TULDIK IN BAYBAYIN: Part 1 - Pronouncing, writing, and Early Proposals

In recent years, many students and learners of Baybayin asked how to determine if the word written in Baybayin is exactly what it is being referred to and not something else. 

For example, how we will know if the word "suso" really means breast or "suso" as in snail?

How we will know how to pronounce a certain word written in Baybayin, its accent, tone, and pronunciation?

These questions are the reason why we made this Tuldik or Palatuldikan (diacritical marks) that would supplement the Baybayin script.

Bigkás-Baybáy

Baybayin has two components, pronouncing and writing. Originally, Baybayin is written as a syllable

(not to be confused with Syllabary, a different writing system commonly used in Japanese hiragana and katakana)

without including the single consonant at the end of each syllable.

For example, Ban, Tan, Ran, Yet, Met, Set can be pronounced the same, but you will write it as Ba, Ta, Ra, Ye, Me, Se. 

You will still pronounce it as it is, but you will write it differently. This can be seen in B17 and B18 methods/ways, while other methods/ways like B17X, B18X, B23X, B27X etc, follow pronouncing and writing as a whole.

If someone asked, "how we will know if suso as in snail or suso as in breast is the one written using original Baybayin?

The answer is, it depends on the context of the word, its content, and the sentence itself. 

Because in the original way of writing Baybayin, it is written per syllable with the single consonant at the end removed. It also uses two Kudlit, with no Virama (vowel canceller/killer), and also uses Pag-uúlit.

But as time pass by, many proposals on how to write Baybayin had emerged. Few of these proposals are useable, but many proposals are erroneous, lacks substance, and are not yet ripe per se.

Early Proposals

This latest tuldik proposal is not the only proposal we will present here. Before this [proposal], someone already tried to answer this problem.

According to Guillermo Tolentino's proposal on diacritical marks for Baybayin, the tuldik or diacritical marks places on the right side of every letter/character in Baybayin.

He also used something that resembles a dash or minus sign for Virama (vowel canceller/killer).

Although it is somehow confusing, and space-consuming, it is one of the key steps for the development of Baybayin on his time.

Also according to another proposal, to differentiate suso (snail), and suso (breast) it's just written like this(SuS+ So) for snail, and (Su So) for breast will remain like this(Su So).

While the Kulitan script used today has its own method/way on how to change the pronunciation or tone of their "a", "i", and "u" sound:

To lengthen or give an emphasis to an "-a" next to the main letter/character, you will put another "A" letter/character on the right side.

To lengthen or give an emphasis to an "-i" next to the main letter/character, you will put another "I" letter/character on the right side.

To lengthen or give an emphasis to an "-u" next to the main letter/character, you will put another "U" letter/character on the right side.

This is Part 1 of "Diacritical marks for accent, tone, and pronunciation in Baybayin".

For Part 2 click here

For Part 3 click here

For Part 4 click here