Baybayin in the context of "Albay"

Tagalog (/təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/ tə-GAH-log, native pronunciation: [tɐˈɡaːloɡ] ; Baybayin: ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority. Its de facto standardized and codified form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of the nation's two official languages, alongside English.

Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, the Bisaya languages, Ilocano, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Indonesian, Malay, Hawaiian, Māori, Malagasy, and many more.

The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Most Bisayan languages are spoken in the whole Visayas section of the country, but they are also spoken in the southern part of the Bicol Region (particularly in Masbate and Sorsogon where several dialects of Waray are spoken), islands south of Luzon, such as those that make up Romblon, most of the areas of Mindanao and the province of Sulu located southwest of Mindanao. Some residents of Metro Manila also speak one of the Bisayan languages.

Over 30 languages constitute the Bisayan language family. The Bisayan language with the most speakers is Cebuano, spoken by 20 million people as a native language in Central Visayas, parts of Eastern Visayas, and most of Mindanao. Two other well-known and widespread Bisayan languages are Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), spoken by 9 million in most of Western Visayas and Soccsksargen; and Waray-Waray, spoken by 6 million in Eastern Visayas region. Prior to colonization, the script and calligraphy of most of the Visayan peoples was the badlit, closely related to the Tagalog baybayin.

The Pallava script, or Pallava Grantha, named after the Pallava dynasty of Southern India (Tamilakam) and is attested to since the 4th century CE. The Pallava script evolved from Tamil-Brahmi. It was used to originally write Tamil and Sanskrit texts  – the court languages of Pallavas, thus, it features glyphs to render the sounds of both languages. Both the Tamil script via the intermediate script/step called Chozha-Pallava-Script and Grantha script have originated from the Pallava script.

Pallava also spread to Southeast Asia and evolved into scripts such as Balinese, Baybayin, Javanese, Kawi, Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Mon–Burmese, New Tai Lue, Sundanese, and Thai. This script is the sister of the Vatteluttu script which was also used to write Tamil and Malayalam in the past.

Tondo (Tagalog: [tunˈdo]; Baybayin: ᜆᜓᜇᜓ, Kapampangan: Balen ning Tundo), also popularly known referred to as the Kingdom of Tondo, was a Tagalog and Kapampangan settlement which served as a major trade hub located on the northern part of the Pasig River delta on Luzon Island. Together with Maynila, the polity (bayan) which was also situated on the southern part of the Pasig River delta, Tondo established a shared monopoly on the trade of Chinese goods throughout the rest of the Philippine archipelago, making it an established force in trade throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia.

Tondo is one of the oldest historically documented settlements in the Philippines. It was mentioned in the Lord Namvaran's acquittance in 900 AD, also called the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the oldest extant written document in the Philippines.