Sundanese script

Typology

The standardized script has 32 basic characters: seven vowels, 23 consonants, and thirteen phonetic diacritics (Sundanese: rarangkén). There are also numerals from zero to nine.

Consonants

Each consonant (Sundanese: aksara ngalagéna) carries an inherent vowel 'a', so that each consonant letter is pronounced as a syllable. The original eighteen consonants are ka-ga-nga, ca-ja-nya, ta-da-na, pa-ba-ma, ya-ra-la, wa-sa-ha.

An additional five consonants, fa-va-qa-xa-za have been added in order to improve the script as a tool for recording the development of the Sundanese language, especially regarding the adoption of foreign words and sounds. The new glyphs have been developed through re-use of letters found in the old Sundanese script. For example, the letters fa and va are variants of Old Sundanese pa; qa and xa are variants of Old Sundanese ka; and za is a variant of Old Sundanese ja.

There are two non-standard consonants, kha and sha, used for transcribing the Arabic consonants خ and ش.

Vowels

There are seven independent vowels, a, é, i, o, u, e, and eu, each of which has an independent form and a rarangkén or diacritic. A basic consonant-vowel syllable is formed by adding a vowel diacritic to a consonant. The vowel diacritic replaces the consonant's inherent 'a' or, in the case of the "killer stroke" (pamaéh) removes the vowel entirely, creating an isolated consonant.

Consonant diacritics

Additional diacritics are used to alter the consonants of a syllable.

Numerals

In texts, numbers are written surrounded by dual pipes | ... |, for example, the year 2020 is written |᮲᮰᮲᮰|.

Punctuation

In modern usage, Latin punctuation is used. Old Sundanese, though, was written using its own set of punctuation symbols. Sequences such as ᳇᳇, ᳆᳀᳆, which contains a ᳀, bindu surya, 'sun sign', and ᳆᳁, which contains a ᳁, bindu panglong, 'half-moon sign', are used to mark liturgical texts. ᳅᳂᳅, which contains a ᳂, bindu purnama, 'full moon sign', denoted a historical text. ᳀ is also sometimes used as a full stop, with ᳂ acting as a comma. ᳃, bindu chakra, 'wheel sign' was also used as a comma.

The punctuation symbols resembling letters with stripes (᳆, da satanga, 'decorated da', ᳇, ba satanga, 'decorated ba', and ᳅, ka satanga, 'decorated ka') originated as versions of the letters ᮓ, da, ᮘ, ba, and one half of the letter ᮊ, ka. Another symbol of unclear meaning is the ᳄, leu satanga, 'decorated leu', based on the archaic syllable ᮼ, seu.

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Sundanese

ᮞᮊᮥᮙ᮪ᮔ ᮏᮜ᮪ᮙ ᮌᮥᮘᮢᮌ᮪ ᮊ ᮃᮜᮙ᮪ ᮓᮥᮑ ᮒᮦᮂ ᮞᮤᮕᮒ᮪ᮔ ᮙᮨᮁᮓᮤᮊ ᮏᮩᮀ ᮘᮧᮌ ᮙᮁᮒᮘᮒ᮪ ᮊᮒᮥᮒ᮪ ᮠᮊ᮪-ᮠᮊ᮪ ᮃᮔᮥ ᮞᮛᮥᮃ. ᮙᮛᮔᮦᮂᮔ ᮓᮤᮘᮦᮛᮦ ᮃᮊᮜ᮪ ᮏᮩᮀ ᮠᮒᮦ ᮔᮥᮛᮔᮤ, ᮎᮙ᮪ᮕᮥᮁ-ᮌᮅᮜ᮪ ᮏᮩᮀ ᮞᮞᮙᮔ ᮃᮚ ᮓᮤᮔ ᮞᮥᮙᮍᮨᮒ᮪ ᮓᮥᮓᮥᮜᮥᮛᮔ᮪.

Romanized

Sakumna jalma gubrag ka alam dunya téh sipatna merdika jeung boga martabat katut hak-hak anu sarua. Maranéhna dibéré akal jeung haté nurani, campur-gaul jeung sasamana aya dina sumanget duduluran.

English

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Unicode

Sundanese script was added to the Unicode 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.