Writing In Baybayin

The Chinese language has its own characters. We are familiar with the Greek alphabet which is far different from the universal alphabet. Arabs also have their own language and script, as well as the Japanese, Korean, Hebrews, Latin and others. But did you ever wonder why we, Filipinos, do not have our own unique system of writing? Actually, we have and it’s called Baybayin. It is used by the ancient Filipinos during the sixteenth century. But since we were colonized by other countries, we use the same alphabet as the English alphabet now when writing Filipino words.

Baybayin is a lost script. But Filipino millennials are here to bring it back.

 

1. Learn the Baybayin Script by looking at this chart. I got this from a blog of a Filipino historian, Kristoffer Pasion. I prefer his chart since its organized and easy to understand.

© Indiohistorian

 

2. Think of a word that you are going to write in Baybayin. It’s better if you choose a Filipino word since Baybayin follows the Philippine language. But if it’s a proper noun like your name, you don’t have to translate it. We can still work on that.

 

3. Baybayin comes from the Filipino term baybay, which means syllable in English. This is because each letter of Baybayin represents a complete syllable.

 

4. It isn’t really strict to per syllable basis. It can be per letter if you can’t find the syllables of your word or name in the chart. That’s usually the problem if you are writing an English word.

 

5. Find the script symbols that match the syllables of the word or your name and try to write your chosen word with their respective symbols given in the chart above.

 

6. You can now write your name in Baybayin! You can also try other words and make essays in Babayin. Here, I tried writing my mother’s name, which is Melody, and the Filipino term for the English word melody, which is himig.