| Carakan |
|
|---|---|
| Type | Abugida |
| Languages | Javanese Sundanese (as Cacarakan) |
| Time period | c. 13th–present |
| Parent systems | |
| 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 more correct 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.
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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.[1] 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.[2] However it is still taught in most elementary school and some junior high school as of compulsory subject in Javanese language areas.
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.[2]
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.[3]
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.[2]
Javanese characters are written slanted to the side and below the line, and there are no word boundaries.[2]
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.[2]
| Phoneme | /i/ | /ə/ | /u/ | /e/ | /o/ |
| Symbol | |||||
| Name | wulu | pepet | suku | taling | taling-tarung |
Rules regarding inherent vowels of basic characters[2]:
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.
| ha | na | ca | ra | ka |
| da | ta | sa | wa | la |
| pa | dha | ja | ya | nya |
| ma | ga | ba | tha | nga |
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.[2][3]
| ha | na | ca | ra | ka |
| da | ta | sa | wa | la |
| pa | dha | ja | ya | nya |
| ma | ga | ba | tha | nga |
| Symbol | na | ka | ta | sa | pa | ga | ba |
| Murda simple | |||||||
| Murda pasangan |
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.[3] 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.[1][2]
Words borrowed from other languages such as Arabic or Malay are indicated by writing diacritic marks over similar sounding Javanese letters.[3] 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.[2]
| 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/.[2]
| 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. In the Javanese Script, only numbers 0–9 are represented.[2]
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.[2]
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.[2] For example,
text ....... numeral marker telu siji numeral marker .......... text
With the introduction of the new Javanese script (carakan script), different punctuation marks were also introduced.[1][2][3] Punctuations can be divided into two categories: primary and special. Primary punctuation includes:
Special punctuation includes:
Two special rules apply to the usage of the comma, and the period.[2]
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
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.[2]
The alphabet itself forms a poem, and a perfect pangram, of which the line-by-line translation is as follows[2]:
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
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.
The Javanese and Balinese scripts are essentially typographic variants.
| Javanese script | Balinese script |
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[1] Unicode.org chart (PDF) |
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| 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
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There are very few items available in English about Javanese script; however, the following give some introduction:
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