Sulat sa Kawayan

POV knife carving of Hanunoo script on bamboo.

Hanunoo script or Sulat Mangyan is one of two pre-Hispanic indigenous writing that is still in use today by native tribes in the island of Mindoro. The second is the Buhid script and a third surviving script in the northern part of Palawan islands is the Tagbanwa script. This form of writing are just different variants of Baybayin script (also known erroneously as Alibata).

Normally, the Hanunoo script is used for writing Hanunoo. But since I don't understand Mangyan languages, I used Tagalog. I know the Buhid use their script with Tagalog from time to time, and the writing system is basically Baybayin after all; I figure this practice is acceptable.

The carving says, "Aking Sinta" (My Love) which is supposed to be the begging of a love letter or poem. Note that I am using the "Pamudpod" symbol to cancel the vowels for "ng" and "n". The Pamudpod is the equivalent of the virama or cross-kudlit that the Spaniards introduced for the Tagalog and Ilocano versions of Baybayin.