This inquiry from Linguist list (I get to that mail slowly these days)
may be of interest. There exists a Yahoogroup on this script - see
Qalam messages 882 & 1238, or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alibata/ .
DZO


Date: 18-Sep-2005
From: Christopher Lapinig <christopher.lapinig@...>
Subject: The Philippine Script of Alibata (Also, Baybayin)

I am very interested in investigating aspects of the virtually extinct
Philippine script known as alibata (also known as baybayin), and I was
curious to find out if anyone knew of any work that had been done with
this script.

Most specifically, I am interested in the parsing of this script by
Philippine readers, as alibata is infamous for its inability to
represent the syllable-final consonants pervasive in many Philippine
languages (i.e., the Tagalog word 'pagdating' would be represented as
'pa-da-ti'). I am curious regarding any possible phonological reasons,
if any, why parsing this script was possible or if contextual clues
really provide all of the cues necessary for readers to understand the
text.

Additionally, I would like to look into the origins of this text,
specifically whether it came directly from India or through some
people of Indonesia.

Lastly, I was wondering if any of this work has been done by using the
related and still marginally used scripts of Tagbanwa in Palawan and
Mangyan in Mindoro or if comparative work has been done with Buginese
and other related Indonesian scripts.

Much thanks in advance,

Christopher Lapinig

Linguistic Field(s): Phonology
Writing Systems