Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the

Sundanese people The Sunda or Sundanese ( id, Orang Sunda; su, ᮅᮛᮀ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ, Urang Sunda) are an indigenous ethnic group native to the western region of Java island in Indonesia, primarily West Java. They number approximately 42 million and form ...

. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Kuno'') which was used by the ancient Sundanese between the 14th and 18th centuries. Currently the standard Sundanese script is also commonly referred to as the Sundanese script.

History

Old Sundanese was developed based on the

Pallava script The Pallava script or Pallava Grantha, is a Brahmic script, named after the Pallava dynasty of South India, attested since the 4th century AD. As epigrapher Arlo Griffiths makes clear, however, the term is misleading as not all of the relevant s ...

of India, and was used from the 14th until the 18th centuries. The last manuscript written in Old Sundanese script was ''Carita Waruga Guru.'' From the 17th to the 19th centuries, Sundanese was mostly spoken and not written. Javanese and Pegon scripts were used to write Sundanese during this period. In 1996, the government of West Java announced a plan to introduce an official Sundanese script, and in October 1997, Old Sundanese script was chosen and renamed to ''Aksara Sunda.''

Typology

The standardized script has 32 basic characters, consists of 7 ''aksara swara'' (independent vowels): ''a, é, i, o, u, e,'' and ''eu'', and 23 ''aksara ngalagéna'' (consonants with vowel a): ''ka-ga-nga'', ''ca-ja-nya'', ''ta-da-na'', ''pa-ba-ma'', ''ya-ra-la'', ''wa-sa-ha'', ''fa-va-qa-xa-za''. The additional five sounds to the ''ngalagena'' characters were added to fulfill the purpose of Sundanese script as tool for recording the development of Sundanese language, especially by absorption of foreign words and sounds. However, the glyphs for the new characters are not new, but reusing several variants in old Sundanese script, for example: the glyphs for ''fa'' and ''va'' are variants of Old Sundanese ''pa'', the glyphs for ''qa'' and ''xa'' are variants of Old Sundanese ''ka'', and the glyph for ''za'' is a variant of Old Sundanese ''ja''. There are two non-standard sounds, ''kha'' and ''sha,'' for writing foreign Arabic consonants ⟨خ⟩ and ⟨ش⟩. These are considered non-standard because their usage is only supported by few Sundanese people. There are also ''rarangkén'' or attachments for removing, modifying, or adding vowel or consonant sound to the base characters. 13 ''rarangkén'' based on the position to the base can be categorized into three groups: (1) five ''rarangkén'' above the base characters, (2) three ''rarangkén'' below the base characters, and (3) five ''rarangkén'' inline the base characters. In addition, there are glyphs for number characters, from zero to nine. Graphically, ''ngalagena'' characters including ''rarangkén'' have angle 45° – 75°. In general, the dimension ratio (height:width) is 4:4, except for the ''ngalagena'' character ''ra'' (4:3), ''ba'' and ''nya'' (4:6), and the ''swara'' character ''i'' (4:3). ''Rarangkén have'' dimension ratio 2:2, except for ''panyecek'' (1:1), ''panglayar'' (4:2), ''panyakra'' (2:4), ''pamaéh'' (4:2) and ''pamingkal'' (2:4 bottom-side, 3:2 right-side). Numbers have ratio 4:4, except for number ''4'' and ''5'' (4:3).

Independent vowels

Consonants

Consonants used for native phonemes Consonants for writing foreign words

Vowel diacritics

Based on their location to the base glyph, 14 ''rarangkén'' can be categorized as: *''Rarangkén'' above the base glyph = 5 kinds *''Rarangkén'' below the base glyph = 3 kinds *''Rarangkén'' inline the base glyph = 5 kinds a. Vowel diacritics above the base glyph b. Vowel diacritics below the base glyph c. Vowel diacritics inline the base glyph

Numbers

In texts, numbers are written surrounded with dual pipe sign , ... , . Example: = 2020

Punctuation marks

For modern use, Latin punctuations are used. Such punctuations are: comma, dot, semicolon, colon, exclamation mark, question mark, quotes, parenthesis, bracket etc. Old Sundanese, though, was written using its own set of punctuation symbols. The ''bindu surya'' 〈〉, the representation of the sun, is used in the sequence 〈〉, which denoted a religious text. Likewise, the ''bindu panglong'' 〈〉, the representation of a half moon, is used in the sequence 〈〉, which had the same meaning. A third punctuation sequence used as a liturgical text marker is 〈〉. The ''bindu purnama'' 〈〉, on the other hand, representing a full moon, is used in the sequence 〈〉, which denoted a historical text. ''Bindu surya'' is also sometimes used as the full stop; in this case, ''bindu purnama'' is also used as comma. When ''bindu surya'' isn't used as full stop, ''bindu cakra'' 〈〉, the representation of a wheel, was used instead of the ''bindu purnama'' as a comma. The punctuation symbols resembling letters with stripes used in the sequences above, 〈〉, 〈〉, and 〈〉, are respectively named ''da satanga, ka satanga, and ba satanga,'' and originated as "decorated" versions of the syllable ''da'' 〈〉, one half of the syllable ''ka'' 〈〉, and the syllable ''ba'' 〈〉, respectively. To these can be added the ''leu satanga'' 〈〉, of unclear meaning. Likewise, it originated as a "decorated" syllable ''leu'' 〈〉, which is archaic.EVERSON, Michael. Proposal for encoding additional Sundanese characters for Old Sundanese in the UCS. Available a

September 5th, 2009.

Consonant clusters

Certain Sundanese words contain consonant clusters. Then, two ways of writing can be used: (1) using ''pamaéh'', or (2) using ''pasangan'' (pairs). The use of ''pamaéh'' is one way to write Sundanese script at basic stage. Another way, the ''pasangan'', is normally used in order to avoid the use of ''pamaéh'' in the middle of words, as well as to save writing space. ''Pasangan'' is constructed by attaching a second consonant letter to the first one, thus eliminating the /a/ vowel of the first consonant letter.

Unicode

Sundanese script was added to the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

Standard in April 2008 with the release of version 5.1. In version 6.3, the support of ''pasangan'' and some characters from Old Sundanese script were added.

Blocks

The Unicode block for Sundanese is U+1B80–U+1BBF. The Unicode block for Sundanese Supplement is U+1CC0–U+1CCF.

Gallery

File:Naskah Sunda Lontar.jpg, A Sundanese ''lontar'' manuscript written in the Sundanese script. File:Carita Waruga Guru.jpg, The first page from manuscript of Carita Waruga Guru which use the Old Sundanese script and the Old Sundanese language.

References

External links

Sundanese Unicode Table

Kairaga - Comprehensive information site regarding Sundanese font developing effort

Sundanese - Latin Online Transliteration and Sundanese Unicode Font

Sundanese Keyboard - ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ (''basa sunda'') Keyboard
at branah.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundanese Script 14th-century introductions Brahmic scripts Indonesian scripts Sundanese culture Sundanese language Sundanese script