Javanese alphabet

Not to be confused with Jawi script or JavaScript.

Carakan
Type	Abugida
Languages	Javanese Sundanese (as Cacarakan)
Time period	c. 13th–present
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Pallava Old Kawi Carakan
Sister systems	Balinese Batak Baybayin Buhid Hanunó'o Lontara Old Sundanese Rencong Rejang Tagbanwa
ISO 15924	Java, 361
Direction	Left-to-right
Unicode alias	Javanese
Unicode range	U+A980–U+A9DF
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

The Javanese alphabet, natively known as Hanacaraka (ꦲꦤꦕꦫꦏ) or Carakan (ꦕꦫꦏꦤ꧀), known by the Sundanese people as Cacarakan (ꦕꦕꦫꦏꦤ꧀) is the pre-colonial script used to write the Javanese language. The Javanese term for this script is "Dentawiyanjana".

As of 2008 Javanese is difficult to render on a computer, though the script was added to Unicode in version 5.2.

History

See also: Kawi script

Javanese alphabet being used in colonial period school.

Javanese and Balinese are modern variants of the old Kawi script, a Brahmic script introduced to Java along with Hinduism and Buddhism. Kawi is first attested in a legal document from 804 CE. It was widely used in literature and translations from Sanskrit from the tenth century; by the seventeenth, the script is identified as carakan. A Latin orthography based on Dutch was introduced in 1926, revised in 1972–1973, and has largely supplanted the carakan.

Currently, there are no newspapers or magazines being printed in the Javanese script. However it is still taught in most elementary school and some junior high school as of compulsory subject in Javanese language areas.

Function

The Javanese script is an abugida. Each of the twenty letter represents a syllable with a consonant (or a "zero consonant") and the inherent vowel 'a' which is pronounced as /ɔ/ in open position. Various diacritics placed around the letter indicate a different vowel than [ɔ], a final consonant, or a foreign pronunciation.

Letters have subscript forms used to transcribe consonant clusters. Some have "capital" forms used in proper names. However, every letter in the name is capitalized, not just the first. Punctuation includes a comma; period; a mark that covers the colon, quotations, and indicates numerals; and marks to introduce a chapter, poem, song, or letter.

Form

Ancient Jawa Inscription found in Malang

Javanese alphabet and special characters

Each symbol consists of n-shapes and u-shapes. n-shapes come in two sizes: small and large (twice the size of a small). u-shapes come in three sizes: small, medium (1.5x) and large (2.5x). For example, the character 'h' consists of a small n-shape, followed by a large u-shape and two large n-shapes. This format is closely followed in hand-writing and is no longer followed in printed characters.

Javanese characters are written slanted to the side and below the line, and there are no word boundaries.

Vowels

In Javanese, there are a total of nine vowels: /a/, /i/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, /ə/, /o/, /ɔ/, /u/. However, only five vowel diacritics, known as sandhangan swara, are used because some diacritics can be used for two different vowels. Rules regarding the pronunciation and the context eliminate the need for a new symbol for every vowel by making the vowel predictable.

Phoneme	/i/	/ə/	/u/	/e/	/o/
Symbol
Name	wulu	pepet	suku	taling	taling-tarung

Rules regarding inherent vowels of basic characters:

1) A basic character stands for a syllable that ends in the vowel /ɔ/ when the character is preceded by another character containing a sandhangan swara.

2) A basic character stands for a syllable that ends in the vowel /a/ when the character is immediately followed by a character containing a sandhangan swara.

3) The first basic character of a word normally has the /ɔ/ vowel, unless it precedes two other basic characters, in which case the first basic character has the /a/ vowel.

Consonants

ha	na	ca	ra	ka
da	ta	sa	wa	la
pa	dha	ja	ya	nya
ma	ga	ba	tha	nga

Syllable-final consonants

Four special syllable-final consonants are denoted by diacritics. The four consonants are -ng, -r, -h, and -l; they are indicated by the cecak, layar, wignyan, and pengkal, respectively.

-	/h/ final	/r/ final	/ŋ/ final
pangkon	wignyan	layar	cecak

Other consonants that appear in the word-final position require the use of the basic consonant symbols and the paten (or pangku) to indicate the absence of a vowel.

ha	na	ca	ra	ka
da	ta	sa	wa	la
pa	dha	ja	ya	nya
ma	ga	ba	tha	nga

Aksara murda

Symbol	na	ka	ta	sa	pa	ga	ba
Murda simple
Murda pasangan

Consonant clusters

Only l, r, w, and y can form consonant clusters in Javanese.

For example,

/l/: blabag - board

/r/: mrana - going there

/w/: dwi - two

/y/: hyang - God

When ‘r’ or ‘y’ are the second consonant of the cluster, they are represented by diacritics “cakra” and “pengkal” respectively. However, when the consonant cluster with ‘-r’ ends with the vowel /ə/, then a different diacritic, the keret is used.

When ‘l’ or ‘w’ is the second consonant of a cluster, it is represented by the “pasangan” forms, modified consonant symbols, written under the symbol for the first consonant of the cluster.

Special characters

Words borrowed from other languages such as Arabic or Malay are indicated by writing diacritic marks over similar sounding Javanese letters. On top of that, Javanese also uses special characters to write foreign names or words.

A: There are five special characters used to write non-Javanese vowels. The five vowels are represented by the following names.

• 1) Ali

• 2) Irawan

• 3) Umar

• 4) Eka

• 5) Oto

Phoneme	/a/	/i/	/u/	/lə/	/rə/	/e/	/o/
Symbol
Name				nga lelet	pa cerek

B: There are five special characters used to write non-Javanese consonants. These consonants are /x/, /dʒ/, /f/, /ɣ/, and /z/.

Additional letters for writing Arabic phonemes

Numbers

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0

The Javanese numeral system has its own script but they often use the Arabic number system^{[citation needed]}. In the Javanese Script, only numbers 0–9 are represented.

0 nol 1 siji 2 loro 3 telu 4 papat 5 lima 6 enem 7 pitu 8 wolu 9 sanga

When writing numbers greater than 9, simply combine the above numbers, as one would using the Arabic system. For example, to write 21, simply write the characters loro siji. Similarly, the number 90 would be the characters sanga nol.

Since some of the characters for the numbers are very similar to the characters for syllables, numbers that show up in Javanese texts are indicated by special 'numeral markers' both before and after the number. For example,

text ....... numeral marker telu siji numeral marker .......... text

Punctuation

With the introduction of the new Javanese script (carakan script), different punctuation marks were also introduced. Punctuations can be divided into two categories: primary and special. Primary punctuation includes:

• 1) the comma “pada-lungsi”,

• 2) the period “pada-lingsa”,

• 3) colon or quotation marks “pada-handhegging-celathu”, and

• 4) to introduce a new sentence or paragraph “pada-bab”.

Special punctuation includes:

• 1) the “pada-luhur” to introduce a letter to a person of lower rank;

• 2) the “pada-madya” to introduce a letter to an equal; the “pada-handhap” to introduce a letter to a person of higher rank;

• 3) the “purwa-pada” to introduce a poem; the”madya-pada” to indicate a new song in a poem;

• 4) and the “wasana-pada” to indicate the end of a poem.

Two special rules apply to the usage of the comma, and the period.

1.The comma is not needed after a consonant-ending word that is represented by a pangku

2.The comma is used instead of the period after a consonant-ending word that is represented by a pangku

Capitalization

Javanese script has seven "capital" letters called the aksara murdha that are used for the names of highly respected persons and places. The first letter of the name is usually capitalized; however, all the letters could be capitalized if possible. Also, if an aksara murdha is not available for the first letter, the second letter is capitalized. If the second letter does not have an aksara murdha either, the third letter is capitalized, and so on. Note that the capital letters are not used to indicate the beginnings of sentences.

Alphabet as poem

The alphabet itself forms a poem, and a perfect pangram, of which the line-by-line translation is as follows:

Hana caraka There (were) two messengers
data sawala (They) had animosity (among each other)
padha jayanya (They were) equally powerful (in fight)
maga bathanga Here are the corpses.

in detail:

hana / ana = there were/was
caraka = messenger (actually, 'one who is loyal to and trusted by someone')
data = have/has
sawala = difference (regarding a matter)
padha = same, equal
jayanya = 'their power', 'jaya' could mean 'glory' as well
maga = 'here'
bathanga = corpses

• 

  Hana caraka (There were two messengers)

• 

  Data sawala (They had animosity)

• 

  Padha jayanya (They were equally powerful in fight)

• 

  Maga bathanga (Here are the corpses)

Modified usage by Sundanese people

Javanese script was also used by some Sundanese people to write the Sundanese language, but the script was simplified and called Cacarakan instead. Cacarakan differs from Carakan by omitting the dha and tha, thus only:

ha, na, ca, ra, ka, da, ta, sa, wa, la, pa, ja, ya, nya, ma, ga, ba, nga.

Similarities with the Balinese script

The Javanese and Balinese scripts are essentially typographic variants.

Javanese script	Balinese script

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. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:

Javanese Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+A98x

ꦀ

ꦁ

ꦂ

ꦃ

ꦄ

ꦅ

ꦆ

ꦇ

ꦈ

ꦉ

ꦊ

ꦋ

ꦌ

ꦍ

ꦎ

ꦏ

U+A99x

ꦐ

ꦑ

ꦒ

ꦓ

ꦔ

ꦕ

ꦖ

ꦗ

ꦘ

ꦙ

ꦚ

ꦛ

ꦜ

ꦝ

ꦞ

ꦟ

U+A9Ax

ꦠ

ꦡ

ꦢ

ꦣ

ꦤ

ꦥ

ꦦ

ꦧ

ꦨ

ꦩ

ꦪ

ꦫ

ꦬ

ꦭ

ꦮ

ꦯ

U+A9Bx

ꦰ

ꦱ

ꦲ

꦳

ꦴ

ꦵ

ꦶ

ꦷ

ꦸ

ꦹ

ꦺ

ꦻ

ꦼ

ꦽ

ꦾ

ꦿ

U+A9Cx

꧀

꧁

꧂

꧃

꧄

꧅

꧆

꧇

꧈

꧉

꧊

꧋

꧌

꧍

ꧏ

U+A9Dx

꧐

꧑

꧒

꧓

꧔

꧕

꧖

꧗

꧘

꧙

꧞

꧟

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 6.0

Gallery

• 

  A specimen of Javanese writing

• 

  A bilingual text in Portuguese and Javanese in Tamansari, Yogyakarta

• 

  Madurese in Javanese script

• 

  A street sign in Surakarta, written in both Latin and Javanese scripts

• 

  The Special Region of Yogyakarta emblem honors the Javanese script

• 

  Inscription in Sholihin mosque, Surakarta

Further reading

There are very few items available in English about Javanese script; however, the following give some introduction:

• Gallop, Annabel Teh. Golden letters: writing traditions of Indonesia = Surat emas: budaya tulis di Indonesia (with Bernard Arps). London: British Library; Jakarta: Yayasan Lontar, c1991. ISBN 9798083067
• Pigeaud, Theodore G. Th. Javanese and Balinese manuscripts and some codices written in related idioms spoken in Java and Bali: descriptive catalogue, with examples of Javanese script, introductory chapters, a general index of names and subjects Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1975. ISBN 3515019642

See also

• History of the alphabet
• The Brahmic script and its descendants
• Folk etymology relevant to Javanese etymology
• Balinese script, a very similar script used in the neighbouring island of Bali

External links

• Hanacaraka Font & Resources (in Indonesian)
• Entry on Javanese at Omniglot.com -- A guide to writing systems
• Javanese script (hanacaraka) calligraphy service in the web [1]
• Javanese Unicode font with SIL Graphite smart font technology
• Pallawa :: Javanese Script Software
• JawaTeX :: Latex Based Javanese Script Transliterator