What Is Baybayin?

Baybayin is from the Tagalog word baybay or in English is to spell. Each letter represents a syllable.

Baybayin is the ancient writing system of the filipinos. It is often mistaken that baybatin and alibata are same but baybayin is not alibata. Alibata is the Arabic Writing System 'Alifbata'. The alibata was mistaken by Paul Rodriguez Verzosa who was a teacher.

When the Spaniards did not conquer the Philippines, the coast was their writing system but the period of spanish came it was rarely used..........

There are different types of Baybayin. It is the B17, B17+, b18+ and modern baybayin.

B17

This is the oldest baybayin with 14 consonants (ba, ka, da/ra, ga, ha, ka, la, ma, na, nga, pa, sa, ta, wa and ya) and 3 vowels (a, e /i and o/u), there are 2 dots to replace A of the consonant to e, i, o, ou (dot above to make e/i the a and dot below to make o/u the a. This traditional baybayin before the spanish conquered the philippines.

B17+

Like b17, b17+ also has 14 consonants, 3 vowels and 2 dots but it has virama or the cross sign used to kill the vowels in consonants. You can use b17+ keyboard using Gboard. This is also what I use when writing on Cellphone.

B18+

It has 15 consonants and 3 vowels. They made ra symbol so people not to be confused with ra/da because in b17 and b17+ this symbol ᜇ can be ra or da. This is what I often use when I write baybayin on paper because it is easier to understand.

Modern Baybayin

There are ca, fa, ja, qa, va, xa, and za characters/symbols on the modern baybayin. I don't know much about the modern baybayin because I didn't study it because I don't feel I want to learn the modern and I really like the traditional baybayin and the semi modern baybayin(B18+). Most people who studying of Baybayin also prefer to write b17, b17+ and 18+ than the modern baybayin . Also it has more characters so others are confused to study the Baybayin because the modern is what they are studying.

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When I began to Study the coast?

I started got curios about Baybayin when we went to the museum where I saw the Baybayin, then I was amazed by the beautiful and unique hand writing so that's how I started watching how to write baybayin. I thought it was difficult to study this, but it wasn't hard at all. Actually, I really want to study writing systems like korean and Thai writing system but I know just a little bit.I studied Binary code and morse code too. And also I studied sign language, my friends and I used this sign language at school because we have to quite so it's the easy way to use to talk without voice or noise.