You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Indonesian. (October 2020)Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Indonesian article. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Indonesian Wikipedia article at [[:id:Lontara Bilang-bilang]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|id|Lontara Bilang-bilang}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation.

Bilang-bilang
Script type	Abugida
Period	17th century – present
Languages	Buginese language
Related scripts
Parent systems	Eastern Arabic numerals +i‘jām (consonants),Lontara (vowel diacritics and punctuation) Bilang-bilang
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.

This article containsLontara script. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Lontara characters.

Lontara Bilang-bilang is acipher of theLontara script, currently used for Buginese poetry. This script uses theEastern Arabic numerals-inspired letterform to substitute the Lontara script, as a way to hide it to theDutch at the time.^[1] It was an adaptation to a similar ciphers of theArabic script that has been used in South Asia around the 19th century.^[2][3]

InBuginese literature,Lontara Bilang-bilang is sometimes used as a substitute toLontara script in writingbasa to bakke', a play-on-words, as well asélong maliung bettuanna, poetry with some hidden meaning usingbasa to bakke'. In this script, each base letter in standard Lontara are substituted with forms derived fromArabic script andits numerals, with standard, unchanged Lontara vowel diacritics attached to them.^[3]

Lontara Bilang-Bilang substitutesArabic letters with stylizednumerals in accordance withAbjad numerals, a system that has been used in 19 AD in what is nowPakistan andAfghanistan. In Bilang-Bilang, many letters for Arabic sounds not inBuginese are not used, while for sounds existing in Buginese andMalay, new letters are added with more stylization.^[2] For example,ب have a numeral value of 2 and therefore is substituted by a stylized form of ٢, illustrated as follows:

Arabic	Value		Lontara Bilang-bilang	Lontara	Latin	Comments
ب	٢	2		ᨅ	ba	Stylization of ٢ with a short vertical line
ك	٢٠	20		ᨀ	ka	Stylization of ٢ with a medium vertical line
ر	٢٠٠	200		ᨑ	ra	Stylization of ٢ with a long vertical line

Jawi letters forMalay and Buginese sounds are formed with dots as equivalent for its Arabic counterpart. For example.ج (jim) uses the form of ٣, whileچ (ca) uses the form of ٣ as well but with the addition of three dots, illustrated as follows:

Arab	Value		Lontara Bilang-bilang	Lontara	Latin	Comments
ج	٣	3		ᨍ	ja	Stylization of ٣
چ				ᨌ	ca	with three dots, analogous to چ
ك	٢٠	20		ᨀ	ka	Stylization of ٢
ࢴ				ᨁ	ga	with one dot, analogous to ࢴ

Pre-nasal sounds are formed with the addition of a diacritic line, illustrated as follows:

Arab	Value		Lontara Bilang-bilang	Lontara	Latin	Comments
ك	٢٠	20		ᨀ	ka	Stylization of ٢ with a medium vertical line
				ᨃ	ngka	with a diacritic line
ر	٢٠٠	200		ᨑ	ra	Stylization of ٢ with a long vertical line
				ᨋ	nra	with a diacritic line

Arabic Jawi	Numerical Value			Lontara Bilang-bilang	Lontara Buginese	Latin		Arabic Jawi	Lontara Bilang-bilang	Lontara Buginese	Latin		Lontara Bilang-bilang	Lontara Buginese	Latin
ا	١	1			ᨕ	a
ب	٢	2			ᨅ	ba
ج	٣	3			ᨍ	ja		چ		ᨌ	ca			ᨏ	nca
د	۴	4			ᨉ	da
ن	۵	5			ᨊ	na
و	۶	6			ᨓ	wa
ع	٧	7						ڠ		ᨂ	nga
ف	٨	8			ᨄ	pa								ᨇ	mpa
ط	٩	9
ي	١٠	10			ᨐ	ya		ۑ		ᨎ	nya
ك	٢٠	20			ᨀ	ka		ࢴ		ᨁ	ga			ᨃ	ngka
ل	٣٠	30			ᨒ	la
م	۴٠	40			ᨆ	ma
س	۶٠	60			ᨔ	sa
ر	٢٠٠	200			ᨑ	ra								ᨋ	nra
ت	۴٠٠	400			ᨈ	ta
				[Note]	ᨈ	ha
Note: Lontara 'ha' "ᨖ" does not have aBilang-bilang equivalent.[4]

The Lontara Bilang-bilang Script has not yet been added into theUnicode standard as of version 14.0. A code range has been assigned for it in theSupplementary Multilingual Plane, but as of revision 14.0.0, no proposals has been made for assigning the letters.^[5]

• Buginese language
• Lontara script
• Cipher
• Thaana, a writing script used inDhivehi language, where some consonants are also derived fromArabic numerals.

• Brahmic scripts
• Indonesian scripts

• CS1 errors: missing periodical
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing translation from Indonesian Wikipedia
• Pages with plain IPA