154 MILLER. 



consonants together with the vowel a. These characters repre- 

 sent the syllables ba, da, ga, ka, la, ma, na, etc. The addition of 

 a short mark, usually a straight line, above these characters 

 changes the vowel to e or i, so that we would have bi, di, ki, U, 

 mi, ni, etc. The placing of the same short mark below the 

 character gives the vowel value o or u, and we would have bo, 

 do, go, ko, lo, mo, no, etc. 



Certain inconveniences and inaccuracies in such a system of 

 writing are apparent. Neither a combination of consonants nor 

 a terminal consonant can be represented, but only a single con- 

 sonant followed by a single vowel. For example a Mangyan 

 who was writing for me on a piece of bamboo had occasion to 

 use the Spanish word "trabajo." This he represented by the 

 characters for ta-ra-ba-ho. "Salamat," the common Filipino 

 word for thank you, is written sa-la^-ma, the final consonant 

 not being represented. "Barrio" appears as ba-yo, "Agosto," 

 as a-go-to, and so on. 



These facts, for a person familiar with the system of writing, 

 make it much easier to write than to read it.^^ . 



There is nothing strange in the fact that the Mangyans, one 

 of the least advanced of all the people of the Philippines, should 

 have a native system of writing, while all the other people of 

 the Islands who can write at all, with the exception of the 

 Tagbanwas of Palawan, use the Roman alphabet. 



When it is remembered that at the time of the arrival of the 

 Spaniards there were systems of writing in use among the Ilokos, 

 the Pampangas, the Pangasinans, the Tagalogs, and the Bisayas, 

 and probably also among the Mangyans and Tagbanwas, and 

 when the great advantages which an alphabet presents over a 

 syllabary are considered, it is not surprising that those Filipinos 

 who came most in contact with the Spaniards abandoned their 

 old systems in favor of the Roman alphabet, while those who 

 were remote from Spanish influence continued to use them, even 

 down to the present day.-^ 



" T. H. Pardo de Tavera, op. cit, points out that in the ancient Tagalog 

 writing two characters for le or li following each other might be read 

 lili, lilin, lilip, lilis, lilim, liclic, Uglig. The characters for 6a and ta might be 

 read bata, batang, batas, banta, bantay. 



'' I hope to have within a few months some additional data on Mangyan 

 writing and to publish a more detailed account of it than is possible at 

 the present time. 



