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The Life, Death, and Resurgence of Baybayin in the PH

The in uence of this ancient language can be seen in how Filipinos write today.

By BONIFACIO COMANDANTE | 2 days ago

ILLUSTRATOR Jasrelle Serrano / Text from Wikicommons

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The Philippine Baybayin script belongs to the Austronesian languages."Bybayin" aptly

means "to syllabicate or syllabify." Baybayinhas threevowelsand 14 consonants (see
charts below).Itwas widely used in the country prior to Spanish conquest up until 1668
when the script forms were removed from of cial Doctrina Christiana publications.

ILLUSTRATOR Jasrelle Serrano

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The Boxer Codex of 1590, the rst book about Filipinos, mentioned the adeptness of men
and women in Baybayin writing. The second book, Doctrina Christiana, (1593) marked the
imposition of the Spanish Catholicism. The Spaniards saw it tting to put both Baybayin
and the Latinized Tagalog in the book because they knew so well how most Filipinos can
read and write in Baybayin. Otley Bayer (1921) wrote, It cannot be said that such writings
did not exist, since the early Filipinos were even more literate than the Mexicans... One ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Spanish priest in Southern Luzon boasted of having destroyed more than three hundred Why Don't More People See How Kita
scrolls written in native characters. Kita Romanticizes Stalking?

Con icting Origin Theories WHAT I'VE LEARNED

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Early writings have never been conclusive as to where the ancient syllabary originated. Rich
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Jose Rizal, in his book Estudos Sobre La Lengua Tagala (1893), wrote, It has been long
thought that Tagalog branched out from the Malay Language because it was the rst
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known language in Europe from this region. But recent studies comparing the languages
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of Malayo-Polynesian will show that this belief has no strong basis. the Slums

New evidences from paleography, ethnography and historical accounts can help in FOOD & DRINK
repositioning our views on the origins of the Baybayin. Recently, a couple of Philippine Metro Manilas 12 Essential Ramen
National Treasures were found to have Baybayin inscriptions (Comandante 2009). The Places
Angono Caves in Rizal province (determined to be Neolithic by the Philippine National
Museum; 6000-2000 BC) bears rock drawings, or petroglyphs, with visible Baybayin script FOOD & DRINK

forms. Another National Treasure with clear Baybayin scripts is the Manunggul Jar (a

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8/13/2017 The Life, Death, and Resurgence of Baybayin | Esquire Ph

secondary burial vessel) taken from the same named cave in Palawan that was carbon "Tupperwaregate" and What It's
Con rmed About Food Blogging
dated to be 890-710 BC.

Confusing Accounts on Baybayin Marks

The confusion over the use of marks may have contributed to the demise of Baybayinover
time. The desire of Francisco Lopez (1620) for Baybayin to conform to alfabetos paved the
way for the invention of a cross sign. Such introduction was uniquely a standalone event
that was blindly copied by succeeding writers up until now. Sevilla and Alvero (1939) said,
The marks required in the formation of syllables are: the tuldok or point (.) and the bawas
or minus sign (-). The bawas or minus sign (-) that is placed before the script to remove
the paired vowel appears more logical than the cross or plus sign (+) of Lopez.
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Guilermo Tolentino was one of the very few individuals who tried to put forward the Cinemalaya 2017 Films
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possible Filipino origins of Baybayin and numerals in his book, Ang Wika at Baybaying This Weekend
Tagalog 1937. But in 2009, Comandante presented a PhD dissertation entitled "The Role
of Giant Clams in the Development of the Ancient Baybayin Script." The dissertation also
included a theory of the origins of Baybayin numerals as shown below (note the
resemblance of Baybayin numerals etched at Angono Petroglyphs to modern numerals: 1 8 Movie Mentors Who Really
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Writing seven with a dash at the middle, as practiced by majority of Filipinos, is a
subconscious imprint from the ancient times (see no. 7 above with a middle dash; red
dash-lines by author).

A summary of the Baybayin word meanings from San Buenaventura 1613 is as follow: aa,
ii, and uu refer to chanting; baba means inside; kaka- biggest in a group; dada/dara-
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bloodletting; gaga-to show; haha- to break; lala- to scrape; mama- to eat; nana- blood; Something About HIV
nganga- open wide; papa- partake; sasa- to break; tata- split; wawa- opening; yaya- in the PH

together. The meanings altogether point to an activity using giant clams as part of a ritual
offering and partaking thereafter.

The most signi cant evidence of the relation of Giant Clams to Baybayin is found in the
book, A Lexicographic Study of Tayabas Tagalog of Quezon Provincedone by Arsenio
Manuel (UP Faculty) 1971. The word haha (p. 133) is listed to mean "hiwang malaki"(cut
wide) and hahain means "bukahin ang manglit"(open the manglit ) while manglit means
'higanteng kabibe"(giant clams).

Today, efforts are being made to promote the script across the country. The National
Museum and Commission on Culture and Arts have devoted areas in their of ces to
showcase the written forms. Down south, patriots are working together to convene by the
rst quarter of 2018 an initially modest Suwat Bisaya and Mindanao Baybayin Conference.
In Negros, La Consolacion College (Bacolod) will hold a Baybayin seminar on November
30, 2017 while Taklobo Baybayin Group will have its yearly festival later on August 28 at
Imus, Cavite. Schools like Bucas Grande in Surigao have started to patronize the written
forms of Baybayin. Organizations like Mangyan Heritage Center and Lucban Historical
Society have been active in promoting our forgotten ancient writing forms called Panulat.

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Filipino Language Buwan Ng Wika

About The Author

Bonifacio Comandante

An award-winning marine biologist, Boni also holds a Ph.D. in

Anthropology. He is the director of Taklobo Baybayin.

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