Pegon Script
Pegon (Javanese and Sundanese: اَكسارا ڤَيڮَون, Aksara Pégon; also known as اَبجَد ڤَيڮَون, Abjad Pégon, Madurese: أبجاْد ڤَيگو, Abjâd Pèghu) is a modified Arabic script used to write the Javanese, Sundanese, and Madurese languages, as an alternative to the Latin script or the Javanese script and the Old Sundanese script.
It was used in a variety of applications, from religion, to diplomacy, to poetry. But today particularly, it is used for religious (Islamic) writing and poetry, particularly in writing commentaries of the Qur'an. Pegon includes letters that are not present in Modern Standard Arabic. Pegon has been studied far less than its Jawi counterpart which is used for Malay, Acehnese and Minangkabau.
| Pegon script اَكسارا ڤَيڮَون | |
|---|---|
 Babad Diponegoro written in Pegon (manuscript at National Library of Indonesia) | |
| Script type | |
Time period | c. 1300 CE to the present |
| Direction | Right-to-left |
| Languages | |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Jawi script Buri Wolio Sorabe alphabet |
In the past few decades, the Indonesian language has grown in its prominence and role as the national language of Indonesia. Thus, publishing institutions associated with religious schools have further developed new teaching material, in order to expand the use of Pegon script to Indonesian language as well. Indonesian language, being a variety of Malay, has also been written by the sister script of Pegon, Jawi.
Etymology
The word Pegon originated from the Javanese word pégo, meaning "deviate", due to the practice of writing the Javanese language with Arabic script, which was considered unconventional by Javanese people.
History
One of the earliest dated examples of the usage of Pegon may be Masa'il al-ta'lim, a work on Islamic law written in Arabic with interlinear translation and marginal commentary in Javanese. The manuscript is dated 1623 and written on dluwang, a paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree.
Letters
Pegon uses the original letters of the Arabic script plus an additional seven letters to represent native Javanese sounds not present in Arabic: ca (⟨چ⟩ /t͡ʃ/), dha (⟨ڎ⟩ /ɖ/), tha (⟨ڟ⟩ /ʈ/), nga (⟨ڠ⟩ /ŋ/), pa (⟨ڤ⟩ /p/), ga (⟨ڮ⟩ /g/), and nya (⟨ۑ⟩ /ɲ/). One additional letter is used in foreign loanwords: va (⟨ۏ⟩ /v/). These new letters are formed by the addition of dots to base letter forms. Pegon is not standardized and variation can be seen in how these additional letters are represented, most commonly in the position of the dots (above or below) and the number of dots (one, two or three). In more recent teaching material, additional letters have been added in order to use the script for writing Indonesian language.
| Forms | Javanese letter | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial | |
الف alif ا IPA: /ə/, /a, ɔ/ | ـا | ꦄ a | ||
ꦲ ha or a | ||||
ꦄꦼ ê | ||||
باء ba ب IPA: /b/ | ـب | ـبـ | بـ | ꦧ ba |
تاء ta ت IPA: /t/ | ـت | ـتـ | تـ | ꦠ ta |
ثاء sa ث IPA: /s/ | ـث | ـثـ | ثـ | ꦱ꦳ tsa |
جيم jim ج IPA: /d͡ʒ/ | ج | جـ | جـ | ꦗ ja |
چا ca چ IPA: /t͡ʃ/ | چ | ـچـ | چـ | ꦕ ca |
حاء ha ح IPA: /h/ | ح | ـحـ | حـ | ꦲ꦳ ha |
خاء kha خ IPA: /x/ | ـخ | ـخـ | خـ | ꦏ꦳ jv |
دال dal د IPA: /d/ | ـد | ꦢ da | ||
ذال zal ذ IPA: /z/ | ـذ | ꦢ꦳ dza | ||
ڎا dha ڎ IPA: /ɖ/ | ـڎ | ꦝ dha | ||
راء ra ر IPA: /r/ | ـر | ꦫ ra | ||
زاي zai ز IPA: /z/ | ـز | ꦗ꦳ za | ||
سين sin س IPA: /s/ | ـس | ـسـ | سـ | ꦱ sa |
شين syin ش IPA: /ʃ/ | ـش | ـشـ | شـ | ꦯ꦳, ꦱ꦳ sya |
صاد sad ص IPA: /s/ | ـص | ـصـ | صـ | ꦰ꦳ sha |
ضاد dad ض IPA: /d/ | ـض | ـضـ | ضـ | ꦝ꦳ jv |
طاء ta ط IPA: /t/ | ـط | ـطـ | طـ | ꦛ꦳ tha |
ڟا tha ڟ IPA: /ʈ/ | ـڟ | ـڟـ | ڟـ | ꦛ tha |
| Forms | Javanese letter | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial | |
ظاء za ظ IPA: /z/ | ـظ | ـظـ | ظـ | ꦘ꦳ zha |
عين ain ع IPA: /ʔ/ | ـع | ـعـ | عـ | ꦔ꦳ 'a |
غين ghain غ IPA: /ɣ/ | ـغ | ـغـ | غـ | ꦒ꦳ gha |
ڠا nga ڠ IPA: /ŋ/ | ـڠ | ـڠـ | ڠـ | ꦔ nga |
فاء fa ف IPA: /f/ | ـف | ـفـ | فـ | ꦥ꦳ fa |
ڤا pa ڤ IPA: p | ـڤ | ـڤـ | ڤـ | ꦥ pa |
قاف qaf ق IPA: /q/ | ـق | ـقـ | قـ | ꦐ qa |
كاف kaf ك IPA: /k/, /ʔ/ | ـك | ـكـ | كـ | ꦏ ka |
ڮا ga ڮ IPA: /g/ | ـڮ | ـڮـ | ڮـ | ꦒ ga |
لام lam ل IPA: /l/ | ـل | ـلـ | لـ | ꦭ la |
ميم mim م IPA: /m/ | ـم | ـمـ | مـ | ꦩ ma |
نون nun ن IPA: /n/ | ـن | ـنـ | نـ | ꦤ na |
ۑا nya ۑ IPA: /ɲ/ | ـۑ | ـۑـ | ꦚ nya | |
واو wau و IPA: /w/ /u, o, ɔ/ | ـو | ꦮ wa | ||
ꦈ u | ||||
ꦎ o | ||||
ۏا va ۏ IPA: /v/ | ـۏ | ꦮ꦳ va | ||
هاء ha ه IPA: /h/ | ـه | ـهـ | هـ | ꦲ ha |
همزة hamzah ء IPA: /ʔ/ | ||||
ياء ya ي IPA: /j/ /i, e, ɛ/ | ـي | ـيـ | يـ | ꦪ i |
ꦆ é | ||||
ꦌ ya | ||||
Representation of vowels
Vowel diacritics
Arabic script is an abjad, meaning that for the most part, only consonants are written. Arabic has three vowels, which may be short or long. There are three letters in Arabic (ا ,و ,ي) that can also represent long vowels, but in general, short vowels diacritics are only used diacritic in religious texts and those meant for beginner learners. The phonology of Javanese, Sundanese, and Madurese is quite different. There are six vowels, and no marking of vowel length. So, the script has been adapted by using the vowel diacritics in conjuncton with و ,ي, and ا to fully represent the vowels of Javan languages.
The prevalence of diacritic marking in Pegon varies from marking every letter, to being present only to differentiate particular vowel sounds. A version of the script which uses few diacritics, is called bare or bald (Javanese: ڮونڎول; ꦒꦸꦤ꧀ꦝꦸꦭ꧀, romanized: gundhul). To a fluent reader, the base letters are often sufficient to recognise word, rendering the diacritics unnecessary. So, for example, the word Indonesia may be written fully vocalised, (اِنْڎَوْنَيْسِيْيَا, Indhonésia) or bare (إنڎَونَيسييا). Generally, only the only the e-pepêt ⟨ ۤ ⟩ diacritic is used, with increasingly common in printed books, in this case only the e-pepêt ( ۤ) is written, with the others only used when disambiguation is needed.
Full marking of letters is common in most formal texts, including religious texts and historic diplomatic manuscripts.
◌َ | ◌ِ | ◌ُ | pepet ۤ◌ | ◌ْ |
Syllables
A vowel at the beginning of a word is indicated by the letter alif ⟨ا⟩, plus diacritic, and a follow-up letter ⟨و⟩ or ⟨ي⟩ if required. If present, the follow-up letter is written with a sukun to indicate that it is part of the first syllable and not the start of a new one. A vowel following a consonant (such as the letter ⟨ك⟩ in the example below), a following vowel is indicated by diacritics but without the letter alif.
| vowel | ◌َ a IPA: /a/, /ɔ/ | ◌ِ i IPA: /i/ | ◌ُو u IPA: /u/ | ◌َي e, ai IPA: /e/, /ɛ/ | ◌َو o, au IPA: /o/, /ɔ/ | ۤ◌ ê IPA: /ə/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| word initial | bare | أ ا + ء | إ ء + ا | او | اَيـ | اَ | اۤ |
| vocalised | اَ ◌َ + ا | اِ ◌ِ + ا | اُوْ ◌ُ + او ◌ْ + | اَيْـ اَيـ ◌ْ + | اَوْ + اَ ◌ْ + و + | اۤ | |
| ك + vowel | bare | كا | كي | كو | كَي | كَو | كۤ |
| vocalised | كَا | كِيْ | كُوْ | كَيْ | كَوْ | كۤ | |