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Information about Javanese Script

Java
TypeAbugida
LanguagesJavanese language
Time periodc.900-1900s
Parent systemsProto-Canaanite alphabet
 → Phoenician alphabet
  → Aramaic alphabet
   → Brahmi alphabet
    → Pallava
     → Old Kawi
      → Java
Sister systemsBalinese
Batak
Baybayin
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Rejang
Tagbanwa
ISO 15924Java
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.


History of the alphabet
Middle Bronze Age 18–15th c. BC
Meroitic 3rd c. BC
Hangul 1443
Zhuyin 1913
complete genealogy


The Javanese script natively known as Carakan (Tjarakan) is the script originally used to write Javanese. It is an abugida script consisting of 20 main consonants with an inherent vowel "a" (normally pronounced as open back rounded vowel when reciting the consonants). In addition there are vowel markings, contraction of consonants, variant great letters used for ceremony, and marks to indicate poetic structure.

The twenty consonants are:

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


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

There (were/was) warriors
(They) had animosity (among each other)
(They were) equally powerful (in fight)
Both (were) dead.

in detail:

hana/ana = there were/was
caraka = warrior (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 = 'both'
bathanga = 'be a dead body' = 'die', since 'bathang' = corpse

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

External links

abugida is a term coined by Peter T. Daniels in order to describe a writing system in which consonant signs (graphemes) are inherently associated with a following vowel. Thus, the absence of such a vowel, or other following vowels, are usually indicated explicitly.
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The Javanese language is the spoken language of the people in the central and eastern part of the island of Java, in Indonesia. It is the native language of more than 75,500,000 people.
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Proto-Canaanite alphabet

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is an abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs, found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca.
..... Click the link for more information.
Phoenician alphabet
Child systems Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
Aramaic alphabet
Greek alphabet
Many hypothesized others
Sister systems South Arabian alphabet
Unicode range U+10900 to U+1091F
ISO 15924 Phnx

Note
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Aramaic alphabet
Child systems Hebrew
Nabataean
Syriac
Palmyrenean
Mandaic
Brāhmī
Pahlavi
Sogdian
Kharoṣṭhī

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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Vatteluttu (vaṭṭeḻuttu
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Old Kawi is the oldest Kawi script used on Bali in 775 AD. It is written on palm leaves. The language is derived from the Vatteluttu, or rounded writing, of South India. Vatteluttu was also commonly known as the Pallava script
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Balinese abugida

Sister systems Batak
Baybayin
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Rejang
Tagbanwa

ISO 15924 Bali

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Batak abugida

Sister systems Baybayin
Balinese
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Rejang
Tagbanwa

ISO 15924 Batk

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Baybayin or Alibata

Sister systems Balinese
Batak
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Rejang
Tagbanwa
Unicode range 1700-171F
ISO 15924 Tglg

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Buhid

Sister systems Balinese
Batak
Baybayin
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Rejang
Tagbanwa
Unicode range U+1740 to U+175F
ISO 15924 Buhd

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Hanunó'o

Sister systems Baybayin
Balinese
Batak
Buhid
Javanese
Rejang
Tagbanwa

ISO 15924 Hano

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Rejang abugida

Sister systems Baybayin
Balinese
Batak
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Tagbanwa

ISO 15924 Rjng

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Tagbanwa

Sister systems Baybayin
Balinese
Batak
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Rejang

ISO 15924 Tagb

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ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems (scripts). Each script is given both a four-letter code and a numeric one.
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International Phonetic Alphabet

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The International
Phonetic Alphabet
History
Nonstandard symbols
Extended IPA
Naming conventions
IPA for English The
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Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the world's writing systems. Developed in tandem with the Universal Character Set standard and published in book form as The Unicode Standard
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The history of the alphabet begins in Ancient Egypt, more than a millennium into the history of writing. The first pure alphabet emerged around 2000 BCE to represent the language of Semitic workers in Egypt (see Middle Bronze Age alphabets), and was derived from the
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Middle Bronze Age alphabets are two similar undeciphered scripts, dated to be from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1500 BCE), and believed to be ancestral to nearly all modern alphabets:
  • the Proto-Sinaitic

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The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform abjad (alphabet without vowels), used from around 1500 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. It has 31 distinct letters.
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Proto-Canaanite alphabet

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is an abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs, found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca.
..... Click the link for more information.
Phoenician alphabet
Child systems Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
Aramaic alphabet
Greek alphabet
Many hypothesized others
Sister systems South Arabian alphabet
Unicode range U+10900 to U+1091F
ISO 15924 Phnx

Note
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Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet also know as Ktav Ivri is an offshoot of the Phoenician alphabet used to write the Hebrew language from about the 10th century BCE until it began to
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Aramaic alphabet
Child systems Hebrew
Nabataean
Syriac
Palmyrenean
Mandaic
Brāhmī
Pahlavi
Sogdian
Kharoṣṭhī

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
..... Click the link for more information.
History of the alphabet
Middle Bronze Age 18–15th c. BC
  • Ugaritic 15th c. BC
  • Proto-Canaanite 14th c. BC
  • Phoenician 11th c. BC
  • Paleo-Hebrew 10th c.

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Tibetan

ISO 15924 Tibt

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The Tibetan script
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Khmer
Child systems Thai
Lao
Sister systems Old Mon (Burmese)

ISO 15924 Khmr

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
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Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. |}

This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. For Hebrew diacritical marks, see niqqud (for the vowel points) and cantillation.

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Syriac alphabet
Child systems Sogdian   →Orkhon (Turkic)
    →Old Hungarian
  →Uyghur
    →Mongolian
Nabataean
  → Arabic
Georgian (disputed)
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Nabataean
Child systems Arabic alphabet

Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Nabatean alphabet is a consonantal alphabet (abjad) that was used by the Nabateans in the 2nd century BC.
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