Tagalog Letter Pa

It is the full syllable pa, including its a vowel.

Each Baybayin consonant carries an a, so ᜉ alone reads pa. Add the kudlit ᜒ (vowel mark) above for pi or pe, or ᜓ below for pu or po; these signs also serve e and o, respectively.

For final p, cancel the base vowel. Francisco Lopez introduced the cross-shaped virama ᜔ in a 1620 catechism, but it seems not to have caught on. Pamudpod ᜕, borrowed from Hanunóo, is another cancellation sign.

Where does Baybayin come from?

Baybayin links Philippine scripts with older South Asian writing.

Baybayin is linked to Pallava, a South Indian script tradition in the Brahmi family, an ancient South Asian writing system. That writing may have reached the Philippines by way of Kawi, a historical island Southeast Asian script used in the 8th–16th centuries; the route is uncertain. Hanunóo, Buhid and Tagbanwa are related Philippine scripts, each with its own Pa letter.

Spanish missionary accounts and Tagalog documents date from the mid-1500s. Baybayin wrote Tagalog, Bisaya, Ilocano and other languages, with notes scratched on bamboo or palm leaves. Missionaries also used it for Christian teaching. The first book printed in the script appeared in Manila in 1593. The University of Santo Tomas, a Philippine university, preserves Baybayin land deeds from 1613 and 1625.

Why does ᜉ look different?

Fonts change its drawing, not the encoded character.

Unicode leaves the outline to fonts, so stroke shapes vary. If a box appears, a font with Tagalog support can display ᜉ.

A different stroke is cosmetic; a missing vowel mark changes the reading. Check the marks after resizing or exporting artwork.