WRITING SYSTEM | Surat Mangyan survives in the crafting of inscribed poems, but researchers are also pushing for its revival in common usage. (SCREENGRAB FROM REPORTED PRESENTATION OF DR. ROCHELLE IRENE LUCAS / Department of Science and Technology)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� An old, disparaging myth about the Mangyan tribes in the island of Mindoro was that they had tails 鈥渉alf a span long.鈥�
That was how the 17th century Italian traveler Giovanni Careri described them, according to the medical anthropologist Violeta Lopez, who wrote in a 1974 article that Careri鈥檚 impressions were based on the accounts of Jesuit priests 鈥渨ho probably mistook the Mangyan 鈥榖ahag鈥� (loincloth) for a tail.鈥�
That myth has long been discredited, but today鈥檚 Mangyan 鈥� mainly composed of eight tribes 鈥� increasingly face modern-day challenges in preserving their distinct culture.
One aspect of that culture is the Hanunoo, the native language from which they developed a writing system predating the Spanish era, called Surat Mangyan.
This precolonial orthography, or the representation of spoken sounds by written letters and other symbols, is also said to have evolved from India鈥檚 ancient Sanskrit.
A research team from De La Salle University is trying to preserve that legacy among the indigenous peoples (IP), with the support of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), particularly its National Research Council of the Philippines.
In 2020, amid a nationwide lockdown prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the team managed to develop a mobile electronic dictionary of the Hanunoo language.
The researchers also recommended the inclusion of Surat Mangyan in the curriculum for IP learners from kindergarten to Grade 3, and in the mother tongue-based multilingual education curriculum of the Department of Education鈥檚 Indigenous Education Program.
The Mangyan script is composed of 18 characters, three of which are vowels while the other 15 are written in combination with those vowels.
鈥楲anguage loss鈥�
Dr. Rochelle Irene Lucas, who heads the team, noted that the younger Mangyan generation was no longer literate in its own writing system.
鈥淸This] will eventually lead to [a] language loss in [terms of] writing their script,鈥� she said.
But as a spoken language, Hanunoo remains very much alive 鈥渋n social interactions at home and in the community,鈥� the researchers said after conducting a survey among Mangyans.
Hanunoo 鈥渋s also a source of identity and 鈥� of pride, which primarily is the driving force for [a] language to survive [amid] encounters with people from the dominant cultures,鈥� they said.
Yet only a few of the 170 respondents in the survey were able to identify the Mangyan script, according to Lucas.
This made the language 鈥渃ritically endangered,鈥� as her team put it, because of the limited use of its writing system.
The group recommended that the script be used in documenting gatherings, rituals and other activities among the eight tribes that make up the Mangyan population 鈥� the Alangan, Bangon, Buhid, Iraya, Ratagnon, Tadyawan, Tawbuid and Hanunoo.
The verses of the Mangyan鈥檚 literary pieces are usually scribed on bamboo internodes and wooden objects like 鈥渁pugan鈥� (lime container), 鈥渓uka鈥� (tobacco container) or 鈥済itgit鈥� (violin). 鈥揚HOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PHILIPPINES
Poems, songs
Despite Surat Mangyan鈥檚 lack of common usage, it stands out, remarkably, as the medium for writing traditional poems such as the 鈥渁mbahan,鈥� with its seven-syllable lines, and the 鈥渦rukay,鈥� a poem of eight-syllable lines that borrows words from the Western Visayan languages and even Spanish.
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts said these poems are 鈥渨ritten by stylus or knives on slivers of bamboo.鈥� They are also performed as songs鈥斺�渟ung or chanted with guitars, fiddles, flutes or Jew鈥檚 harps.鈥�
According to the National Museum of the Philippines (NMP), the poems are also written on wooden objects such as the 鈥渓uka鈥� (tobacco container) and 鈥渁pugan鈥� (lime container), on musical instruments and even on house beams.
鈥淭he script is also used for love letters and other correspondences such as 鈥� notifications of ceremonials,鈥� the NMP said.
Although Lucas鈥� team found a lack of familiarity with Surat Mangyan among the youth, the NMP said there are young people studying the poems, songs and prayers written on luka and apugan.
The late Dutch anthropologist Antoon Postma, who spent decades studying Mangyan culture since his first contact with the tribes in 1958, described them as a 鈥渧ery attractive people in their lack of affectation, [their] resourcefulness and apparent self-sufficiency.鈥�
While their culture somewhat adapted to modernity, as they replaced stones with iron tools, for example, 鈥渢he Mangyans continued to prefer their own traditions, which they consider the better way of life,鈥� Postma said.
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