Pegon script اَكسارا ڤَيڮَون‎
Babad Diponegoro written in Pegon (manuscript atNational Library of Indonesia)
Script type	Abjad
Period	c. 1300 CE to the present
Direction	Right-to-left
Languages	Javanese Sundanese Madurese Indonesian[1][2]
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Nabataean Arabic Pegon script
Sister systems	Jawi script Buri Wolio Sorabe alphabet
This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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Pegon (Javanese andSundanese:اَكسارا ڤَيڮَون‎,romanized: Aksara Pégon; also known asاَبجَد ڤَيڮَون‎,Abjad Pégon;Madurese:أبجاْد ڤَيگو,Abjâd Pèghu)^[3] is a modifiedArabic script used to write theJavanese,Sundanese, andMadurese languages, as an alternative to theLatin script or theJavanese script^[4] and theOld Sundanese script.^[5] It was used in a variety of applications, from religion, to diplomacy, to poetry.^[6][7][8] But today particularly, it is used for religious (Islamic) writing and poetry, particularly in writing commentaries of theQur'an. Pegon includes letters that are not present inModern Standard Arabic. Pegon has been studied far less than itsJawi counterpart which is used forMalay,Acehnese andMinangkabau.^[9]

In the past few decades, theIndonesian language has grown in its prominence and role as the national language ofIndonesia. 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.^[1]Indonesian language, being a variety ofMalay, has also been written by the sister script of Pegon,Jawi.

The wordPegon originated from the Javanese wordpégo, meaning "deviate", due to the practice of writing the Javanese language with Arabic script, which was considered unconventional byJavanese people.^[3]

One of the earliest dated examples of the usage of Pegon may beMasa'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 ondluwang, a paper made from the bark of the mulberry tree.^[10]

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).^[11][12]In more recent teaching material, additional letters have been added in order to use the script for writingIndonesian language.^[1]

Arabic script is anabjad, 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 ofJavanese,Sundanese, andMadurese 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 withو ,ي‎, andا‎ to fully represent the vowels of the languages of Java.^[13]

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 calledbare orbald (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.

A vowel at the beginning of a word is indicated by the letteralif⟨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.^[13]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.

In pegon, consonant clusters are written in two ways. In clusters that consist of anasal consonant followed by aliquid consonant, such as [mr], [ml], or [ŋl], or of anobstruent consonant followed by aplosive consonant, such as [tr], [pl], or [by], the first consonant is modified by anepenthetic e-pepet⟨ۤ◌‎⟩.

When a consonant cluster consists of anasal consonant followed by aplosive consonant, like [nj], [mb], or [nd], aprothetic alif is added to the beginning of the cluster.^[13]

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

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.^[6]

TheSundanese language has a slightly different system in writing Pegon compared to its Javanese equivalent. While Javanese Pegon has extra letters for writing consonants Sundanese does not have such asdha⟨ڎ‎⟩ andtha⟨ڟ‎⟩, Sundanese also has the vowel /ɨ/ (eu),^[14] Sundanese also does not glottalise final k, unlike Javanese.

While Sundanese Pegon is usually written similarly to Javanese Pegon, in some manuscripts and writings, several characters differs, specificallyca⟨چ‎⟩ andga⟨ڮ‎⟩, where they are written with two vertical dots instead of three.

For word-initial vowels, the letteralif⟨ا⟩ is used with the approriate diacritic mark,ain⟨ع‎⟩ is only used if the word is an Arabic loan.

Diphthongs or stand-alone vowels next to another vowel are written with⟨ي‎⟩ or⟨و‎⟩ as placeholder consonants, depends on how its pronounced, this does not apply to duplicate vowels, they are written with a hamzah⟨ء‎⟩ instead.^[15]

While the letterswau⟨و‎⟩ andra⟨ر‎⟩ in Arabic are isolated letters, in Sundanese texts, these letters are often written connecting to the next letter, usually when followed by the letterha⟨ہ‎⟩.^[15]

TheMadurese 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 usingdiacritics.

Madurese has moreconsonants than its neighboring languages, including voiceless unaspirated, voicelessaspirated, and voiced unaspirated,^[16] but with the exception ofdh, aspirated consonants in Madurese Pèghu are represented by the same letters as their unaspirated counterparts.

Vowels at the beginning of a word are indicated by the letteralif⟨ا⟩ orain⟨ع‎⟩ with the appropriate diacritic, and a follow-up letter⟨و‎⟩,⟨ي‎⟩, or⟨ء‎⟩, if required. Usually, this follow-up letter is written with azero-vowel diacritic (sukūn), to indicate that it is part of the first syllable, and not part of a new one.^[13]

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 omitsalif 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 ofkaf used differs between the two varieties with Pegon using the Arabic form, while Jawi uses the Persian form.

The United StatesLibrary of Congress published aromanization standard ofJawi and Pegon in 2012.^[17]

• Jawi script

• On Pegon Script forJavanese 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 forSundanese 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-wordMadurese 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 (2025) [1939].Bausastra Jawa [Javanese Dictionary] (in Javanese). Batavia: J.B. Wolters.ISBN 0834803496.

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