Learn Baybayin Options

[dalawapo]

Click here to download FREE Baybayin fonts:

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

(IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

My favorite font is Bikol because i think it looks the most elegant. But Bisaya also looks good as well... i read that the scripts of the philippines are actually the same, only the spanish who recorded the scripts wrote in different styles and they assumed the tagalogs, ilocanos, pampanga, pangasinan, cebuano, etc wrote in different scripts.


What do you guys think about the Malays of the Philipines re-learning this font and using it in every day life, if not for business, but for use in arts and crafts, writing poetry etc? I think it would be great to have a cultural renaissance or rebirth of our rich native culture! But in order for that to happen we need to promote such a cultural revolution that looks to the past with pride and a desire to revitalize our past because we love it unconditionally and respect it and our ancestors.

remember the philippine proverb, i think of Jose Rizal:

"Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi darating sa kaniyang paroroonan."

Bikol Mintz Baybayin Font © AIUbkdghlmnNprstwy
Note: You must install this font to see the baybayin characters on this page.

Bikol Mintz is modelled after the cover art on the Bikol-English Dictionary (1985) by Malcolm Warren Mintz & José Del Rosario Britanico. It's source was an 1835 table of “Ancient characters with which these natives of the Tagalogs and Camarines used to write” (Carácteres antíguos con los que escribian estos Naturales del Tagalog y Camarínes), from the Pascual Enrile collection 18 of the Biblioteca del Museo Naval in Madrid. (ms. 2287, doc. 32:214-214v.) Many thanks go to Dr. Mintz who provided the source information for this font.

Ancient Bikolanos called the baybayin basahan and the characters were called guhit. The V shaped vowel kudlíts were called kaholowan and they were placed beside the letters (to the left for the e and i vowels and to the right for o and u) instead of above and below. According to Marcos de Lisboa (1628), the people of Bikol wrote vertically from the bottom upwards but the 1835 document showed horizontal writing that flowed from left to right. This font only allows for placing the kudlits above or below the characters but they can be moved to other positions in a drawing programme. Notice that there is a special character for Ra: r and the Spanish + shaped kudlít has been added to this font.

Baybayin Spelling

The most important thing to remember when writing baybayin script is to spell the words as they sound and not as they are spelled in modern Filipino or other languages. e.g. The words ng and mga should be spelled nang and manga.

1. Each character (or titik) is a complete syllable with an a vowel sound.
e.g. bb = baba
2. To change the vowel sound to e or i, place a mark (called a kudlít in Tagalog or kaholowan in Bikol) above the character.
e.g. bibe = bibe
3. To change the vowel sound to o or u, place the kudlít below the character.
e.g. bobo = bobo
4. Only use the vowel characters (AIU) when the syllable has no consonant.
e.g. bbE = babae
5. If a character is not pronounced with any vowel, do not write it. For example, the letters n and k should not be written in the word bundók. e.g. budo = bu(n)dó(k).
6. Or, as an alternative, characters without vowels may be written if you use the so-called “reformed” baybayin that was introduced by a Spaniard, in 1620. Just place a small cross (+) under the character to cancel the sound of the vowel.
e.g. bun+dok+ = bundók

And Remember, nga is one character: N, not two: ng (na, ga).

Typing with the Morrow Baybayin Fonts

The Morrow fonts are Unicode compliant but a standard western keyboard can also access the characters. Typing with these fonts is as simple as typing with any other fonts. If you know the basic spelling rules of the baybayin, that is enough. You don’t have to learn awkward keyboard maneuvers such as dead keys and you do not need switch letters around to make the kudlíts appear in their proper places.

One Important Note: If your application (word processor, etc.) has an auto correction feature, turn it off. A feature such as Capitalize first letter of sentences will shift your first character to upper case. This may produce an alternate character for some keys, which may not be correct for what you intend to write.

All of the consonants are typed by using the corresponding upper or lower case keys except for nga ( N ) which is typed by shifting to the upper case N. Using the shift key also produces some non-Filipino letters. See the chart below.

The small marks that are written above and below the baybayin characters are called kudlíts. They change the vowel sound of the character. They are also typed by using only the corresponding lower case keys - i or e for the kudlít above a character, and u or o for the kudlít below.

The vowel characters are typed by shifting to the corresponding upper case keys. These are only used in syllables that have no consonant. A = A,  I = I or E,  U = U or O.

If you prefer to write in the Spanish “reformed” baybayin system, the cross-shaped kudlít (+) can be typed by using the plus/equal key (+/=) either shifted or not. This is called a virama in English (from ancient Sanskrit) or a sabát in Tagalog. It cancels the vowel sound that is always pronounced with any consonant of the baybayin.

Typing any punctuation key produces this multipurpose punctuation mark: | . In ancient documents it was used like a period (full stop) as well as any other punctuation mark we have today. Often its use seemed completely random.
Use these charts to help you as you learn to write baybayin and learn to use this font.

The Vowel Characters
Only use these letters when the vowel is not attached to a consonant. For example at the beginning of a word or a syllable like the a in ako: Ako or the second i in hatiin htiI You must use the shift key to produce these characters.

Baybayin Character A E E O O
Keystroke (shift) A (shift) E (shift) I (shift) O (shift) U

The Kudlits
The kudlits are only typed after consonant characters (listed below). They should never be used with the vowel characters (shown above).

Baybayin Kudlit  e  i  o  u  +
Keystroke e i o u + =

The Consonant Characters
Simply typing the corresponding upper or lower case letters on your keyboard produces the consonant characters. The one exception is the Filipino letter Nga N, which is obtained by typing an upper case N (shift n). Remember that each consonant character contains the sound of a, so if you don’t want that sound, you must type a kudlit after the character.

Baybayin Character b k d g h l m n
Keystroke B b K k D d G g H h L l M m n
Baybayin Character N N p r s t w y
Keystroke N (nga) ` ~ (nga) P p R r S s T t W w Y y

Non-Filipino Sounds and Letters
Baybayin characters can substitute some letters that were not used by ancient Filipinos or they can be approximated by a combination of characters. Type these letters as you would normally and a baybayin substitute will appear. For the letter c, type either k or s depending on which sound you want.

Baybayin Equivalent f j J q Q v x z
Keystroke F f j (Eng.) J (Spa.) q (Eng.) Q (Spa.) V v X x Z z

Punctuation
Punctuation is very basic in the baybayin script so it has been duplicated on many different keys.

Baybayin Punctuation . , : ; ! ? ( ) [ ] { } / \ |
Keystroke . , : ; ! ? ( ) [ ] { } / \ |

Unicode Designations

Character Decimal Hex  Character Decimal Hex
ᜀ ᜀ 1700  ᜌ ᜌ 170C
ᜁ ᜁ 1701  ᜍ ᜍ 170D
ᜂ ᜂ 1702  ᜎ ᜎ 170E
ᜃ ᜃ 1703  ᜏ ᜏ 170F
ᜄ ᜄ 1704  ᜐ ᜐ 1710
ᜅ ᜅ 1705  ᜑ ᜑ 1711
ᜌ ᜌ 1706   ᜒ ᜒ 1712
ᜇ ᜇ 1707   ᜓ ᜓ 1713
ᜈ ᜈ 1708   ᜔ ᜔ 1714
ᜉ ᜉ 1709  ᜵ ᜵ 1735
ᜊ ᜊ 170A  ᜶ ᜶ 1736
ᜋ ᜋ 170B    
Note: the Ra character designation (5901, 170D) is considered a reserved character in the official Unicode specification.

This font was created by Paul Morrow and was made Unicode compliant with the help of Jason Glavy.



*
Updated 25 January 2003

This post has been edited by dalawapo: Jun 12 2004, 01:17 AM

[JMAC]

wow, I like it all! its very curvy! (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I can use that in my designs! (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
Thanks!!! lD

[BishoujoHunter]

Our teachers teached the baybayin in our school we hardly remember how to use it

[dalawapo]

well here is a quick refresher course for you bishojou. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v197/p...ander/bbyn5.jpg

now... based on what you just read, what do you suppose this says:

(IMG:http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v197/pacific_izlander/lesson1.jpg)

This post has been edited by dalawapo: Jun 12 2004, 04:51 PM

[RockHeart]

Its not an easier how to learn those stuffs!!! But hey!!! I would like to undesrtand some of it!!



:genius:

[dalawapo]

Here is a map of where baybayin was found in the Philippines. All 8 major ethno-lingustic groups had baybayiin script. I added Bicol because it wasnt listed in the map, but pmorrow says there is a bicol script. The Green circles are the ones where the baybayin fell into disuse. The Blue circles represent the only surviving scripts used today. Do any of the 8 major ethno-lingustic groups use baybayin in their regional arts and crafts etc?

(IMG:http://img65.photobucket.com/albums/v197/pacific_izlander/script_dis1.jpg)

[redhotchili]

i hope that someday we'll be able to use these fonts in forums such as this (just like the chinese characters).

ATTENTION COMPUTER EXPERTS!!!! (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_confused.gif)

[RockHeart]

Do you think that i can learn the Philip Language by myself??? I dont think so!! The way of the Filipinos talk are so fast as a Storm...I didnt even catch one word... (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[redhotchili]

^you should have a brain as fast as a storm to learn a language spoken as fast as a storm. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_wink.gif)

[RockHeart]

^you should have a brain as fast as a storm to learn a language spoken as fast as a storm. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_wink.gif)

OMG!! Redhotchilli, What kind of your brain do you have??? BrainStorm??? (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/confused.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/icon_rolleyes.gif) . What speed of brainStorm act???? (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif) (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/embarassedlaugh.gif)

[redhotchili]

^lol. i dunno. (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/shrug.gif)

[tsinooy1]

baybayin, I can still write in it, Ive memorized the whole syllabary. Its sooo cool. It even has different versions from other regions. To bad its extinct

[--Kaged--]

it would be so cool if they could integrate this back into society.

[dalawapo]

yeah like on home signs or family names, or decoration on buildings, paper, stamps. um jewlery, tattoos, pottery, clothes, poems, short stories...

[rigm]

dalawapo, thank you so much for this!! I've always envied other countries which have their own way of writing.....and now I saw this! I hope they make this our official alphabet character like kanji, hiragana for Japanese, or Han-gul for Korean, etc...!! (IMG:http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/4/4_1_204.gif) Oh well, just a thought.....

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v367/rigm/ScreenHunter_002.jpg)

This post has been edited by rigm: Sep 27 2004, 04:34 PM