vowel markers (''kudlít'') for e/i and o/u, as well as the ''virama'' (vowel sound cancellation) are selectable.


Philippines Unicode Keyboard Layout with

It is possible to type directly from one's keyboard without the need to use web applications which implement an input method. The Philippines Unicode Keyboard Layout includes different sets of layout for different keyboard users: QWERTY, Capewell-Dvorak, Capewell-QWERF 2006, Colemak, and Dvorak, all of which work in both Microsoft Windows and Linux. This keyboard layout with can be downloade
here


See also

*
Buhid script Surat Buhid is an Abugida used to write the Buhid language. As a Brahmic script indigenous to the Philippines, it closely related to Baybayin and Hanunó'o. It is still used today by the Mangyans, found mainly on island of Mindoro, to write the ...
*Filipino orthography *History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia *Hanunoo script, Hanuno'o script *Kawi script *Kulitan alphabet *Laguna Copperplate Inscription *Old Tagalog *Suyat *
Tagbanwa script Tagbanwa is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines, used by the Tagbanwa and the Palawan people as their ethnic writing system. The Tagbanwa languages (Aborlan, Calamian and Central), which are Austronesian languages with about 25,000 ...
*Basahan *See Help:Multilingual support#Hanun.C3.B3.27o, multilingual support for fonts supporting Hanunó'o


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * *


External links


House Bill 160, aka the ''National Script Act of 2011''Tagalog – Unicode character table
{{Symbols of the Philippines Brahmic scripts Philippine scripts Tagalog language Obsolete writing systems Filipino language