Surat Bisaya

DBCantillas Etymology and Origins November 2, 2020 2 Minutes

House Bill 1022 or the “National Writing System Act” was

previously approved last April 23, 2018 and
declares Baybayin as the country’s national writing system
and thus aims to put the script to use in street signs, public
facilities, government halls, publications and even food labels.
Many linguists, historians and several Filipinos were upset that
other Philippine scripts are ignored.

Prehispanic writing system has enjoyed a resurgence over the

past few years with some Filipinos taking interest in learning as
their means of tracing one’s roots and connecting with
one’s culture. Of our 17 accounted Philippine syllabaries,
systems of consonant plus vowel syllables, only four (4)
remain in use among indigenous communities of present-day
according to UNESCO.
Brahmic Scripts

Prehispanic Philippine syllabaries are the writing systems that

developed (and soon flourished) all over the Philippines. Many
of the Southeast Asian writing systems clearly descended
from ancient alphabets used in India over 2000 years ago. In
the languages of Sumatra, Sulawesi as well as Philippines, the
native name for letter, or script, is the indigenous term: surat.
By the 21st century, various Filipino cultural organizations
simply collectively referred the scripts as suyat.

The country’s surat–or suyat–are related closely to other

Southeast Asian writing, nearly all are abugidas or alpha-
syllabary where any consonant is pronounced with the inherent
vowel /a/ following it; using diacritical marks to express other
vowels. It developed from South Indian Brahmi scripts
utilized in Asoka Inscriptions and Pallava Grantha–type of
writings during the ascendancy of India’s Pallava dynasty
around the 5th century.
Surat (Suyat)

Baybayin does not encompass an entirety of writing systems

being just one of those 17 prehispanic scripts present around
the Philippines. Widespread use was likewise reported among
other coastal-groups like the Bisaya, Iloko, Pangasinan, Bikol,
and Pampanga in the 16th century. H.B. 1022 critics worry that
relegating the Baybayin would erase the diversity that continue
to exist and also perpetuate Tagalog-centric national identity.
The Visayans have Surat Bisaya, Suwat Bisaya or Sulat
Bisaya (aka Badlit; Surat is historically the more appropriate
name for Visayan scripts). It is written from left to right and
requires “no spaces” between words. Space is applied only after
ends of a sentence or punctuation, although in its modern
writing it usually contains spaces after each word to
enhance readability of the narrative. Artifacts found
with Surat inscriptions then deciphered through
our Visayan language included the Calatagan Pot, Monreal
Stones (two) and Limasawa Pot.

When the Spaniards arrived, they studied and used surat to

communicate with the early Filipinos; and teach Catholicism.
As Filipinos soon started to learn the Roman alphabet from the
Spanish, the use of our native scripts especially in lowland
places began to disappear. Meanwhile, surat of Sulu and
Maguindanao were replaced by the Arabic alphabet around
the 14th and 15th centuries, respectively.
Phonemes and Diacritics

Surat Bisaya has 20 (originally from 18)

phonemes: 15 primary consonants and 5 (from 3) vowels.
Basic consonants (or sinugdanan na katingog)–b, k, d, g, h, l,
m, n, ŋ (ng), p, r, s, t, w, j (y)–followed by inherent vowel /a/,
are as follows: Ba, Ka, Da, Ga, Ha, La, Ma, Na, Nga, Pa, Ra, Sa,
Ta, Wa, Ya.

Five vowels (the pantingog) are: A, U, O, I, E. In prehispanic

period, Bisaya only had three vowel-phonemes: /a/, /i/, and
/u/. This was later expanded into five (5) with the introduction
plus integration of some Hispanic-words: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and
/u/.

Kudlit (or diacritical marks) enables the writer to change the

default /a/ sound of any of our basic consonants via using the
same character. Put that kudlit below the syllable to change the
consonants default vowel to /u/ or /o/, or above the syllable for
/i/ or /e/. Spaniards even introduced to terminate consonants
default vowel as well as various panulbok (“punctuation
marks”).
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