Tagalog is the most widely spoken tongue in the Philipines today.

Nowadays it is written in a Roman

alphabet, but prior to Spanish colonial rule, Tagalog speakers employed a syllabic alphabet named
Baybayin to record their language.

The Tagalog Baybayin is one of the many indigenous scripts of pre-colonial Philipines The development of
scripts in Philipines remains somewhat of a mystery due to destruction of native literature by Spanish
authorities as well as poor preservation of the plant-based writing material in the Tropics. It is thought that
scripts in Philipines derived from the Kawi script of Java around the 14th century CE. Ultimately, scripts in
Philipines derive from Indian scripts. Like Indian scripts, every Tagalog letter inherently carries the vowel
/a/. Furthermore, in order to represent a different vowel, diacritical marks called kudlit are added to the basic
letter. In the case of Tagalog, a dot above the letter represents either /e/ or /i/, whereas a dot below
represents /o/ or /u/.

The following is the basic Tagalog script:

The following are the vowel diacritics:

Originally the Baybayin did not represent consonants occuring at the end of the syllable, even though the
syllabic structure of Tagalog does allow an ending consonant.

During the 17th century CE, in order to more fully represent Spanish loanwords, especially those used to
translate the Bible, the Spanish priest Father Francisco López introduced a new kudlit in the form of the
plus sign or cross (+) which if placed under a letter that removes the vowel.
The Tagalog script was largely abandoned by the 17th century CE and was replaced by the Spanish
(Roman) alphabet. Modern Tagalog writing employs the Roman letters A, B, K, D, E, G, H, I, L, M, NG, O,
P, R, S, T, U, W, and Y.
LEARN HOW TO WRITE "BAYBAYIN" an ANCIENT PHILIPPINE WRITING SYSTEM/SCRIPT

BAYBAYIN
"BAYBAYIN" Ancient Philippine writing system
Baybayin is not just a simple alphabet or script, for me it is a beautiful form of art every
letter is an artistic symbol. It is the proof that our Filipino ancestors has their own way of
learning, Baybayin has a big part on our history, but it is sad to know that majority of the
Filipinos didn't know how to read or write in Baybayin.

HISTORY
Baybayin is derived from Brahmic scripts of India and first recorded in the 16th century,
baybayin 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 word "BAYBAYIN" comes from the rootword
"BAYBAY" which means " to spell ". Some have incorrectly named "Alibata" to it, but
that term was coined by Paul Rodriguez Verzosa after the arrangement of letters of the
Arabic alphabet alif, ba, ta. But the BAYBAYIN is not related to Arabic alphabet.
Baybayin is one of the many 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. 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 first baybayin scripts is written or curved in a jar, leaves, bamboo or other kind of
woods.

LEARN HOW TO WRITE IN Modern

BAYBAYIN ALPHABET
Learning the basics of Baybayin is
easy especially if you can understand
tagalog/Filipno language.
Baybayin is much easier to write than
to read it.
The modern Baybayin alphabet is
consists of 18 characters 3 vowels and
15 consonants.
the vowels are "a, e/i and o/u"
the 15 consonants are pronounce with
a vowel "a" following it, the consonants
are " Ba, Ka, Da, Ga, Ha, La, Ma, Na,
Nga, Pa, Ra, Sa, Ta, Wa, and Ya".

THE KUDLIT
You can use Kudlit If you want to write
something that doesn't rhyme with "a" )
this would require learning a whole
other set of letters for each vowel sound. We use the same consonant letters shown in
the list above and simply combine them with a special mark, called a kudlit, to change
the sound of the vowel "a".
The word kudlit means a small cut or incision, which is exactly what it was back in the
days when Filipinos wrote on bamboo. Since we now write with pen and paper, or a
computer, the kudlit mark can be any shape. Usually it is a "dot" or "tick", or sometimes
it is shaped like a "v "or an arrowhead ">". The sound of a letter is not changed in any
way by the shape of the kudlit, it is changed by the position of the kudlit.
place a Kudlit above a letter to signify the sound of "i or e".
place a Kudlit below the letter to change the sound of a letter to "o or u".

The Spanish Kudlit

the Spanish Kudlit is usually the "+" or "×" sign placed below a letter to cancel its vowel
sound.

PERIOD AND COMMA

a single vertical line " / " = comma
two vertical line "// " = period