The Maguindanao Alphabet

Maguindanao is a major Philippine language ^[1] with approximately 1.8 million speakers in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) of the southern Philippines. It is primarily spoken in North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and Maguindanao provinces, with the Cotabato River basin (also known as the Rio Grande de Mindanao) as the heartland of the Maguindanao people. The language is also spoken by diaspora communities in Metro Manila and other parts of the Philippines.

The Maguindanao people are one of the major Bangsamoro (Moro) peoples of the Philippines — the collective term for the Muslim ethnic groups of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. The Sultanate of Maguindanao, established in the 17th century, was a powerful Islamic state that at its height controlled significant territory in Mindanao. The sultanate had diplomatic relations with other Islamic states in Southeast Asia and maintained a form of political independence through the Spanish and American colonial periods.

Maguindanao uses the Latin alphabet ^[1] with 19 letters for everyday writing. The Latin script was introduced during the American colonial period and has become the standard for education, official documents, and modern media. In addition to the Latin script, Maguindanao has historically used an Arabic-derived script (related to Jawi) for religious texts, correspondence, and cultural materials. This script is sometimes called the Maguindanao script and is used in Islamic educational contexts (madrasa).

The influence of Islam on Maguindanao writing and culture is profound. Arabic is taught in Islamic schools (madrasas) throughout the Bangsamoro region, and many Maguindanao people are literate in Arabic for religious purposes. The Arabic-derived script for writing Maguindanao has been used for centuries and preserves a rich manuscript tradition. Efforts to maintain this script alongside the Latin alphabet reflect the dual cultural heritage of the Maguindanao people.

Maguindanao belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian ^[2]. Within Philippine Austronesian, Maguindanao is part of the Danao language subgroup, which also includes Maranao and Iranun. These three languages form a closely related cluster of languages spoken by Muslim peoples in the Lanao and Cotabato regions of Mindanao. Despite being Muslim languages with significant Arabic vocabulary, their fundamental grammatical structure is Austronesian.

Like other Philippine Austronesian languages, Maguindanao features the Philippine focus/voice system where verb morphology indicates the semantic role of the grammatically prominent argument. The language also has features typical of Austronesian, including reduplication for various grammatical purposes. However, contact with Arabic and Malay (through Islamic influence) and with Spanish and English (through colonial periods) has enriched Maguindanao vocabulary with loanwords from these languages.

Maguindanao and Maranao are closely related Philippine languages ^[1] belonging to the same Danao subgroup. They are the two most widely spoken Muslim languages of Mindanao and are spoken by communities that have historically had close political and cultural ties, despite also being distinct peoples with their own traditions, political structures, and territories. Speakers of Maguindanao (from the Cotabato River basin) and Maranao (from the Lake Lanao region) can communicate across dialects, but the two languages are distinct enough to be classified separately.

Both Maguindanao and Maranao are languages of the Bangsamoro people, the collective term for the Muslim ethnic nationalities of the Philippines. The Bangsamoro identity, which unites peoples including Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug, and others despite their linguistic and cultural differences, has become an important political and cultural framework in the context of the peace process and the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in 2019.

Maguindanao is a living and actively used language ^[2] with approximately 1.8 million speakers in the Bangsamoro region of Mindanao. The language is taught in schools in the BARMM under the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) programme. The Bangsamoro Government, which administers the BARMM, recognises indigenous languages including Maguindanao as important elements of cultural heritage and identity. There are efforts to develop educational materials, literature, and media in Maguindanao.

Maguindanao faces the typical challenges of regional Philippine languages — the dominance of Filipino and English in education and media, and the use of Maranao or other Bangsamoro languages as inter-ethnic communication. However, the strong cultural identity of the Maguindanaon people, linked to their Islamic faith, sultanate traditions, and sense of Bangsamoro nationhood, provides a powerful foundation for language maintenance. Cultural events, religious institutions, and community networks continue to transmit the Maguindanao language and culture to younger generations.