Tagbanwa is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines, used by the Tagbanwa and the Palawan people as their ethnic writing system. [1]
Tagbanwa script ᝦᝪᝯ | |
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Script type | |
Time period | c. 1300–present |
Direction | Left-to-right |
Region | Palawan Island |
Languages | Palawanic languages |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems |
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ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Tagb(373),Tagbanwa |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Tagbanwa |
U+1760–U+177F |
Brahmic scripts |
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The Brahmi script and its descendants |
The Tagbanwa languages (Aborlan, Calamian and Central), which are Austronesian languages with about 8,000-25,000 [2] total speakers in the central and northern regions of Palawan, are dying out as the younger generations of Tagbanwa are learning and using non-traditional languages such as Cuyonon and Tagalog, thus becoming less knowledgeable of their own indigenous cultural heritage. There are proposals to revive the script by teaching it in public and private schools with Tagbanwa populations. [3]
The Tagbanwa script was used in the Philippines until the 17th century. Closely related to Baybayin, it is believed to have come from the Kawi script of Java, Bali and Sumatra, which in turn, descended from the Pallava script, one of the southern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi. [4]
Tagbanwa is an alphasyllabary or abugida in which each letter represents a syllable consisting of a consonant and an inherent vowel /a/, a feature that it shares with many related scripts from SE Asia as they derive from variants of the Brahmic scripts of India. Similar to these scripts, vowels other than /a/ are indicated by the addition of a diacritic above (for /i/) or below (for /u/) the letter. [5] Lone vowels are represented by their own, independent letters, thus /a/, /i/ and /u/ since there are only three. Syllables ending in a consonant are written without the final consonant. [6] Tagbanwa is distinguished from Baybayin by the shapes of several letters, most notably ‹ka› and ‹wa› that are markedly different from other varieties. [1]
Tagbanwa is traditionally written on bamboo in vertical columns from bottom to top and left to right. However, it is read from left to right in horizontal lines. [4]
vowels | consonants | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ᝠ a | ᝣ ka | ᝤ ga | ᝥ nga | ᝦ ta | ᝧ da | ᝨ na | ᝩ pa | ᝪ ba | ᝫ ma | ᝬ ya | ᝮ la | ᝯ wa | ᝰ sa | |||||
ᝡ i | ᝲ i | ᝣ + ᝲ ᝣᝲ ki | ᝤ+ ᝲ ᝤᝲ gi | ᝥ + ᝲ ᝥᝲ ngi | ᝦ + ᝲ ᝦᝲ ti | ᝧ + ᝲ ᝧᝲ di | ᝨ + ᝲ ᝨᝲ ni | ᝩ + ᝲ ᝩᝲ pi | ᝪ + ᝲ ᝪᝲ bi | ᝫ + ᝲ ᝫᝲ mi | ᝬ + ᝲ ᝬᝲ yi | ᝮ + ᝲ ᝮᝲ li | ᝯ + ᝲ ᝯᝲ wi | ᝰ + ᝲ ᝰᝲ si | ||||
ᝢ u | ᝳ u | ᝣ + ᝳ ᝣᝳ ku | ᝤ + ᝳ ᝤᝳ gu | ᝥ + ᝳ ᝥᝳ ngu | ᝦ + ᝳ ᝦᝳ tu | ᝧ + ᝳ ᝧᝳ du | ᝨ + ᝳ ᝨᝳ nu | ᝩ + ᝳ ᝩᝳ pu | ᝪ + ᝳ ᝪᝳ bu | ᝫ + ᝳ ᝫᝳ mu | ᝬ + ᝳ ᝬᝳ yu | ᝮ + ᝳ ᝮᝳ lu | ᝯ + ᝳ ᝯᝳ wu | ᝰ + ᝳ ᝰᝳ su |
Tagbanwa writing makes use of single (᜵) and double (᜶) punctuation marks. [6]
In the 20th century, this script was adopted from the Tagbanwa by the Palawan people further south in the island. [1] They call this alphabet Ibalnan and the vowel mark an ulit. [7]
Tagbanwa script was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2002 with the release of version 3.2.
The Unicode block for Tagbanwa is U+1760–U+177F:
Tagbanwa [1] [2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+176x | ᝠ | ᝡ | ᝢ | ᝣ | ᝤ | ᝥ | ᝦ | ᝧ | ᝨ | ᝩ | ᝪ | ᝫ | ᝬ | ᝮ | ᝯ | |
U+177x | ᝰ | ᝲ | ᝳ | |||||||||||||
Notes |
An abugida – sometimes also called alphasyllabary, neosyllabary, or pseudo-alphabet – is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary, similar to a diacritical mark. This contrasts with a full alphabet, in which vowels have status equal to consonants, and with an abjad, in which vowel marking is absent, partial, or optional – in less formal contexts, all three types of the script may be termed "alphabets". The terms also contrast them with a syllabary, in which a single symbol denotes the combination of one consonant and one vowel.
The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India and are used by various languages in several language families in South, East and Southeast Asia: Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, and Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order (gojūon) of Japanese kana.
The Soyombo script is an abugida developed by the monk and scholar Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian. It can also be used to write Tibetan and Sanskrit.
Baybayin is a Philippine script. The script is an abugida belonging to the family of the Brahmic scripts. Geographically, it was widely used in Luzon and other parts of the Philippines prior to and during the 16th and 17th centuries before being replaced by the Latin alphabet during the period of Spanish colonization. It was used in the Tagalog language and, to a lesser extent, Kapampangan-speaking areas; its use spread to the Ilocanos in the early 17th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries, baybayin survived and evolved into multiple forms—the Tagbanwa script of Palawan, and the Hanuno'o and Buhid scripts of Mindoro—and was used to create the constructed modern Kulitan script of the Kapampangan and the Ibalnan script of the Palawan people. Under the Unicode Standard and ISO 15924, the script is encoded as the Tagalog block.
The Balinese script, natively known as Aksarä Bali and Hanacaraka, is an abugida used in the island of Bali, Indonesia, commonly for writing the Austronesian Balinese language, Old Javanese, and the liturgical language Sanskrit. With some modifications, the script is also used to write the Sasak language, used in the neighboring island of Lombok. The script is a descendant of the Brahmi script, and so has many similarities with the modern scripts of South and Southeast Asia. The Balinese script, along with the Javanese script, is considered the most elaborate and ornate among Brahmic scripts of Southeast Asia.
The Batak script is a writing system used to write the Austronesian Batak languages spoken by several million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The script may be derived from the Kawi and Pallava script, ultimately derived from the Brahmi script of India, or from the hypothetical Proto-Sumatran script influenced by Pallava.
Filipinoorthography specifies the correct use of the writing system of the Filipino language, the national and co-official language of the Philippines.
The Tamil script is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere to write the Tamil language. It is one of the official scripts of the Indian Republic. Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra, Badaga, Irula and Paniya are also written in the Tamil script.
The Javanese script is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese language, but in the course of its development has also been used to write several other regional languages such as Sundanese, Madurese, and Sasak; the lingua franca of the region, Malay; as well as the historical languages Kawi and Sanskrit. Javanese script was actively used by the Javanese people for writing day-to-day and literary texts from at least the mid-15th century CE until the mid-20th century CE, before its function was gradually supplanted by the Latin alphabet. Today the script is taught in DI Yogyakarta, Central Java, and the East Java Province as part of the local curriculum, but with very limited function in everyday use.
Surat Buhid is an abugida used to write the Buhid language. As a Brahmic script indigenous to the Philippines, it closely related to Baybayin and Hanunó'o. It is still used today by the Mangyans, found mainly on island of Mindoro, to write their language, Buhid, together with the Filipino latin script.
The Kawi or Old Javanese script is a Brahmic script found primarily in Java and used across much of Maritime Southeast Asia between the 8th century and the 16th century. The script is an abugida, meaning that characters are read with an inherent vowel. Diacritics are used, either to suppress the vowel and represent a pure consonant, or to represent other vowels.
Mandombe or Mandombé is a script proposed in 1978 in Mbanza-Ngungu in the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Wabeladio Payi, who related that it was revealed to him in a dream by Simon Kimbangu, the prophet of the Kimbanguist Church. Mandombe is based on the sacred shapes and , and intended for writing African languages such as Kikongo, as well as the four national languages of the Congo, Kikongo ya leta, Lingala, Tshiluba and Swahili, though it does not have enough vowels to write Lingala fully. It is taught in Kimbanguist church schools in Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is also promoted by the Kimbanguist Centre de l’Écriture Négro-Africaine (CENA). The Mandombe Academy at CENA is currently working on transcribing other African languages in the script. It has been classified as the third most viable indigenous script of recent indigenous west African scripts, behind only the Vai syllabary and the N'Ko alphabet.
The Lontara script, also known as the Bugis script, Bugis-Makassar script, or Urupu Sulapa’ Eppa’ "four-cornered letters", is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed in the South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi region. The script is primarily used to write the Buginese language, followed by Makassarese and Mandar. Closely related variants of Lontara are also used to write several languages outside of Sulawesi such as Bima, Ende, and Sumbawa. The script was actively used by several South Sulawesi societies for day-to-day and literary texts from at least mid-15th Century CE until the mid-20th Century CE, before its function was gradually supplanted by the Latin alphabet. Today the script is taught in South Sulawesi Province as part of the local curriculum, but with very limited usage in everyday life.
Standard Sundanese script is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script which was used from the 14th to the 18th centuries.
Hanunoo, also rendered Hanunó'o, is one of the scripts indigenous to the Philippines and is used by the Mangyan peoples of southern Mindoro to write the Hanunó'o language.
Kulitan, also known as súlat Kapampángan and pamagkulit, is one of the various indigenous suyat writing systems in the Philippines. It was used for writing Kapampangan, a language mainly spoken in Central Luzon, until it was gradually replaced by the Latin alphabet.
Suyat is the modern collective name of the indigenous scripts of various ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century up to the independence era in the 21st century. The scripts are highly varied; nonetheless, the term was suggested and used by cultural organizations in the Philippines to denote a unified neutral terminology for Philippine indigenous scripts.
U is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, U is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, U comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
Ū is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ū is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ū comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
The Tai Viet script is a Brahmic script used by the Tai Dam people and various other Thai people in Vietnam and Thailand.