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Fred's Baybayin Topics

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

About Me

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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

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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.

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http://fmbsmainpage.blogspot.com/

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II. My Baybayin Research & Links

Below are links to my publications about Baybayin:

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A.) Evolution of the Baybayin Script

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B.) Fred’s Baybayin Research

III. My Interests in Baybayin

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A.) High School Years

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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

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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)

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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.

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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:

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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:

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1.) Alibata – origin theories, etc.

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

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2.) Alibata - Main

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

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

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

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4.) Ancient Philippine Scripts

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

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5.) Baybayin - Symbols Chart

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

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

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

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7.) Baybayin - The Ancient Script of the Philippines

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

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8.) Ilocano Baybayin

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

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9.) Paleographic Chart of the Philippine Islands

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

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10.) Tagalog Baybayin

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

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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.

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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).

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

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1.) Download Baybayin Fonts Free

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

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

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

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C.) After College

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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.

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

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1.) Alibata

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

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2.) Alibata_baybayin

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

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3.) Alibata_culture

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

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4.) Baybayin.com – social network

http://baybayin.ning.com/

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5.) Baybayin Enthusiasts

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

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6.) NalibatAdvocates

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

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Baybayin Workshop Feature on CBS 5

On May 29, 2009, the Baybayin alphabet was featured in CBS 5. The Filipino-American artists are trying to revive Baybayin in San Francisco.
Watch the news clip below:



- from CBS 5
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