Maganda in Baybayin

Maganda in Baybayin

As I’ve been learning more and more Tagalog I’ve also been practicing Baybayin. Baybayin is a “syllabic” alphabet, where the letters represent syllables found in almost all Philippine languages. This includes “Ka”, “Sa”, “Ba”, etc… Though both my parents were Bisaya speakers, and Baybayin was originally documented as a Tagalog script, the syllabic nature of both Bisaya and Tagalog still made Baybayin a bit easier for me to comprehend.

Maganda in Baybayin (with kudlit for NA)
Maganda in Baybayin (with kudlit for NA).

In my latest artwork, I decided to write “maganda”, which means beautiful in Tagalog. I also surrounded it with leaves and flowers from various trees that you can find in the Philippines. This includes the flower of the Katmon tree, or the leaves of the National Tree of the Philippines: the Narra. There is also a branch of the Agoho tree and the leaves of the coastal Talisay.

Simple line rendition of the Katmon flower.
Simple line rendition of a Narra leaf.

Download my free Baybayin font

Try writing or typing in Baybayin with my new font “Niwang Uno.” I also give a brief tutorial on how to use it, visit the page here.

Support my art

If you find Baybayin and Philippine native flora beautiful too, do support my art and purchase a printable download.

Botanical Baybayin art and Blue Brush art, wall image
Botanical Baybayin art and Blue Brush art. Printable downloads available in my Etsy shop here! The botanical baybayin art on the left uses my free font Niwang Uno.

You can find the above artwork on my Etsy here.