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According to Iban legend, an ancestor named Renggi devised a writing script on the skin of wood, but it was soaked in water and the writing vanished. Anguished with the tragedy, Renggi munched the script and swallowed it<ref name="Churchill 2012"/> where the script became ingrained in Renggi's brain and blood and also his descendants. Since then, the Ibans became adept at memorising oral traditions, just like exactly written in books.<ref>{{cite news |last1=David |first1=Jacqueline |title=Dunging Script into the millennium |url=https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/07/11/dunging-script-into-the-millennium/ |access-date=20 December 2023 |publisher=The Borneo Post |date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027081422/https://www.theborneopost.com/2021/07/11/dunging-script-into-the-millennium/ |archive-date=27 October 2022}}</ref> Occasionally, the Ibans used personalised symbols as memory aids on their writing boards (''papan turai'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pringle |first1=Robert |title=Rajahs & Rebels - The Ibans of Sarawak under Brooke Rule (1841-1941) |date=1970 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=New York |pages=37 |url=https://archive.org/details/rajahs-rebels-robert-pringle |access-date=12 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Sarawak Hieroglyphics: A Lost Legacy? |url=https://www.theborneopost.com/2024/05/13/the-sarawak-hieroglyphics-a-lost-legacy1187066/#:~:text=It%20consists%20of%20a%20series,during%20the%20Gawai%20Batu%20ceremony. |access-date=13 May 2024 |publisher=The Borneo Post |date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513111146/https://www.theborneopost.com/2024/05/13/the-sarawak-hieroglyphics-a-lost-legacy1187066/ |archive-date=13 May 2024}}</ref>
As the Iban language had no extant writing system of its own, [[Missionary#Christian_missions|Christian missionaries]] adopted the Latin alphabet in an attempt to codify the language.<ref name="Ethnic_language"/> ''A Sea Dyak Dictionary'', published in 1900, was important in the early development of the Iban as a written language. During the [[Crown Colony of Sarawak|Crown Colony]] era, the Borneo Literature Bureau also worked on the written form of the Iban language.<ref name="Ethnic_language"/>
From 1947 to 1962, Dunging anak Gunggu invented an Iban [[syllabary]] known as the [[Dunging script]].<ref name="omniglot">{{Cite web |title=Iban |url=https://www.omniglot.com/writing/iban.htm |access-date=20 August 2019 |website=[[Omniglot]]}}</ref><ref name="Churchill 2012">{{Cite news |last=Churchill Edward |date=20 June 2012 |title='Long Lost' Iban Alphabet Script 'Found' |work=[[The Borneo Post]] |url=http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/06/20/long-lost-iban-alphabet-script-found/ |access-date=20 August 2019}}</ref> In 2010, Dr. Bromeley Philip of [[Universiti Teknologi MARA]], who is also a grandnephew to Dunging,<ref name="Churchill 2012"/> created digital fonts for Dunging script, named "LaserIban", available for Windows and Macintosh computers. Dr Bromeley also launched a course to promote the use of LaserIban and had transcribed several traditional folktales from Latin alphabet into Dunging script.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reviving the Iban alphabet |url=https://news.uitm.edu.my/reviving-the-iban-alphabet/ |publisher=UiTM News Hub |access-date=19 December 2023 |date=15 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191030094108/https://news.uitm.edu.my/reviving-the-iban-alphabet/ |archive-date=2019-10-30 }}</ref> However, the Dunging script is not widely adopted.<ref name="omniglot"/> As of 2011, only three people in the world mastered the Dunging script, namely Dr Bromeley himself, longhouse chief Tuai Rumah Bagat Nunui and teacher Ngambong Katoi.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Edward |first1=Churchill |title='Pioneer Iban alphabet students will promote system' |url=https://www.theborneopost.com/2011/09/19/%E2%80%98pioneer-iban-alphabet-students-will-promote-system%E2%80%99/ |access-date=16 January 2024 |publisher=The Borneo Post |date=19 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210602151513/https://www.theborneopost.com/2011/09/19/%E2%80%98pioneer-iban-alphabet-students-will-promote-system%E2%80%99/ |archive-date=2 June 2021}}</ref>
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