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	Abjad
Time period	c. 1300 CE to the present
Direction	Right-to-left
Languages	Javanese Sundanese Madurese Indonesian
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Nabataean Arabic Pegon script
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: ⟨چ‎⟩, dha ⟨ڎ‎⟩, ⟨ڟ‎⟩, ⟨ڠ‎⟩, ⟨ڤ‎⟩, ⟨ڮ‎⟩, and ⟨ۑ‎⟩. One additional letter is used in foreign loanwords ⟨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.

ʾalif ا‎ IPA: /ə/ /a, ɔ/	bā ب‎ IPA: /b/	tāʾ ت‎ IPA: /t/	ṡaʾ ث‎ IPA: /s/	jīm ج‎ IPA: /d͡ʒ/	ca چ‎ IPA: /t͡ʃ/	ḥāʾ ح‎ IPA: /h/
khāʾ خ‎ IPA: /x/	dāl د‎ IPA: /d/	żāl ذ‎ IPA: /z/	dha ڎ‎ IPA: /ɖ/	rāʾ ر‎ IPA: /r/	zāi ز‎ IPA: /z/	sīn س‎ IPA: /s/
syīn ش‎ IPA: /ʃ/	ṣād ص‎ IPA: /s/	ḍād ض‎ IPA: /d/	ṭāʾ ط‎ IPA: /t/	tha ڟ‎ IPA: /ʈ/	ẓāʾ ظ‎ IPA: /z/	ʿain ع‎ IPA: /ʔ/
ġain غ‎ IPA: /ɣ/	nga ڠ‎ IPA: /ŋ/	fāʾ ف‎ IPA: /f/	pa ڤ ف‎ IPA: p	qāf ق‎ IPA: /q/	kaf ك‎ IPA: /k/ /ʔ/	gaf ڬ ڮ‎ IPA: /g/
lām ل‎ IPA: /l/	mīm م‎ IPA: /m/	nūn ن‎ IPA: /n/	nya ۑ ڽ‎ IPA: /ɲ/	wāu و‎ IPA: /w/ /u, o, ɔ/	hāʾ ه‎ IPA: /h/	yāʾ ي‎ IPA: /j/ /i, e, ɛ/

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 vowel diacritics are only used in religious texts and texts 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). It is increasingly common in printed books to only consistently use the e-pepêt, with the other diacritics only used when disambiguation is needed.

Full marking of letters is common in most formal texts, including religious texts and historic diplomatic manuscripts.

Vowel diacritics

fatḥah ◌َ‎

kasrah ◌ِ‎

ḍammah ◌ُ‎

pepet ۤ◌‎

sukūn ◌ْ‎

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 syllables

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

Consonant clusters

In pegon, consonant clusters are written in two ways. In clusters that consist of a nasal consonant followed by a liquid consonant, such as [mr], [ml], or [ŋl], or of an obstruent consonant followed by a plosive consonant, such as [tr], [pl], or [by], the first consonant is modified by an epenthetic e-pepet ⟨ۤ◌‎⟩.

When a consonant cluster consists of a nasal consonant followed by a plosive consonant, like [nj], [mb], or [nd], a prothetic alif is added to the beginning of the cluster.

Some consonant clusters

with epenthetic ۤ◌‎					with prothetic اَ‎
كۤر‎ kr	كۤل‎ kl	مۤل‎ ml	ڠۤل‎ ngl	سۤر‎ sr	اَنْج‎ nj	اَمب‎ mb	اَند‎ nd

Vowel Sequences

Vowel sequences follow certain general conventions. Variations besides these are also commonly seen in various books and manuscripts.

Vowel sequences (both bare and vocalised forms)

bare						vocalised
اأ‎ aa	ائَي‎ ae	اأۤ‎ aê	ائي‎ ai	أَوْ‎ ao	أو‎ au	◌َاأ‎ aa	◌َائَيْ‎ ae	◌َااۤ‎ aê	◌َائِيْ‎ ai	◌َاَوْ‎ ao	◌َاُوْ‎ au
◌َيئا‎ ea	◌َييا‎ ea	يئَو‎ eo	يئو‎ eu	ۤۤ◌ئي‎ êi		◌َيْئَا‎ ea	◌َيْيَا‎ ea	◌َيْئَوْ‎ eo	◌ِيْئُوْ‎ eu	ۤ◌ئِيْو‎ êi
ييا‎ ia	يئي‎ ii	يئَو‎ io	◌َووا‎ oa	ووا‎ ua	ؤو‎ uu	◌ِيْيَا‎ ia	◌ِيْئِيْ‎ ii	◌ِيْئَوْ‎ io	◌َوْوَا‎ oa	◌ُوْوَا‎ ua	◌ُؤُوْ‎ uu

Reduplication

In Pegon script, reduplication is represented with a numeral ٢ or a hyphen. If the word has a prefix, the duplicated base word is simply repeated after a hyphen. Otherwise, a ٢ indicates that the word is reduplicated. If the word has a suffix, the ٢ is placed between the base word and the suffix.

Sample Javanese words, showing reduplication.

vocalized	bare	transliteration	meaning
تٓمْبُوْڠ۲‎	تٓمبوڠ۲‎	tembung-tembung	words
اَڠْڮَوْتَا۲نَيْ‎	اڠڮَوتا۲نَي‎	anggota-anggotané	member who
كَاسُوْرُوْڠ-سُوْرُوْڠ‎	كاسوروڠ-سوروڠ‎	kasurung-surung	encouragement

Madurese Pèghu

The Madurese language has a more complicated phonology than other Javanese languages. It includes the vowel /ɤ/ (â) and a wider range of glottal stops than Javanese or Sundanese. The Arabic script as adapted to Madurese, known as pèghu, had some differences from other versions of pegon, and is always written vocalized using diacritics.

Consonants

Madurese has more consonants than its neighboring languages, including voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated, and voiced unaspirated, but with the exception of dh, aspirated consonants in Madurese Pèghu are represented by the same letters as their unaspirated counterparts.

چ‎ c

ڊ‎ ḍ

ڟ‎ ṭ

ڠ‎ ng

ڤ‎ p

ࢴ‎ g

ۑ‎ ny

Vowels

Vowels at the beginning of a word are indicated by the letter alif ⟨ا⟩ or ain ⟨ع‎⟩ with the appropriate diacritic, and a follow-up letter ⟨و‎⟩, ⟨ي‎⟩, or ⟨ء‎⟩, if required. Usually, this follow-up letter is written with a zero-vowel diacritic (sukūn), to indicate that it is part of the first syllable, and not part of a new one.

Word-initial vowels

a اَ ,أ IPA: /a/ or /ɔ/

i عِي IPA: /i/

u اُوْ IPA: /u/

è عَي IPA: /e/ or /ɛ/

o عَوْ ,اُو IPA: /o/ or /ɔ/

e اۤ IPA: /ə/

‘ ء IPA: /ʔ/

Vowels following the consonant ك

ka كَا

kâ کۤا

ki كِيْ

ku كُوْ

kè كَيْ

ko كَيْ

ke كۤ

Comparison of Pegon and Jawi

The orthographic rules of Jawi and Pegon differ, with Jawi spelling being much more standardised than Pegon. Pegon tends to write all vowel sounds of native words explicitly, either with full letters or diacritics, whereas Jawi spelling sometimes omits alif in certain positions where an /a/ would be pronounced, and other vowel sounds may not be written explicitly.

For those additional letters representing sounds not present in Arabic, some letters have the same appearance in both Jawi and Pegon, while others differ. Pegon also has two additional letters for sounds native to Javanese which are not present in Malay. Also the form of kaf used differs between the two varieties with Pegon using the Arabic form, while Jawi uses the Persian form.

Letter differences between Pegon and Jawi

Pegon	dha ڎ‎‎ dh IPA: /ɖ/	tha ڟ‎ th IPA: /ʈ/	kaf ك‎‎ k IPA: /k/	ga ڮ‎‎ g IPA: /g/	nya ۑ‎‎ ny IPA: /ɲ/	va ۏ‎‎ v IPA: /v/
Jawi	-	-	ک‎‎	ݢ‎‎	ڽ‎‎	ـۏ‎‎

Transliteration

The United States Library of Congress published a romanization standard of Jawi and Pegon in 2012.

Sample text

Indonesian in Pegon script

بݢينڎا نبي محمد اڎاله اوتوسن الله كڤڎ سموا مخلوق، اڤ ساج يڠ ڎچريتاكن اوليه بڮينڎا نبي محمد اڎاله كبنرن يڠ پات. مك سموا مخلوق واجب ممبنركن دان مڠيكوتي بڮينڎا نبي محمد‎

Indonesian in Latin Script

Baginda Nabi Muhammad adalah utusan Allah kepada semua makhluk, Apa saja yang diceritakan oleh Baginda Nabi Muhammad adalah kebenaran yang nyata. Maka semua makhluk wajib membenarkan dan mengikuti Baginda Nabi Muhammad.

English

His Majesty the Prophet Muhammad is the messenger of God to all creatures, whatever is told by His Majesty the Prophet Muhammad is the real truth. Therefore all creatures have to corroborate and follow His Majesty the Prophet Muhammad.

See also

• Jawi alphabet

References

• On Pegon Script for Javanese language: Jamalin, F., & Rahman, A. A. (2021). Arabic-Java Writing System: How Javanese Language Adopts Arabic Script. Izdihar: Journal of Arabic Language Teaching, Linguistics, and Literature, 4(1), 43–58. https://doi.org/10.22219/jiz.v4i1.11337 (PDF) (Archive)
• On Pegon Script for Sundanese language: Apriyanto, Agung, Ruhaliah Nunuy Nurjanah, and Ruhaliah. (2021) "Structure of the Sundanese Language in the Pegon Script". Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (ICOLLITE 2021). https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211119.006. PDF (Archive)
• Religious book featuring Arabic, with word-by-word Madurese language translation: Syeikh Khalil bin Abdul Latif al-Bankalani al-Maduri (Bangkalan, Madura). (1988) "Al-Matn al-Shareef". https://archive.org/details/SyaikhonaKholil/mode/2up
• Gallop, A. T. (2015). A Jawi sourcebook for the study of Malay palaeography and orthography. Indonesia and the Malay World, 43(125), 13–171.
• Jacquerye, Denis Moyogo (2019). Proposal to encode Javanese and Sundanese Arabic characters (PDF). Unicode.
• Rikza, F. Sh. (2022). Proposal to encode four Pegon characters (PDF). Unicode.
• Poerwadarminta, W.J.S (1939). Bausastra Jawa [Javanese Dictionary] (in Javanese). Batavia: J.B. Wolters. ISBN 0834803496.