Surat Binisaya by Rolando O. Borrinaga

“Surat Binisaya” was written by Rolando O. Borrinaga and published in 2017. In it Borrinaga shows a few notes and records from Spanish colonization showing Samareño syllabic writing, Bisayan syllabic writing, in addition to the Tagalog script Baybayin.

The book also gave me a deeper understanding of the on-going challenges of translating Philippine scripts written on old Philippine artifacts. One challenge is determining the validity and age of the artifacts. Another is determining what language was used when writing them, and what the objects were used for. Borrinaga cites various Spanish dictionaries and records as well as research by other colleagues, combined with old and modern contexts such as rituals and fishing practices.

He also shares that Baybayin is a Tagalog word that means “a-b-c”, meant for Tagalog script used to write in the Tagalog language. He cites Vocabulario de la lengua Tagala by Pedro de San Buenaventura in 1613 for this, which lists the world Baybayin in it.

Ancient scripts that were used to write in the Bisaya language however, were called Surat, meaning letter or writing, as noted in “Vocabulario de la lengua Bisaya” by Matheo Sanchez in 1711. Borrinaga adds that from the Bisayan perspective Baybayin can also be called Surat Tagalog in Bisaya. The book then delves into ancient scripts used to write in a Bisaya language on archaeological artifacts, including the Calatagan Pot. These last surviving objects are testaments to Surat Binisaya’s existence and usage centuries ago, alongside written records on the Bisaya by the Spanish mentioned earlier.

Bisaya dictionary from 1668

What makes the book even more valuable to any student of Philippine languages and writing, is Borrinaga’s corrections of an old Spanish dictionary of Bisaya words. Fr. Francisco Alcina was a Spanish Jesuit missionary assigned to Samar in the mid 1600s. Not long before he died he published “History of the Bisayan Islands” in 1668, an edited version of which published in 1974 was used by Borrinaga for this corrected list of Bisaya words. What’s great about the list is that additional research was made to correct spellings and sounds from the original Spanish record.

For example, a word from the original Spanish dictionary is COLALAPNIT, whose definition is “common bat.” Borrinaga places a corrected spelling, KULALAKNIT, which today is also kulaknit, or kuwaknit. The dictionary spans about 40 pages of his book, with possibly around 400 to 500 Bisaya words recorded from the 1600s.

Learning Surat Binisaya

I learned about Borrinaga and his book from an online presentation in 2021 called “Surat: Bisayan words and writing 500 years ago.” You can watch the Facebook live video here. I was interested since I was learning how to write in baybayin, the ancient Tagalog script, but didn’t realize there were also ancient scripts in the Visayas. Since my family is from the Visayas and are Bisaya speakers, I wanted to learn more, but I didn’t have the time back then.

Fast forward to last May when Baba Binisaya offered a Badlit workshop headed by Minxie Villaver of Karakoa Productions based in Cebu. It would be my second workshop presented by Minxie, and since I learned so much from her team’s first webinar on pre-colonial clothing, I immediately registered for the Badlit workshop.

During the workshop, Minxie gave a hands-on lesson in writing Surat Binisaya, topped with a pop quiz. This gave me a good introduction on how to start writing in it. Since I had already been writing in Baybayin, I was able to see the differences in the scripts. I also learned about the shared roots of Baybayin, Surat Binisaya, and other scripts in the Philippines. I highly recommend that you follow Baba Binisaya and Karakoa Productions for their upcoming workshops both online and hopefully offline too.

Surat Binisaya makes for a great addition to any library with a diverse and well-rounded collection on Philippine literature and writing, especially its history prior and at the start of Spanish colonization. It also gives us a glimpse at the on-going and much needed cultural and archaeological research and sharing that continues in the Philippines.

Upcoming webinar on pre-colonial clothing by Karakoa Productions

As of this writing, Karakoa Productions is holding another pre-colonial clothing webinar, “Beyond Filipiniana.” It’s schedule for this July 2023 so register now! See more information on their Facebook post here.