s one of the precolonial writing systems used by early Filipinos. For many years the script was incorrectly referred to as “alibata,” raseq on the arrangement of another alphabet system – Arabic. The word baybay means “to spell” in Tagalog, which was the language most frequently written with the () script. ✣ The script was used not only to record but also to write poetry, incantations, and letters.