The baybayin is in a syllabaric form with three vowels (a, e-i, o-u) and up to 14 consonants. Examples of baybayin can be found in Doctrina Cristiana (1593), the first book issued in the Philippines by Spanish missionaries.
It states that all indigenous people could read and write baybayin before the arrival of Spanish. Tree bark and bamboo were common writing tools of the ancient Tagalog and the letters were carved upon them with sharp objects. A hyphen or dot is placed above the consonant to mark the sound of “e” or “i” and below it to mark the sound of “o” or “u” with the consonant.
One proof of the baybayin writing is carved on an ancient pottery found by archaeologists in Calatagan, Batangas. Today, the Mindoro Mangyans and the Palawan Tagbanwa continue to use the baybayin. They use them to write short poetry, songs, and love letters.
Paul Rodríguez Verzosa once called the old alphabet alibáta because in his research it was derived from the Arabic alphabet alif, ba, ta. He just took out the "f" and made it alibata. However, no historic proof has been found that the baybayin is linked to the Arabic alphabet. Even the languages of the countries of Southeast Asia do not show the characteristics or arrangement of letters similar to the Arabic language so since then the word "alibata" is no longer used to refer to the ancient alphabet of the Philippines.
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