Search This Blog

About my research, works and experiences with the extinct Filipino writing system known as the Baybayin script.

About Me

My photo
I am a Filipino Fine Arts Graduate of Far Eastern University 2005. Major in Advertising Arts. My father's name is Teodoro Ruiz Añana - deputy coordinator/consultant of Urban Poor Associates. My mother's name is Constancia Jamiro Paredes/Añana, a SPED (Special Education)Teacher, part-time tutor and a member of ASP (Autism Society Philippines).

I. My Modified Baybayins

space

Below is a link to my Baybayin blog called Fred’s Modified Baybayins Blog. It is all about my suggested modifications for the Baybayin script if Baybayin should be revived.

space

http://fmbsmainpage.blogspot.com/

Space

II. My Baybayin Research & Links

Below are links to my publications about Baybayin:

sp ace

A.) Evolution of the Baybayin Script

sp

B.) Fred’s Baybayin Research

III. My Interests in Baybayin

space

A.) High School Years

space

I began my interest in Baybayin script when I was a 13 year old 1st year High School student of St. Francis Divine Institute near Zabarte Novaliches (s.y. 1994-95). The Baybayin script was featured in our history book as a system of writing with 3 vowels and 14 consonants. Vowel markers (or diacritics) were used to represent vowel sounds (for details, see Baybayin Symbols Chart). Our textbook mentioned that the crossed-shaped marker was used to mute the inherent a sound of a consonant. It showed a Baybayin transliteration chart but did not specify what Baybayin version it was. So at that time, I mistakenly thought that the crossed-shaped marker was part of the original Baybayin script. I was wrong.

It was during my college years at FEU (Far Eastern University) when I realized that it was a Spanish Modified version of Baybayin and it was the Baybayin Lopez style.


Baybayn Symbols Chart (Baybayin Lopez) - Spanish Modified Version

B.) College Years

space

During my College years, I learned that the Baybayin script (or Alibata) had two versions: the Traditional and the Spanish Modified version.

(For detals, see http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/faqt.html#Q3)

space

My curiosity led me to research more about Baybayin at the FEU main library, Filipiñana section.

There, I stumbled upon a book called “Another Look at Tagalog” by Norlito Ison Cervo.

space

In page iv of the book was the Paleographic Chart of the Philippine Islands by Pedro Paterno. It was a comparative syllabaries chart of various Baybayin styles of early Filipinos. It also compared the Baybayins with the alphabets of other nationalities.


Paleographic Chart of the Philippine Islands

In page 15 of the book, it showed that the basic characters were possibly patterned on facial movements:


space

In 2004, I discovered various websites about Baybayin, some of them have comparative syllabaries charts similar to Pedro Paterno’s. Click the links below to check them out:

space

1.) Alibata – origin theories, etc.

http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/origin.html#term

Space

2.) Alibata - Main

http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/baybayin.html

space

3.) Ating Alibata – Our Filipino Script …and how Baybayin became Alibata

http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/

Space

4.) Ancient Philippine Scripts

http://iloko.tripod.com/scripts.html

space

5.) Baybayin - Symbols Chart

http://www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/symbols.html

space

6.) Baybayin Styles & Their Sources (a comparative syllabaries chart)

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/baychart.htm

space

7.) Baybayin - The Ancient Script of the Philippines

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/bayeng1.htm

space

8.) Ilocano Baybayin

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-ilocano-baybayin.html

space

9.) Paleographic Chart of the Philippine Islands

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/paterno.htm

Space

10.) Tagalog Baybayin

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-tagalog-baybayin.html

space

By surfing the internet, I found out that the system of using markers to represent vowels was called the Abugida writing system. Such system was also very common in ancient Indonesia and India. According to theories, Baybayin was one of the descendants of the Brahmi scripts of ancient India. For more details, see http://www.ontopia.net/i18n/script.jsp?id=alibata.

space

I also discovered that Baybayin is still being used by some ethnic minorities of the Philippines. They are the Buhid, Hanunoo and Tagbanwa tribes (See A Philippine Leaf for more info about their surviving scripts).

space

Below are sites where you can download Baybayin fonts for free:

space

1.) Download Baybayin Fonts Free

http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/fonts.htm

space

2.) Computer Fonts - Living Scripts: Buhid, Hanunuo, Tagbanwa

http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/misc/livfonts.htm

space

C.) After College

space

I designed three modified versions of the Baybayin script which were all posted on Omniglot.com. They‘re called Maharlikang Tagalog, Alfa-Larawan & Alfa-Kinetix.

space

I later became a member of various Baybayin discussion groups such as:

space

1.) Alibata

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alibata/

space

2.) Alibata_baybayin

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alibata_baybayin/

space

3.) Alibata_culture

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alibata_culture/

space

4.) Baybayin.com – social network

http://baybayin.ning.com/

space

5.) Baybayin Enthusiasts

http://baybayin-enthusiasts.deviantart.com/

space

6.) NalibatAdvocates

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NalibatAdvocates/

space

Friday, July 10, 2009

E-mail me or Post Your Comments

My e-mail addresses are fvpa81@yahoo.com & fareddy@gmail.com.
Your thoughts/opinions about my Baybayin blogs will be deeply appreciated. Please post your comments.

1 comment:

  1. Hi. I am Norlito Ison Cervo's (author of Another Look at Tagalog) daughter. Today, December 6 is the 13th anniversary of his death. Surfing the net, I found this site. It made me smile knowing his works somehow helped you and perhaps inspired you nore to study about the language. If he has been still with us today, I am very sure the two of you will have a lot of things to talk about-it makes him very happy to see young people interested in his favorite topic. Again, thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete