Baybayin

So there we were one night, sitting in front of the computer screen, connected to the Internet in this untamed and wild country that people call the Philippines. Our conversation somehow drifted to discussing what the pre-colonial Philippines was like and before we knew it wikipedia was answering all of our questions. The subject we found most interesting through this discussion though was the implications of a pre-Spanish writing system. Rebeka and I had both heard of this writing system previously but hadn't really took the time to understand its importance since it disappeared over 250 years ago. There is little in terms of concrete evidence or archaeological remnants of the script but there are enough pieces to put together a story. The old Tagalog script (Baybayin) is believed to have originated in Java, Indonesia and through trade routes made its way to the Philippines where it became widely used. There are currently three pre-Spanish artifacts that have the script written on them. The most famous is the Laguna Copperplate which is a record of a contract dispute. There are many references to Hindu/Buddhist culture found in the Laguna Copperplate which is alarming to historians since many of them believed that the Philippines was an isolated and primitive society prior to Spanish colonization. The lack of artifacts using the Baybayin script is most likely due to the fact that instead of writing on metal surfaces people used leaves and wood which have decomposed. The other problem could be people hoarding these artifacts in private collections. The second main source of information regarding the Baybayin script is found in the documents of the early Spanish priests. The priests commented on how they were amazed that it seemed all men, women, and children were literate in the Baybayin script. The priests had to spend a good amount of their time deciphering the script so they could communicate to Pilipinos and they left behind detailed accounts of their observations.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WRITTEN BY A PRIEST IN BAYBAYIN

The last source of information is the Mangyan people that still to this day use variations of Baybayin. The Mangyans are composed of multiple indigenous people groups that have retained many parts of their culture such as their writing, weaving/basket making, and lifestyle in general. The Mangyan use the script for personnel correspondence and poetry.

So after we completed our informal research on the topic we started to practice our Baybayin script writing skills which led us to our Baybayin translation skills. The writing part is easy but the translation is incredibly difficult. The Baybayin script isn't like the Roman alphabet to say the least. The Baybayin script to start has five vowels and seventeen consonants but there are approximately 45 symbols. So why are there 22 letters and approximately 45 symbols? The simple answer is the written language is based on syllables not letters like the Roman alphabet. So for example the word asawa in Tagalog means spouse and in the Roman alphabet it contains five separate letters but in Baybayin the written word asawa contains 3 characters. One character corresponds to the letter a, one character corresponds to the sound sa and one character corresponds to the sound wa. A difficulty when reading Baybayin is that characters for the vowel i and e are the same and the character for o and u are the same. So when your reading you have to know the language well enough to use the right vowel. The trickiest part though has to be that a single consonant cannot be written by itself. So for example the word nakaw in Tagalog means to steal but when it is written in Baybayin it is just naka (the character for na and the character for ka) since a consonant cannot be written independently, you have to fill in the blank correctly. Last but not least is the fact that words or sentences are not separated by space or periods in Baybayin, it is just one continuous thought. So your left with a large number of syllables jumbled together with consonants missing and you need to make a coherent message from it when your reading. A great example of this is the following:

hu wa ka da na ka
(First symbol corresponds to first sound, second symbol to second sound, etc.)

So, hu wa ka da na ka is actually huwag ka da nakaw which means don't steal or also known as the seventh commandant in the Catholic Church.

If I haven't provided enough information in this blog or it is incoherent, please check out:

Ang Baybayin - A great website if this interests you
The Tagalog Script
Ating Baybayin - This site translates Tagalog into Baybayin