Kawi script

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kawi is the name given to the writing system used in Java and surrounding areas in inscriptions and texts from the 8th century to around 1500 AD.^[1] It is also the name of the language used in these inscriptions and texts, more generally called "old-Javanese".

The literary genre written in this alphabet is called Kakawin.

Kawi is derived from the so-called "Pallava script" mentioned by scholars of Southeast Asian studies such as George Coedes and D. G. E. Hall as the basis of several writing systems of Southeast Asia.

The earliest known texts in Kawi date from the Singhasari kingdom in eastern Java. The more recent scripts were extant in the Majapahit kingdom, also in eastern Java, Bali, Borneo and Sumatra.

The scripts are abugida, meaning that characters are read with an inherent vowel. Diacritics are used, either to suppress the vowel and represent a pure consonant, or to represent other vowels.

As presented in the image on the right, The Old-Kawi script was widely used across insular southeast Asia. According to the Dutch archeologist, Antoon Postma, this particular inscription was found on the island of Luzon, Philippines circa 900 A.D. The language used was a mixture of Old Tagalog, Old Javanese as well as Sanskrit and was written in what is now known as Old-Kawi (Tiongson, 2008).

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1. ^ De Casparis, J. G. Indonesian Palaeography : A History of Writing in Indonesia from the beginnings to c. AD 1500, Leiden/Koln, 1975

Tiongson J. F. , (2008). Laguna copperplate inscription: a new interpretation using early tagalog dictionaries. Bayang Pinagpala. Retrieved September 10, 2008, from http://www.bayangpinagpala.org/

[edit] See also

• Baybayin
• Hanunoo
• Tagbanwa