Tagalog Letter Sa

By itself, ᜐ reads as the syllable “sa.”

It has a built-in a vowel. A vowel mark called a kudlit above changes the vowel to i, also used for e; below, to u, also used for o. A virama cancels the vowel, leaving the consonant s.

Where did Baybayin come from?

Baybayin’s exact route into the Philippines is debated.

One proposal traces it to Pallava writing from South India, perhaps through Kawi, a script used in western Java; that possible route is placed between the 10th–14th centuries. Christopher Miller proposed a different ancestor based on Gujarati writing, with vowel marks like Kawi’s. The Calatagan Pot, an inscribed vessel catalogued to about the 15th century, is disputed: its date and inscription reading remain unsettled. Written accounts of Tagalog writing begin in the mid-1500s; the Doctrina Christiana, a Christian teaching book, printed Tagalog in Baybayin in 1593.

Baybayin appears in several settings: writing on leaves and bamboo, land deeds dated 1613 and 1625, and missionary teaching. It was also used to write Bisaya, Ilocano, and other Philippine languages. By the mid-1700s, Latin-script writing had displaced it in ordinary use. Hanunóo, Buhid, and Tagbanwa are related Philippine scripts, though they are not necessarily descendants of Tagalog Baybayin.