Baybayin
traditional and indigenous Philippine writing system
Baybayin (ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔, Tagalog pronunciation: [baɪˈbajɪn]),
also sometimes erroneously referred to as alibata, is a Philippine script that was widely used in Luzon during and prior to the 16th and 17th centuries.
It was utilized primarily to write Tagalog, and to a lesser extent, Visayan languages, Kapampangan, Ilocano, and several other Philippine languages.
Baybayin is an abugida belonging to the family of the Brahmic scripts. Its use was gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet during Spanish rule, though it has seen limited modern usage in the Philippines.
The script is encoded in Unicode as Tagalog block since 2002 alongside Buhid, Hanunoo, and Tagbanwa scripts.
The Archives of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila holds the largest collection of extant writings using Baybayin.
Baybayin has seen a rise in modern usage, primarily for cultural and artistic purposes, including in visual arts, literature, tattoos, and logos. It is also featured on the logos of government agencies, Philippine banknotes, and passports. Additionally, there are educational initiatives and workshops aimed at teaching Baybayin to a new generation. Social media has also been instrumental in the increased awareness and interest in Baybayin.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q812124. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2002.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baybayin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.