Tagbanwa alphabet

Origin

The Tagbanwa alphabet is one of a number of closely related scripts used in the Philippines until the 17th Century AD. It is thought to have descended 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.

Notable features

Tagbanwa is a syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an inherent vowel /a/. Other vowels are indicated either by separate letters, or by diacritics. When vowels appear at the beginning of words or one they own, they are represented by separate letters.
Tagbanwa is traditionally written on bamboo in vertical columns from bottom to top and left to right. Though it is read from left to right in horizontal lines.

Used to write

Tagbanwa (a.k.a. Apurahuano), an Austronesian language with about 8,000 speakers in the central and northern regions of the Philippine island of Palawan.

Tagbanwa alphabet

Links

Free Tagbanwa font
http://youpibouh.thefreecat.org/download/tagbanwa.htm

Paul Morrow's excellent site about Philippine history, language, writing, etc http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow

A fascinating introduction to the alphabets of the Philippines by Hector Santos
http://www.bibingka.com/dahon

Related languages

Balinese, Batak, Bikol, Bugis, Buhid, Cebuano, Cham, Chamorro, Drehu, Fijian, Filipino, Hanuno'o, Hawaiian, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Javanese, Kapampangan, Makasar, Malagasy, Malay, Mandar, Maori, Marshallese, Moriori, Rarotongan, Redjang, Rotuman, Samoan, Sundanese, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tahitian, Tetum, Tongan, Tuvaluan, Waray-Waray, Yapese

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet

Other syllabic alphabets

Ahom, Balinese, Batak, Bengali, Brahmi, Buhid, Burmese, Cham, Dehong Dai, Devanagari, Dhives Akuru, Ethiopic, Evēla Akuru, Grantha, Gujarati, Gurmukhi (Punjabi), Hanuno'o, Hmong, Javanese, Kannada, Kharosthi, Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Lepcha, Limbu, Lontara/Makasar, Malayalam, Manpuri, Modi, New Tai Lue, Oriya, Pallava, Phags-pa, Ranjana, Redjang, Rotuman, Shan, Sharda, Siddham, Sinhala, Sorang Sompeng, Sourashtra, Soyombo, Sundanese, Syloti Nagri, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tocharian, Varang Kshiti

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