BAYBAYIN 101

workbook
A supplementary material for
the Baybayin 101 course

by Allan Torres Camba

PLP7 a1
a* H&D m#mh% s
kNy* sLt \ mHG+
s h]( a+ ml&s*
i_d |
i
BAYBAYIN 101
workbook
A supplementary material for
the Baybayin 101 course

by Allan Torres Camba

© 2020 by Allan Torres Camba under Riverboy Studios.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
written permission of the Publisher.

RIVERBOY STUDIOS
Professional Development Center
riverboy@riverboystudios.com
http://www.facebook.com/kultura101

STUDENT NAME

KID # ___________

i
FRONTISPIECE
 Table of Contents

PROLOGUE ................................................................... 1
1. WRITING AND READING BAYBAYIN .......................... 2
2. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS .................................... 3
3. THE USE OF KUDLIT .................................................. 5
4. PUNCTUATIONS ....................................................... 9
5. SOME RULES .......................................................... 10
5.1 Da/Ra ................................................................. 10
5.2 Dropping of Consonants (In The Traditional Form)
................................................................................ 11
5.3 Write It Like It Sounds ........................................ 12
5.4 Translate It to A Philippine Language First .......... 12
 PROLOGUE

Beyond the controversy of this poem below, whether or

not it was written by Dr. Jose P. Rizal, I couldn't find
better words to prologue this booklet than every word
embedded in the poem.

Sa Aking Mga Kabatà To My Fellow Youth

Kapagka ang baya'y sadyáng If a nation's people certainly love

umiibig
Sa kanyáng salitáng kaloob ng
langit,
Sanlang kalayaan nasa ring masapit
Katulad ng ibong nasa himpapawid.
Pagka't ang salita'y isang kahatulan
Sa bayan, sa nayo't mga kaharián,
At ang isáng tao'y katulad, kabagay
Ng alin mang likha noong kalayaán.
Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang
salitâ
Mahigit sa hayop at malansáng isdâ,
Kayâ ang marapat pagyamaning
kusà
Na tulad sa ináng tunay na nagpalà.
Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din sa
Latin
Sa Inglés, Kastilà at salitang anghel,
Sapagka't ang Poong maalam
tumingín
Ang siyang naggawad, nagbigay sa
atin.
The gift of their language bestowed by heaven,
So too will they regain their pawned freedom
Like a bird who takes to the sky.
For language is a measure of worth
Of cities, nations, and kingdoms,
And each person alike deserves it,
As does any creation born free.
One who does not treasure his own language
is worse than a beast or a putrid fish,
Thus it should be nurtured intently,
As a mother nurtures her child.
The Tagalog language is like Latin,
Like English, Spanish, and the language of
angels
Because the Lord, in His wisdom
Bestowed it, He gave it to us.
Our language is like that of others,
With its own alphabet and its own characters,
But they vanished as if a sudden storm had come
upon
A boat in a lake in an age long past.

Ang salita nati'y huwad din sa iba

Na may alfabeto at sariling letra,
Na kaya nawalá'y dinatnan ng sigwâ
Ang lunday sa lawà noóng dakong
una.

Poem and translation citation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_aking_mga_Kabata

1
1. WRITING AND READING BAYBAYIN

Writing Baybayin should be naturally easy for Filipino

and/or English writers. Reading, on the other hand, can
be difficult. Like English, the Baybayin is to be written
and read horizontally from left to right or vertically from
top to bottom.

HORIZONTAL

PLP7 a1
L Here's an early challenge. After
going through the lesson, return
V
E
R
P to this page and translate the
Baybayin sample.
T
I
C
7
A
L

a
` _______ _______ _______ ________

_______ _______
2. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS
The Baybayin writing system has three vowels and 14
consonants. The three vowels are a, e/i, and o/u. The 14
consonants are ba, ka, da/ra, ga, ha, la, ma, na, nga, pa,
sa, ta, wa, and ya. It is an abugida (alphasyllabary)
writing system which—in the case of the Baybayin—all of
its consonants naturally include the "a" vowel.

TABLE 1: TABLE OF VOWELS

A a
E/I e
O/U o
Come on! A little practice won't
hurt. Try to follow the script in
the spaces given. Practice more
on the next page.
 TABLE 2: TABLE OF CONSONANTS

Ba b
Ka k
Da/Ra d
Ga g
Ha h
La l
Ma m
Na n
Nga j
Pa p
Sa s
Ta t
Wa w
Ya y
3. THE USE OF KUDLIT

To change the vocalic sound to e/i, a diacritic mark is

added at the top of the symbol, while to change the
vocalic sound to o/u, a diacritic mark is added at the
bottom of the symbol. Other Indic scripts, more or less,
share these same characteristics according to Gardner.1

The e/i kudlit

Ka
k
Ke/Ki
K
The o/u kudlit

Ka
k
Ko/Ku
1
1
Gardner, Philippine Indic Studies; Francisco, "Philippine Palaeography"; Caldwell, "South
Sulawesi A.D. 1300-1600: Ten Bugis Texts," 17.
Due to the frustrations among the Spanish missionaries
during their Philippine conquest2 —mainly due to their
lack of knowledge of the language which caused them
confusion in reading the Baybayin writing system—they
went to the point of modifying the script by introducing
the x or cross kudlit to drop the vowel.3

The x or cross kudlit

Ka
k
K
!
This modification (modernization) is to resolve the
limitation on the Traditional form of writing where
consonants are dropped—causing confusion (see page
11).

Traditional Modern Form

Roman Alphabet
Form
Pi-NoY P7 P7}
GuS-To 3= 3_=

2
Padre Agustin de Magdalena, Arte de la lengua tagala sacado de diversos artes, (Manila, 1679).
Unpaginated; Gaspar de San Agustin, Compenio del arte de la lengua tagala, 2nd ed. (Sampaloc:
Convento de Nuestra Senora de Loreto, 1787): 155; C. Marcilla, Estudio de los antiguos alfabetos
filipinos (Malabon: Asilo de Huerfanos, 1895):19 (Cited in Rafael 1988:46).
3
Padre Francisco López, Belarmino (1621), quoted in W. E. Retana, Los antiguos alfabetos en Filipinas,
La Politica España en Filipinas 21 (1895): 6. (Cited in Rafael 1988:46)
4. PUNCTUATIONS

Unlike any other writing systems that contains many

punctuation marks, the Baybayin has only two.
The vertical line, used as a comma or a break, and the
double vertical line, used at the end of a sentence as a
period or to separate words or statements.

Examples:
mgd \ m`T \ a mtL7 |
Magara, mabuti, at matalino.

Sy \ mgd |
a1 \ m`T |
k] \ mtL7 |
Siya, magara. Ako, mabuti. Kayo, matalino.

Do you know what form

of Baybayin is used on
this page?

TRADITIONAL FORM
or
MODERN FORM
5. SOME RULES
5.1 Da/Ra
If you've noticed from the Consonant Table, Da and
Ra shares the same symbol. Rules suggests that
when the consonant "D" is between two vowels, it
becomes a "R".

Pronounced
Root Word
as
Root + Affix Pronounced as

dp+ da-pat mdp+ ma-ra-pat

Di& di-in mDe& ma-ri-in
27* du-nong m27* ma-ru-nong

Because of the many

loanwords we've borrowed
from other languages,
certain words may no
longer be applicable to this
Da/Ra rule. An example of
these loanwords include:
Presidente, Republika,
Radyo, Presko, Lugar,
Sarado, etc. With this
limitation, many enthusiasts
and alike created their own
modification of the script to
symbolize the "R"
consonant.
 5.2 Dropping of Consonants (In The Traditional Form)

In the Traditional form of Baybayin, consonants are

dropped when written and readers will have to
understand the writing through contextualization.

Written In
Dropped
Roman Alphabet Consonant
Traditional
Form
Pi-NoY Y P7
Ha-La-MaN N hlm
Ma-GaN-Da N mgd
Yu-NgiB B ]J
BuN-DoK N,K `2
BuN-DoL N,K `2

1. Is Sy P7 |
2. `ML Sy n P7|
A. _______________________________
B. _______________________________

What consonants were dropped in the

sentences above? How did you know if
P7 is Penoy or Pinoy? The problem with
this rule and the Traditional form, in
general, is when you start seeing written
sentences like the one below.

3= n 3= a P7 n
3= 1mi n 3= a
P7 s k= |
 5.3 Write It Like It Sounds

Remember that consonants are very dependent on the

vowels when it comes to its sound or articulation. It is
hard to sound it or articulated it by itself without the
vowel.
Others are often mistaken when writing the word "Ng"
(sounded as "Nang") as shown below. One might be
thinking that by eliminating the vowel it will still make it
sound "Nang" like how it is pronounced when written in
the roman alphabet "Ng".

Roman Alphabet Baybayin

Lungsod ng Maynila 5*-@ * m}Nl

When you drop the vowel in j(Nga), you don't have a

word but instead, you are left with the phoneme "ng"—a
velar nasal sound or also known as "agma"— as in the
last units of sound in libang, gising, and barong.

Applying the rule Write It Like It Sounds, the word "Ng",

in this case, is sounded with the consonant "Na" plus the
phoneme "Ng"; thus, creating "Nang" and should be
written as it sounds as shown in the first example below.

Roman Alphabet Baybayin

Lungsod ng Maynila 5*-@ n* m}Nl
Lea Salonga Ly s5*g

In the case of the name of Lea Salonga, the better

transliteration of the name would be the example given
above instead of La s5j where the reader
may read it as Le-Ah Sa-Lo-Nga.
 5.4 Translate It to A Philippine Language First

Indeed, with so many Baybayin enthusiast from various

cultures nowadays, some may be tempted to use the
Baybayin writing with other languages. So, the question
is: Can we write other languages in Baybayin? The
simple answer to this would be: Sure! You can. But
should you?

Try to read and understand the writings below.

p} K& k{ k&|
tBm-|
What languages are
written in Baybayin?

Nn1%|
Also, in the case of the English
language, English have so many
homophones which are two words that
sounds the same but have different
meanings, like: Ate and Eight, Bare and
Bear, Buy and Bye and By, and Dew and
Do and Due, transliterating English
words to the Baybayin script may
further add to the layers of difficulty in
reading the script.
One great thing about written languages is that it makes
it easier for the reader to understand which language
they are reading by simple associating the script to the
spoken language. When you see a Thai script, you can
safely assume you'll be reading a Thai language. When
you see kanji, you can safely assume you'll be reading a
native Japanese language. And so on… The same thing
with the Baybayin script.

p} K& k{ k&|
THAI: ไปกินข ้าวกัน! (Sounds like: Pị kin kdĥāw kạn!)

tBm-|
JAPANESE: 食べましょう！(Sounds like: Tabemashou)

Nn1%|
ARABIC: ‫ﻞ‬% ‫( !ﻟﻨﺄ‬Sounds like: Ninakol)

So, for the sake of readability, it is better to translate the

word/message to a Philippine language first and then
write it in Baybayin like so:

ke& n|
Kain na!