Javanese script


The Javanese script, natively known as Aksara Jawa, Hanacaraka, Carakan, and Dentawyanjana, is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese language, but in the course of its development has also been used to write several other regional languages such as Sundanese, Madurese, and Sasak; the lingua franca of the region, Malay; as well as the historical languages Kawi and Sanskrit. Javanese script was actively used by the Javanese people for writing day-to-day and literary texts from at least mid 15th ce until the mid 20th ce, before its function was gradually supplanted by the Latin alphabet. Today the script is taught in DI Yogyakarta, Central Java, and the East Java Province as part of the local curriculum, but with very limited function in everyday use.
The Javanese script is an abugida writing system which consists of 20 to 33 basic letters, depending on the language being written. Like other Brahmic scripts, each letter represents a syllable with the inherent vowel /a/ or /ɔ/ which can be changed with the placement of diacritics around the letter. Each letter has a conjunct form called pasangan, which nullifies the inherent vowel of the previous letter. Traditionally, the script is written without space between words but is interspersed with a group of decorative punctuation.

History

Javanese script is one of the Brahmi descendants in Indonesia in which its evolutionary history can be traced fairly well due to the numerous inscriptional evidences that permitted epigraphical studies. The oldest root of the Javanese script is Indian Brahmi script which evolves into Pallava script in Southern India and Southeast Asia between 6th and 8th ce. Pallava script, in turn, evolved into Kawi script which was actively used throughout Indonesia's Hindu-Buddhist period between 8th and 15th ce. In various parts of Indonesia, Kawi script would evolve into one of Indonesia's traditional scripts, among them, Javanese script. Modern Javanese script evolved over time from the late Kawi script between the 14th and 15th ce, a period in which Java began to receive significant Islamic influence.
For at least 500 years, from 15th ce until the mid 20th ce, Javanese script was actively used by the Javanese people for writing day-to-day and literary texts with a wide range of a theme and content. Javanese script was used throughout the island at a time when there was no easy means of communication between remote areas and no impulse towards standardization. As a result, there is a huge variety in historical and local styles of Javanese writing throughout the ages. The ability of a person to read a bark-paper manuscript from the town of Demak, say, written around 1700, is no guarantee that the same person would also be able to make sense of a palm-leaf manuscript written at the same time only 50 miles away on the slopes of Mount Merapi. The great differences between regional styles almost makes it seem that the "Javanese script" is in fact a family of scripts. Javanese writing traditions are especially cultivated in the Kraton environment, but Javanese texts are known to be made and used by all layers of society. Javanese literature is almost always composed in metrical verses that are designed to be sung, thus Javanese texts are not only judged by their content and language but also by the merit of their melody and rhythm during recitation sessions. Javanese writing tradition also relied on periodic copying due to deterioration of writing materials in the tropical Javanese climate; as a result, many physical manuscripts that are available now are 18th or 19th century copies, though their contents can usually be traced to far older prototypes.

Media

Javanese script has been written with numerous media that have shifted over time. Kawi script, which is ancestral to Javanese script, is often found on stone inscriptions and copper plates. Everyday writing in Kawi was done in palm leaf form locally known as lontar, which are processed leaves of the tal palm. Each lontar leaf has the shape of a slim rectangle 2.8 to 4 cm in width and varied length between 20 and 80 cm. Each leaf can only accommodate around 4 lines of writing, which are incised in horizontal orientation with a small knife and then blackened with soot to increase readability. This media has a long history of attested use all over South and Southeast Asia.
In the 13th ce, paper began to be used in the Malay archipelago. This introduction is related to spread of Islam in the region, due to the Islamic writing tradition that is supported by the use of paper and codex manuscript. As Java began to receive significant Islamic influence in the 15th ce, coinciding with the period in which the Kawi script began to transitioned into the modern Javanese script, paper became widespread in Java while the use of lontar only persisted in a few places. There are two kinds of paper that are commonly used in Javanese manuscript: locally produced paper called daluang, and imported paper. Daluang is a paper made from the beaten bark of the saéh tree. Visually, daluang can be easily differentiated from regular paper by its distinctive brown tint and fibrous appearance. A well made daluang has a smooth surface and is quite durable against manuscript damage commonly associated with tropical climates, especially insect damage. Meanwhile, a coarse daluang has a bumpy surface and tends to break easily. Daluang is commonly used in manuscripts produced by Javanese Kratons and pesantren between 16th to 17th ce.
Most imported paper in Indonesian manuscripts came from Europe. In the beginning, only a few scribes were able to use European paper due to its high cost -- paper made with using European methods of the time could only be imported in limited number. In colonial administration, the use of European paper had to be supplemented with Javanese daluang and imported Chinese paper until at least the 19th ce. As paper supply increased due to growing imports from Europe, scribes in palaces and urban settlements gradually opted to use European paper as the primary media for writing, while daluang paper was increasingly associated with pesantren and rural manuscripts. Alongside the increase of European paper supply, attempts to create Javanese printing type began, spearheaded by several European figures. With the establishment of printing technology in 1825, materials in Javanese script could be mass-produced and became increasingly common in various aspect of pre-independence Javanese life, from letters, books, and newspapers, to magazines, and even advertisements and paper currency.

Usage

For at least 500 years, from 15th ce until the mid 20th ce, Javanese script was used by all layers of Javanese society for writing day-to-day and literary texts with a wide range of theme and content. Due to the significant influence of oral tradition, reading in pre-independence Javanese society is usually a performance; Javanese literature texts are almost always composed in metrical verses that are designed to be recited, thus Javanese texts are not only judged by their content and language, but also by the merit of their melody and rhythm during recitation sessions. Javanese poets are not expected to create new stories and characters, instead the role of the poet is to rewrite and recompose existing stories into forms that are suitable to local taste and prevailing trend. As a result, Javanese literary works such as the Cerita Panji do not have a single authoritative version referenced by all others, instead, Cerita Panji is a loose collection of numerous tales with various versions bound together by the common thread of the Panji character. Literature genres with the longest attested history are Sanskrit epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which have been recomposed since the Kawi period and which introduced hundreds of characters familiar in Javanese wayang stories today, including Arjuna, Srikandi, Ghatotkacha and many others. Since the introduction of Islam, characters of Middle-Eastern provenance such as Amir Hamzah and the Prophet Joseph have also been frequent subjects of writing. There are also local characters, usually set in Java's semi-legendary past, such as Prince Panji, Damar Wulan, and Calon Arang.
When studies of Javanese language and literature began to attract European attention in the 19th ce, an initiative to create a Javanese type began to take place in order to mass-produced and quickly disseminate Javanese literary materials. One of the earliest attempts to create a movable Javanese type was by Paul van Vlissingen. His typeface was first put in use in the Bataviasch Courant newspaper's October 1825 issue. While lauded as a considerable technical achievement, many at the time felt that Vlissingen's design was a coarse copy of the fine Javanese hand used in literary texts, and so this early attempt was further developed by numerous other people to varying degrees of success as the study of Javanese developed over the years. In 1838, :id:Taco Roorda|Taco Roorda completed his typeface based on the hand of Surakartan scribes with a bit of European typographical elements mixed in. Roorda's font garnered positive feedback and soon became the main choice to print any Javanese text. Since then, reading materials in printed Javanese using Roorda's typeface, became widespread among the Javanese populace and are widely used in materials other than literature. The establishment of print technology enabled a printing industry which, for the next century, produced various materials in printed Javanese, from administrative papers and school books, to mass media such as the :id:majalah Kajawen|Kajawèn magazine which was entirely printed in Javanese in all of its article and columns. In the governmental context, one application of the Javanese script was the multilingual legal text in the Netherlands Indies gulden circulated by De Javasche Bank.

Decline

As literacy and demand for reading materials increased in the beginning of the 20th ce, Javanese publishers began to decrease the amount of Javanese script publication due to practical and economical considerations: printing any text in Javanese script at the time required two times the amount of paper compared to the same text rendered in Latin alphabet, so that Javanese texts were more expensive and time-consuming to produce. In order to lower production costs and keep book prices affordable to the general populace, many publishers prioritized publication in the Latin alphabet over time. However, the Javanese population at the beginning of the 20th ce maintained the use of Javanese script in various aspects of everyday life. It was, for example, considered more polite to write a letter using Javanese script, especially one addressed toward an elder or superior. Many publishers, including Balai Pustaka, continued to print books, newspapers, and magazines in Javanese script due to sufficient, albeit declining, demand. The use of Javanese script only started to drop significantly during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia beginning in 1942. Some writers attribute this sudden decline to prohibitions issued by the Japanese government banning the use of native script in the public sphere, though no documentary evidence of such a ban has yet been found. Nevertheless, the use of Javanese script did decline significantly during the Japanese occupation and it never recovered its previous widespread use in post-independence Indonesia.

Contemporary use

In contemporary usage, Javanese script is still taught as part of the local curriculum in DI Yogyakarta, Central Java, and the East Java Province. Several local newspapers and magazines have columns written in Javanese script, and the script can frequently be seen on public signage. However, many contemporary attempts to revive Javanese script are symbolic rather than functional; there are no longer, for example, periodicals like Kajawèn magazine that publish significant content in Javanese script. Most Javanese people today know the existence of the script and recognize a few letters, but it is rare to find someone who can read and write it meaningfully. Therefore, as recent as 2019, it is not uncommon to see Javanese script signage in public places with numerous misspellings and basic mistakes. Several hurdles in revitalizing the use of Javanese script includes IT equipment that does not support correct rendering of the Javanese script, lack of governing bodies with sufficient competence to consult on its usage, and lack of typographical explorations that may intrigue contemporary viewers. Nevertheless, attempts to revive the script are still being conducted by several communities and public figures who encouraged the use of Javanese script in the public sphere, especially in digital devices.

Form

Letter

A basic letter in the Javanese script is called an aksara which represents a syllable. Javanese script contains around 45 letters, but not all of them are used equally. Over the course of its development, some letters became obsolete and some are only used in certain contexts. As such, it is common to divide the letters in several groups based on their function.

Wyanjana

Aksara wyanjana are consonant letters with an inherent vowel /a/ or /ɔ/. As a Brahmi derived script, Javanese script originally had 33 wyanjana letters to write the 33 consonants that are used in Sanskrit and Kawi languages. Their form are as follows:
Over the course of its development, modern Javanese language no longer used all letters in the Sanskrit-Kawi inventory. Modern Javanese script only uses 20 consonants and 20 basic letters known as aksara nglegéna. Some of the remaining letters are repurposed as aksara murda which are used for honorific purposes in writing respected names, be it legendary or real. From the 20 nglegéna basic letters, only 9 have corresponding murda forms. Because of this, the use of murda is not identical to capitalization of proper names in Latin orthography; if the first syllable of a name does not have a murda form, the second syllable would use murda. If the second syllable also does not have a murda form, the third syllable would use murda, and so on. Highly respected names may be written completely in murda if possible, but in essence, the use of murda is optional and may be inconsistent in traditional texts. For example, the name Gani can be spelled as ꦒꦤꦶ, ꦓꦤꦶ, or ꦓꦟꦶ depending on the background and context of the writing. The remaining letters that are not classified as nglegéna or repurposed as murda are aksara mahaprana, letters that are used in Sanskrit and Kawi texts but obsolete in modern Javanese.

Swara

Aksara swara are letters that represented pure vowels. Javanese script has 14 vowel letters inherited from the Sanskrit tradition. Their form are as follows:
Similar to wyanjana letters, modern Javanese language no longer uses the whole inventory of swara letters, only short vowel letters are now commonly used and taught. In modern orthography, swara letters may be used to replace wyanjana ha ꦲ to disambiguate the pronunciation of unfamiliar terms and names.
Pa cerek ꦉ, pa cerek dirgha ꦉꦴ, nga lelet ꦊ, and nga lelet raswadi ꦋ are syllabic consonants that are primarily used in specific Sanskrit cases. When adapted to languages outside of Sanskrit, the function and pronunciation of these letters tend to vary. In modern Javanese language, only pa cerek and nga lelet are used; pa cerek is pronounced /rə/ while nga lelet is pronounced /lə/. Both letters are usually re-categorized into their own class called aksara gantèn in modern tables. These letters are mandatory shorthand that replace every combination of ra pepet and la pepet.

Rékan

Aksara rékan are additional letters used to write foreign sounds. This type of letters were initially developed to write Arabic loanwords, later adapted to write Dutch loanwords, and in contemporary usage are also used to write Indonesian and English loanwords. Most rékan letters are formed by adding the cecak telu diacritic on the native letters that are considered closest-sounding to the foreign sound in question. For example, rékan letter fa ꦥ꦳ is formed by adding cecak telu over the wyanjana letter pa ꦥ. The combination of wyanjana letter and corresponding foreign sounds for each rékan may be different between sources. Some rékan letters are as follow:

Diacritic

Diacritic are dependent signs that are used to modify the inherent vowel of a letter. Similar to Javanese letters, Javanese diacritics may be divided into several groups based on their function.

Swara

Sandhangan swara are diacritics that are used to change the inherent /a/ into different vowel. Their form are as follows:
Similar to swara letters, only short vowel diacritics are taught and used in contemporary Javanese, while long vowel diacritics are only used in Sanskrit and Kawi writing.

Panyigeging wanda

Sandhangan panyigeging wanda are diacritics used to write closed syllables. Their form are as follows:

Wyanjana

Sandhangan wyanjana are diacritics that are used to write consonant cluster with semivowels that occur in a single syllable. Their form are as follows:
-re-y--r--l--w-

ꦽ
ꦾ
ꦿ
꧀ꦭ
꧀ꦮ
keretpèngkalcakrapanjingan lagembung
krekyakraklakwa
ꦏꦽꦏꦾꦏꦿꦏ꧀ꦭꦏ꧀ꦮ

Conjunct

The inherent vowel of each basic letter can be suppressed with the use of the virama, natively known as pangkon. However, the pangkon is not normally use in the middle of a word or sentence. For closed syllables in such positions, a conjunct form called pasangan is used instead. Every basic letter has a pasangan counterpart, and if a pasangan is attached to a basic letter, the inherent vowel of the attached letter is nullified. Their form are as follows:
Examples of pasangan use are as follows:

Numerals

The Javanese script has its own numerals that behave similarly to Arabic numerals. However, most Javanese numerals has the exact same glyph as several basic letters, for example the numeral 1 ꧑ and wyanjana letter ga ꦒ, or the numeral 8 ꧘ and murda letter pa ꦦ. To avoid confusion, numerals that are used in the middle of sentences must be enclosed within pada pangkat or pada lingsa punctuations. For example, tanggal 17 Juni is written ꦠꦁꦒꦭ꧀꧇꧑꧗꧇ꦗꦸꦤꦶ or ꦠꦁꦒꦭ꧀꧈꧑꧗꧈ꦗꦸꦤꦶ. Enclosing punctuation may be ignored if their use as numerals is understood by context, for example as page numbers in the corner of pages. Their form are as follows:
0123456789

꧐
꧑
꧒
꧓
꧔
꧕
꧖
꧗
꧘
꧙

Punctuation

Traditional Javanese texts are written with no spaces between words with several punctuation marks called pada. Their form are as follows:
In contemporary teaching, the most frequently used punctuations are pada adeg-adeg, pada lingsa, and pada lungsi, which are used to open paragraphs, separating sentences, and ending sentences. Pada adeg and pada pisélèh may be used to indicate insertion in the middle of sentences similar to parenthesis or quotation marks, while pada pangkat has a similar function to the colon. Pada rangkap is sometimes used as an iteration mark for reduplicated words.
Several punctuation marks do not have Latin equivalents and are often decorative in nature with numerous variant shapes, for example the rerenggan which is sometimes used to enclosed titles. In epistolary usage, several punctuations are used in the beginning of letters and may also be used to indicate the social status of the letter writer; from the lowest pada andhap, to middle pada madya, and the highest pada luhur. Pada guru is sometimes used as a neutral option without social connotation, while pada pancak is used to end a letter. It should be noted however that this is a generalized function. In practice, similar to rerenggan these epistolary punctuation marks are often decorative and optional with various shape used in different regions and by different scribes.
When errors occurred during manuscript copying, several Kraton scribes used special correction marks instead of crossing out the erroneous parts: tirta tumétès normally found in Yogyakarta manuscripts, and isèn-isèn found in Surakarta manuscripts. These correction marks are directly applied following the erroneous part before the scribe continued writing. For example, if a scribe wanted to write pada luhur ꦥꦢꦭꦸꦲꦸꦂ but accidentally wrote pada hu ꦥꦢꦲꦸ before realizing the mistake, this word may be corrected into pada hu···luhur ꦥꦢꦲꦸ꧞꧞꧞ꦭꦸꦲꦸꦂ or ꦥꦢꦲꦸ꧟꧟꧟ꦭꦸꦲꦸꦂ.

Pepadan

Other than the regular punctuation, one of Javanese texts' distinctive characteristics is pepadan, a series of highly ornate verse marks. Several of their form are as follows:
The series of punctuation marks that forms pepadan have numerous names in traditional texts. Behrend divides pepadan into two general groups: the minor pada which consist of a single mark, and the major pada which are composed of several marks. Minor pada are used to indicate divisions of poetic stanzas, which usually came up every 32 or 48 syllables depending on the poetic metre. Major pada are used to demarcate a change of canto occurring every 5 to 10 pages, though this may vary considerably depending on the structure of the text. Javanese guides often list three kinds of major pada: purwa pada ꧅ ꦧ꧀ꦖ ꧅ which is used in the beginning of the first canto, madya pada ꧅ ꦟ꧀ꦢꦿ ꧅ which is used in between different cantos, and wasana pada ꧅ ꦆ ꧅ which is used in the end of the final canto. But due to the large variety of shapes between manuscripts, these three punctuations are essentially treated as a single punctuation in most Javanese manuscripts.
Pepadan is one of the most prominent elements in a typical Javanese manuscript and are almost always written with high artistic skills, including calligraphy, coloring, and even gilding. In luxurious royal manuscripts, the shape of the pepadan may even contain visual puns that gave clues to the readers regarding the canto of the text; a pepadan with wings or bird figure resembling a crow indicates the dhandhanggula metre, while pepadan with elements of a goldfish indicates the maskumambang metre. One of the scribal centers with the most elaborate and ornate pepadan is the scriptorium of Pakualaman in Yogyakarta.

Collation

Modern Javanese script is commonly arranged in the Hanacaraka sequence, named in accordance to the first four letters in the sequence. In this sequence, the 20 consonant letters that are used in the modern Javanese language formed a perfect pangram that is often linked to the myth of Aji Saka. This sequence has been used by pre-independence Javanese people from at least the 15th ce when the island of Java started to receive significant Islamic influence. There are numerous interpretations on the supposed philosophical and esoteric qualities of the hanacaraka sequence.
ana caraka
There were two emissaries		data sawala
who disagreed with each other		padha jayanya
they are both equally powerful in fight		maga bathanga
and thus here are their bodies

The hanacaraka sequence is not the only collation scheme that is used to arrange the Javanese script. For Sanskrit and Kawi orthography that requires 33 basic letters, the Javanese script can be arranged phonologically by its place of articulation in accordance to the Sanskrit principle established by Pāṇini. This sequence, sometimes called the Kaganga sequence based on its first four letters, is a standard sequence used by other Brahmi descendant scripts such as Devanagari, Tamil, Thai, and Khmer.

Sample texts

Below is an excerpt of printed in 1871 with modern Javanese language and spelling.
Below is an excerpt of Kakawin Rāmāyaṇa printed in 1900 using Kawi language and spelling.

Comparison with Balinese

The closest relative to the Javanese script is the Balinese script. As direct descendants of the Kawi script, Javanese and Balinese still retain many similarities in terms of basic glyph shape for each letter. One noticeable difference between both scripts is in their orthography; Modern Balinese orthography is conservative in nature and retains Sanskrit and Kawi conventions that are no longer used in modern Javanese. For example, the word désa is written in Javanese script as. According to Balinese orthography, this may be deemed as coarse or incorrect because désa is a Sanskrit loanword that should have been spelled according to its original pronunciation: déśa, using sa murda instead of sa nglegéna. The Balinese language does not differentiate between the pronunciation of sa nglegéna and sa murda, but the original Sanskrit spelling is retained whenever possible. One of the reason for this spelling practice is to differentiate homophones in writing, such as between the word pada, pāda, and padha, as well as asta, astha, and aṣṭa.
Glyph comparison between the two scripts can be seen below:

kakhagaghangacachajajhanyaṭaṭhaḍaḍhaṇatathadadhanapaphababhamayaralawaśaṣasaha/a
Javanese
Balinese


aāiīuūṛṝḷḹéaioau
Javanese
Balinese

-a-ā-i-ī-u-ū-ṛ-ṝ-é-ai-o-au-e-eu-m-ng-r-hpemati
Jawa-
Bali-
kakākikīkukūkṛkṝkékaikokaukekeukamkangkarkahk
Jawa
Bali

0123456789
Javanese
Balinese

Javanesepada lingsapada lungsipada pangkatpada adeg-adegpada luhur
Javanese
Balinesecarik sikicarik parérèncarik pamungkahpantipamada
Balinese

Unicode

Javanese script was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2009 with the release of version 5.2.
The Unicode block for Javanese is U+A980-U+A9DF. There are 91 code points for Javanese script: 53 letters, 19 punctuation marks, 10 numbers, and 9 vowels:

Gallery

Orthographical guides

Sanskrit and Kawi
Sundanese