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Affliction Clothing: Brandon Vera Baybayin shirt errors

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

Baybayin dance & martial art

In 2008, Bonifacio Comandante developed seven forms of movement, miming the ancient script and referred to it as the Liping Baybayin.He developed a fitness dance and aerobic exercise, not patterned after Western fitness programs but acting out each Baybayin character. He describes another wellness exercise “to be better than Tai-chi and smoother (to perform) because Baybayin (characters) are not angular (in form).”

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Baybayin Alive

Perla Daly recently started a blog called Baybayin Alive discussing the idea that the script has deeper meaning.

I just recently started this blog which will be dedicated to sharing some of the deeper meanings of various baybayin symbols. Some meanings are quite old. Other interpretations are new. But it remains that the archetypal meanings of symbols can be timeless.

If you have the ability to think metaphorically or like an indigenous person, you can better come to understand the hidden meanings of the baybayin. You can readily develop the ability if you are open. This can be a small awakening, steps towards pagbabalikloob and decolonization

An interesting post is about the Ba character and how it relates to women. One source of these ideas is from G.E. Tolentino’s book,  “Ang Wika at ang Baybaying Tagalog” in 1937. In it, he describes the whole alphabet the the supposed meanings.

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