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Jawoe script

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Jawoe Acèh
جاوي اچيه‎
A manuscript in Jawoe
Script type
Period
c. 1600 CE to the present (limited use)
DirectionRight-to-left
LanguagesAcehnese
Related scripts
Parent systems
Sister systems
Pegon script, Cham Jawi
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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Jawoe or Acehnese Jawi (Jawoe Acèh; جاوي اچيه‎, Acehnese pronunciation: [ɟaˈwɔ(ə̯) aˈceh]; Husaini: Djawoë Atjèh), known natively as harah Jawoe (حرف جاوي‎, 'Jawoe letters'), is a right-to-left abjad used for writing Acehnese, dating from the 17th century.[1] It is a variant of the Jawi script, which itself is derived from the Arabic alphabet.[2]

History

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The term Jawoe in Acehnese refers to the Malay language written in the Jawi script,[3] though nowadays, Jawoe largely refers to the adapted Arabic alphabet used for writing Acehnese, and is often interchangable with Jawi, sometimes specified as Acehnese Jawi.

The Jawoe script is an adapted form of Jawi, which was the lingua franca of the region and the main language used in Acehnese courts, by Acehnese scholars to write Acehnese,[4] though most writing in Aceh was still written in Jawi Malay, which still requires them to be fluent in Malay to be literate.[5]

The first page of "Woordenboek der Atjehsche taal" (A Wordbook of the Acehnese Language), the only known Acehnese dictionary that uses Jawoe.

The earliest known manuscript written in Jawoe is Hikayat Sama'un (The Story of Syama'un) from 1658 CE.[6][7] Aside from native writings, many Dutch papers have also documented the usage of Jawoe. A Dutch-Acehnese dictionary by Karel Frederik Hendrik van Langen in 1889 remains to this day the only dictionary that uses Jawoe.[8]

After Dutch colonisation and the independence of Indonesia, the Latin alphabet became more popular for Acehnese, and Jawoe has largely fallen out of use.[9] Though, as recently as 2015, there has been growing interest regarding Jawoe reading amongst the Acehnese populace.[10]

Reading

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Due to Jawi's influence in Acehnese literature, Jawoe is largely unchanged from Jawi aside from new words for writing native Acehnese words and loanwords, which causes Jawoe to be akin to a heterogramic writing system, where words are spelt in Malay and Arabic but read in Acehnese.[11] For example, the Acehnese words teukeudi (lit. 'fate') and ujoe (lit. 'to test') are spelt as تقدير‎ (tqdyr) and اوجي‎ (ʔwjy) respectively. Snouck Hurgronje describes it as such:[12]

This character is inadequate for representing the consonants and wholly incapable of representing the vowels of the Acehnese. Thus it comes about that the Acehnese adhere to the spelling which represented their language in a bygone age when many sounds now lost or modified occurred; thus they write r at the end of syllables but do not sound it; they write l at the end of syllables but sound it as y or ë; s is changed in the same position to h or ih.[a] For all these reasons one can hardly read Acehnese written by Acehnese without having previously mastered the colloquial.

— Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje, The Achehnese, xix

Letters

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The Jawoe alphabet.

Jawoe has thirty three letters, with the major difference between Jawi is the merging of alif maqsurah (ى‎) with ya (ي‎), the usage of 'ayn (ع‎) to represent vowel nasality, and the usage of hamza (ء‎) above alif (ا‎‎), waw (و‎‎), or ya (ي‎) to signify a glottal stop before the vowel,[14] though most of the letters and their individual pronunciations within a word are often than not inconsistent due to the fact that most of the Acehnese words are written with their Jawi Malay cognates.[15]

The table below lists all the letters used in Jawoe and its main sounds, with its modern Latin equivalents, both in EBAYD and Husaini:[16][17]

Name Isolated Initial Medial Final IPA Latin
EBAYD Husaini
aléh ا‎ ـا‎ /ʔ/ and /a, ə, ɯ/ a, e, eu a, e/ë, eu
ba ب‎ بـ‎ ـبـ‎ ـب‎ /b/ b
ta ت‎ تـ‎ ـتـ‎ ـت‎ /t/ t
sa ث‎ ثـ‎ ـثـ‎ ـث‎ /s/ s
jim ج‎ جـ‎ ـجـ‎ ـج‎ /ɟ/ j dj
ca چ‎ چـ‎ ـچـ‎ ـچ‎ /c/ c tj
ha ح‎ حـ‎ ـحـ‎ ـح‎ /h/ h
kha خ‎ خـ‎ ـخـ‎ ـخ‎ /k, kʰ, h/ k, kh, h
dai د‎ ـد‎ /d/ d
dai ذ‎ ـذ‎ /d, l/ d, l
ra ر‎ ـر‎ /r/ r
doe ز‎ ـز‎ /d/ d, j d, dj
sin س‎ سـ‎ ـسـ‎ ـس‎ /s/ s
cén ش‎ شـ‎ ـشـ‎ ـش‎ /c, cʰ, s/ c, ch, s tj, tjh, s
sat ص‎ صـ‎ ـصـ‎ ـص‎ /s/ s
dat, lat ض‎ ضـ‎ ـضـ‎ ـض‎ /d, l/ d, l
ta ط‎ طـ‎ ـطـ‎ ـط‎ /t/ t
da, la ظ‎ ظـ‎ ـظـ‎ ـظ‎ /d, l/ d, l
’in ع‎ عـ‎ ـعـ‎ ـع‎ /◌̃/ ’
gén, rén غ‎ غـ‎ ـغـ‎ ـغ‎ /ɡ, r, h/ g, r, h
nga ڠ‎ ڠـ‎ ـڠـ‎ ـڠ‎ /ŋ/ ng
pa ف‎ فـ‎ ـفـ‎ ـف‎ /p/ p
pa ڤ‎ ڤـ‎ ـڤـ‎ ـڤ‎ /p/ p
kah ق‎ قـ‎ ـقـ‎ ـق‎ /k/ k
keueh ک‎ کـ‎ ـکـ‎ ـک‎ /k/ k
ga ݢ‎ ݢـ‎ ـݢـ‎ ـݢ‎ /ɡ/ g
lam ل‎ لـ‎ ـلـ‎ ـل‎ /l/ l
mim م‎ مـ‎ ـمـ‎ ـم‎ /m/ m
nun ن‎ نـ‎ ـنـ‎ ـن‎ /n/ n
wèe و‎ ـو‎ /w/ and /u, o, ɔ, ʌ/ w, u, ô, o, ö
ha ه‎ هـ‎ ـهـ‎ ـه‎ /h/ r
ya ي‎ ـي‎ ـيـ‎ يـ‎ /j/ and /i, e, ɛ/ y, i, é, è j, i, é, è
nya ڽ‎ ڽـ‎ ـڽـ‎ ـڽ‎ /ɲ/ ny nj

An additional letter, ta marbutah (ة‎) is also used, mostly in Arabic loans, but is not counted as a separate letter. The letter hamza (ء‎) is grouped with alif (ا‎‎).

Compared to Malay, Acehnese has a limited range of final consonant sounds, which collapses the range of consonants in the final position to voiceless stops (excluding palatal and velar, which merges with the coronal and glottal respectively), nasals (excluding the palatal), semivowels, and /h/.[18][19][17] The table below represents each consonants and their respective final sounds, ordered alphabetically:

Type Bilabial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
Nasal [m]

م‎

[n]

ن‎

[ŋ]

ڠ‎

 
Plosive [p̚]

ب، ف، ڤ‎

[t̠̚]

ت، ج، چ، د، ط، ة‎

  [ʔ]

ع، ق، ک، ݢ، ء‎

Approximant [w]

و‎

  [j]

ض، ظ، ل، ي‎

[h]

ث، ح، خ، ذ، ز، س،‎
ش، ص، ف، ه، ة‎

Vowels

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Unlike Pegon and Buri Wolio, similar abjads derived from the Arabic alphabet from the region, Jawoe doesn't use vowel diacritics or harakah, which poses a difficulty in sufficiently representing Acehnese vowels. To represent long vowels, Arabic uses three letters: alif (ا‎‎), waw (و‎‎), and ya (ي‎), which limits Jawoe's options to represent Acehnese's 34 distinct vowel sounds.[20]

Vowels represented with a letter Vowels represented without a letter
IPA Letter Example with initial /b/ IPA Example with initial /t̠/
Jawoe EBAYD IPA English Jawoe EBAYD IPA English
/a/ ا‎ بارت‎ barat [baˈrat̠̚] west /a/ تڤت‎ teupat [t̠ɯˈpat̠̚] correct
/ɯ/ بلابس‎ beuleubah [bɯlɯˈbah] lath /ɯ/ تنتڠ‎ teuntang [t̠ɯnˈt̠aŋ] facing
/u/ و‎ بوتا‎ buta [buˈt̠a] blind /u/ تروکي‎ Turuki [t̠uruˈki] Turkey
/o/ باتوک‎ batôk [baˈt̠oʔ] cough /o/ توجه‎ tujôh [t̠uˈɟoh] seven
/ɔ/ بوه‎ boh [bɔh] fruit /ɔ/ توفڠ‎ tupong [t̠uˈpɔŋ] earlobe
/ʌ/ بيو‎ beuö [bɯˈʔʌ] lazy /ʌ/ تڠه‎ teungöh [t̠ɯˈŋʌh] middle
/i/ ي‎ بيبير‎ bibi [biˈbi] lips /i/ تجيق‎ tijik [t̠iˈɟiʔ] carry with one hand
/e/ بتيس‎ beutéh [bɯˈt̠eh] calf /e/ تربس‎ teureubéh [t̠ɯrɯˈbeh] steepness
/ɛ/ بريڠين‎ bringèn [briˈŋɛn] ficus tree /ɛ/ تريتف‎ teuritèb [t̠ɯriˈt̠ɛp̚] barnacle
/ə/ تاهر‎ tahe [t̠aˈhə] pensive

Notes

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  1. ^ The ih sound only applies to the Pidie dialect of Acehnese.[13]

References

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  1. ^ Daud 1997, p. 156.
  2. ^ Bania, Allif Syahputra; Akob, Bachtiar (2025). "Preserving the Jawi script in Aceh: Assessing literacy, cultural heritage, and modern paradigm challenges". Journal of USK: 1.
  3. ^ Daud 1997, pp. 157, 161.
  4. ^ Daud 1997, p. 155–156.
  5. ^ Daud 1997, pp. 160–161.
  6. ^ Durie, Mark (1996). "Framing the Acehnese Text: Language Choice and Discourse Structures in Aceh". Oceanic Linguistics. 35 (1): 113–137. doi:10.2307/3623033. ISSN 0029-8115. JSTOR 3623033.
  7. ^ Daud 1997, p. 20.
  8. ^ Daud 1997, p. 161.
  9. ^ Bania, Allif Syahputra; Akob, Bachtiar (2025). "Preserving the Jawi script in Aceh: Assessing literacy, cultural heritage, and modern paradigm challenges". Journal of USK: 1.
  10. ^ Sakti, T.A. (30 May 2019). "Minat Baca Huruf Arab-Jawoe, Bangkit Kembali di Aceh". KAWACA.COM. Retrieved 2026-06-26.
  11. ^ Daud 1997, pp. 161–162.
  12. ^ Hurgronje, C. Snouck (1906). De Atjèhers [The Achehnese]. Translated by O'Sullivan, A.W.S. Leyden: E. J. Brill. pp. xix.
  13. ^ Muthalib 2017, p. 68.
  14. ^ Hurgronje 1892, pp. 95.
  15. ^ Daud 1997, pp. 1616–167.
  16. ^ Daud 1997, p. 158.
  17. ^ a b Hurgronje 1892, pp. 93–95.
  18. ^ Asyik 1987, p. 12.
  19. ^ Daud 1997, pp. 163–166.
  20. ^ Daud 1997, pp. 158–159, 162.

Bibliography

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