Baybayin.com (aka Alibata) art, translations and tutorials » Errors

Akbayan SJSU & AKO

Christian Cabuay — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 05:24:50 +0000

Last month, Akbayan San Jose State University hosted an “Alibata” workshop “taught” by the brothers of AKO. While I didn’t attend this workshop, I was a bit annoyed by the use of Alibata. I get it if Alibata was used because that’s what people know it as but was explanation about the historical aspect of it? I doubt it. Besides the misdemeanor term, I question the the translation of AKO in the postcard below. I totally understand that it’s A.K.O (Alpha Kappa Omega) but it’s so obviously incorrect. If you use “Fob it”, “Be cool” and provide an wrong translation (isn’t even a loose one) with a backwards A character, you have no business running a workshop. Sorry

My biggest issue is that myself and others, spend a lot of time and money trying to revive Baybayin. When misseducation like this gets out, it makes what we do a whole lot harder.

While I don’t claim to be an expert in Baybayin, I know the basics. Hell, anyone can just by reading a few websites. Even Wikipedia has good info. Yeah, Baybayin (Alibata) is cool but don’t throw crap out there.

Yes, I emailed them and commented on posts but never received a response

Affliction Clothing: Brandon Vera Baybayin shirt errors

Christian Cabuay — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:44:15 +0000

1st of all, I think it’s cool that Baybayin is on a MAJOR clothing company like Affliction but unfortunately, there are a few issues. Here’s Affliction’s Signature Series shirt of Brandon Vera. The front has an eagle and “The Truth”. The back is where it get’s interesting where there are 4 Baybayin words that are tattooed on Brandon’s back. They represent the 4 elements Earth (Mundo), Wind (Hangin), Water (Tubig) and Fire (Apoy). Starting with the tattoo, Earth should probably be “Lupa” as in dirt. Mundo while conversational Tagalog (Spanish rooted) for world/earth. When your speaking about the element earth, I believe one means dirt not the planet Earth. Also the Ma character in Mundo is missing a kudlit that would make it Mu. The tattoo actually says Mando. Easy fix though.

Now to the shirt. The graphic below is a screenshot of the back. Besides being out of order as it s on Brandon’s back, there are some inconsistencies in kudlit writing. I think it’s fine in handwriting and even in art but for a commercial shirt, it should be uniform.

Tubig (Correct)
The characters written are Tu-Bi-G. Notice the cancellation kudlit under the last character. Without the + kudlit, it would read as Tubiga.

Apoy (Incorrect)
Looks like the characters written are A-Po-Yo. It should have a + just like the Ga character in Tubig. If using cancellation + kudlits, it’s important that you make sure they look different than your traditional kudlits.

Mundo (Incorrect)
Besides the Lupa and Ma tattoo issue I mentioned earlier, this also has the + issue but this time for the 2nd character Na. The last character looks like it was combined with the kudlit. With the + kudlit and DA errors, it looks like it says Manoda or Manade.

Hangin (Incorrect)
Again, the last character is missing the + kudlit. Now it looks like Hangino.

What sucks is that some people will probably get those wrong words tattooed. How did this happened? Probably the designer found a photo of Brandon’s back online and just reworked it and didn’t bother to research or ask around it it was correct or not.

Check it out at Affliction Clothing

Pinoya?

Christian Cabuay — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:18:36 +0000

Saw this on Ebay. If they are providing a translation service, they should at least get the word Pinoy correct. It actually says PINOYA.

Aliw-iw?

Christian Cabuay — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:07:09 +0000

Came across this event poster. The Baybayin on the left looks like it says A-LI-I – I. I assume it’s supposed to be Aliw-iw. If it is, there’s an extra I after LI. Check it out….

Eugene Amano’s clothing line

Christian Cabuay — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:35:08 +0000

Filipino pro football paler Eugene Amano has is own clothing line “Amano Island Strength”. Check out the signature line from the myspace page. The Baybayin characters below are S-T-RE-NG-T-H. Kind of a strange transliteration in my opinion. Shouldn’t this be LA-KA or LA-KA-S?

Here’s probably what happened…..a search was made on google for “Alibata translator” and landed on the popular “Eagle’s corner”. Strength was typed in the translator using the modified “SPanish” version because using traditional would only return the “DA/RA” glyph. Some are under the impression that a Baybayin translator is also an English to Tagalog translator as well.

Malakas = ME-LE-KE?

Christian Cabuay — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:42:29 +0000

I don’t intend for this to become an “Alibata error” site but I feel that I need to post errors to educate. Here’s something I found for sale. It’s supposed to say Malakas (strong) but it actualy translates to ME/I-LE/I-KE/I. It shouldn’t have any kudlits. The proper traditional way would be MA-LA-KA.

Arnos Self-Defense

Christian Cabuay — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:05:45 +0000

I found this Arnis Self-Defense book on Ebay. Notice the kudlit under the NA character. Having a kudlit under it, would make it NO/NU. The correct way would be to have the kudlit above it to make it NE/NI.

Kali = Kana? Kala?

Christian Cabuay — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 23:40:57 +0000

This was originally posted on PinoyTattoos.com

Found this photo on Flickr that’s supposed to say KA-LI (Filipino martial art) but it actually says KA-NA because instead of the the “L” character, it’s an “N”. Notice the difference between the two.

Let’s say it’s artistic license and the “L” and “N” characters just look alike, there’s still the issue of the missing kudlit above the “LA” glyph. Kali done correctly would look like this:

Here’s another one of his tattoos

Check out his Flickr profile

Filipino Alibata Katipunan Fitted T-Shirt

Christian Cabuay — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:58:16 +0000

I noticed this “Filipino Alibata Katipunan” being sold via CafePress. Couple problems with this shirt….1) It’s Baybayin, not Alibata. 2) The Katipunan used “KA”, not “KE” or “KI”. and 3) Isn’t brotherhood kapatiran?

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