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Classroom Tools Series: History

BALIK-TANAW
“Glimpses of the Past for the Young Generation of Filipinos and the Guiding Hand behind their Learning”

Ancient Love Letters
Maya Nuñez

It is a familiar sight…

Two names written within a crooked heart, shaped and carved in the school ground’s sturdiest Acacia tree, meant to withstand the changing forces of nature and the daring test of time.

Several centuries earlier, these love letters were inscribed on palm leaves and bamboo slats written in an ancient script known as ‘Alibata’.

‘Alibata’ is a word coined by Dean Paul Versoza of the University of Manila in 1914 to mimic the first three letters of the alphabet of Maguindanao, alif, ba and ta, which is derived from the Arabic. It is also called ‘baybayin’ which means ‘to spell.’1

The scripts were used to communicate business transactions, love letters, religious significance and other personal matters of the prehistoric Filipino. The script rendered various native languages of the Islands such as Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Ilocano and some languages in the Visayan region.2

One qualifying characteristic of a civilization is the existence of a system of writing. At the advent of Miguel de Legazpi in Manila on 1571, there is a high literacy rate among the early Filipinos. As documented by Pedro Chirino, a Jesuit Historian in his 1604 Relacion de las Islas filipinas,

    “All these islanders are much given to reading and writing, and there is hardly a man, much less a woman, who does not read and write.”3

Tracing Love Letters

But how do these scripts came about?

Since the ancient Philippine scripts were written on palm leaves and bamboo slats, primary evidences of the ancient writing perished in time. Various theories abound about the origin of the ancient writing and had been the subject of utmost studies of various scholars.

David Diringer states that the Philippine scripts were derived from the Kavi Script or Old Javanese (Indonesia) directly through the Buginese.4

The Kavi Script is an extinct Javanese script universally used in Southeast Asia during 600-1500 AD. It is considered the progenitor of most Southeast Asian script including the Buginese of Sulawesi (Indonesia). They can be ultimately traced back to Brahmi from India’s Asokan Era (200-300 BC). Brahmi spawned Grantha(“palm leaf writing”) of the Pallava Era, the old script of South India used in writing Vedic Sanskrit.5

While Fletcher Gardner proposes that the ancient Philippine scripts were directly transmitted by Indian priests familiar to the Brahmi scripts.6

Still, the possibility of an independent local development of the ancient writing is still held possible by the scholar, Constantino Lendayao.7

Writing I Love You’s

The ancient Philippine script consists of fourteen (14) graphs representing consonants and the vowel /a/ and three (3) graphs representing the vowels /a/, /e-i/, and /o-u/.8

Figure 1. Alibata

Usage. It was said that the graphs were read from bottom to top with each succeeding column written from left to right but now the graphs are represented from left to right. The vowel following the consonant can be modified by diacritical marks either above or below the graph. These marks are called kudlit. A kudlit placed above the graph changes the vowel to /e/ or /i/. The final consonants in a syllable were determined by context and through conventional usage.9

      ba

      be-bi

A kudlit below the letter changes the vowel to /o/ or /u/.10

      ba

      bo-bu

Living Messages

Rare artifacts bear the ancient Philippine scripts.

The Calatagan Pot

Figure 2. Calatagan Pot

The Calatagan Pot, excavated by treasure hunters on 1961, is the first pre-Hispanic artifact with writing to be found. The writing circles the mouth of the pot. The scripts are separated by marks of groups consisting of five or seven symbols.11

The writings on the mouth of the Calatagan Pot are said to be a form of Tanaga, a syllabic type of poetry in four verses with no rhyme scheme or a Mangyan Ambahan, a type of poetry which is chanted and consisting of seven syllables and has neither a rhyme scheme nor a definite number of lines.12

Other Prehistorical Artifacts

Other prehistorical artifacts that have been found bear writings but do not contain the ancient Philippine scripts. One of which is the Butuan Silver Paleograph which was deciphered in an attempt by Jes Tirol using the Eskaya script, a secret organization on the island of Bohol with its ancestors claimed to have arrived on the island in 677 AD from Sumatra.13

Figure 3. Butuan Silver Paleograph
Source: http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/mystery/silver.htm

Another prehistorical artifact bearing an ancient writing is the Laguna Copper Inscription, whose writing is inscribed using the Kavi Script. The inscription documents a clearance of debt by a man named Namwaran, his family and all of its descendants.14

Figure 4. Laguna Copperplate Inscription
Source: http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/lci/lci.htm

Love Ceases

The coming of the Spaniards paved the way for the extinction of the ancient Philippine script.

However during the year of 1593, the ancient Philippine script was utilized by the Spaniards as a tool to promote Christianization through publishing a religious book, Doctrina Christiana.15

Within a period of a hundred years, the ancient Philippine script was replaced by the Roman alphabet. Bearing the knowledge of the western alphabet gave the early Filipinos a social advantage when dealing with the Spanish.16

Writing Love Letters Today

Today, three cultural groups are using scripts related to the ancient Philippine scripts. They are the Hanunuos ang Buhids of Mindoro and the Tagbanwas of Palawan. Originally, these groups live in the coastal areas until raiders and conquerors arrived which forced them to flee in the highlands, a move that preserved their rich heritage and culture.17

Click here to view the sample writings of the Hanunuos ang Buhids of Mindoro and the Tagbanwas of Palawan.

For centuries, cultural practices are still embedded in the consciousness of a collective people in the rich context of tradition and history.

Writing love letters is an ancient form of expression…an inscription in the sturdiest Acacia tree of a school ground, an ancient script on a bamboo slat… a legacy of writing the past, engraving the present and tracing the future.

  1. Visit http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/ and trace the historical roots of the ancient Philippine script and its implications on Philippine Prehistory. Take a glimpse at the various prehistorical artifacts bearing ancient systems of writing found in the Philippines. Articles and studies written by scholar, Hector Santos.
  2. Have a closer look at the ancient Philippine script, Alibata and learn how to use the syllabary when you visit http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/index.html.
  3. Translate words into ‘Alibata’ at www.eaglescorner.com/baybayin/baybayin.html

Sources:
1, 3, 15 http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/literacy/literacy.htm
2http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/lang.html
4, 6http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/origin.html
5http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/lci/kavi.htm
7, 12 Francisco, Juan R. “Tracing the origin of the Philippine syllabary”.
8, 9, 10http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/features.html
11http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/mystery/pot.htm
13http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/mystery/silver2.htm
14http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/lci/lci.htm
16http://fatoprofugus.net/alibata/extinct.html
17http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/living/living.htm

Maya Nuñez is a contributor for the Smart Schools website.  She graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines - Diliman with a degree in Philippine Studies and certificate in Creative Writing.