Jawi script

Jawi جاوي‎
Letter from William Farquhar to Sultan Muhammad Kanzul Alam, the sultan of Brunei, dated 28 November 1819.
Script type	Abjad
Time period	c. 1300 CE to the present
Direction	Right-to-left
Languages	Acehnese Maguindanaon Malay Minangkabau Tausūg Ternate several other languages in Southeast Asia
Related scripts
Parent systems	Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Nabataean Arabic Jawi
Sister systems	Pegon script
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.

Jawi (جاوي‎; Acehnese: Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani: Yawi; Malay pronunciation: [d͡ʒä.wi]) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Magindanawn, Malay, Mëranaw, Minangkabau, Tausūg, and Ternate. Jawi is based on the Arabic script, consisting of all 31 original Arabic letters, six letters constructed to fit phonemes native to Malay, and one additional phoneme used in foreign loanwords, but not found in Classical Arabic, which are ca (⟨چ‎⟩ /t͡ʃ/), nga (⟨ڠ‎⟩ /ŋ/), pa (⟨ڤ‎⟩ /p/), ga (⟨ݢ‎⟩ /ɡ/), va (⟨ۏ‎⟩ /v/), and nya (⟨ڽ‎⟩ /ɲ/).

Jawi was developed during the advent of Islam in Maritime Southeast Asia, supplanting the earlier Brahmic scripts used during Hindu-Buddhist era. The oldest evidence of Jawi writing can be found on the 14th century Terengganu Inscription Stone, a text in Classical Malay that contains a mixture of Malay, Sanskrit and Arabic vocabularies. There are two competing theories on the origins of the Jawi alphabet. Popular theory suggests that the system was developed and derived directly from the Arabic script, while scholars like R. O. Windstedt suggest it was developed with the influence of the Perso-Arabic alphabet.^[1]

The ensuing trade expansions and the spread of Islam to other areas of Southeast Asia from the 15th century carried the Jawi alphabet beyond the traditional Malay-speaking world. Until the 20th century, Jawi was the standard script of the Malay language, and gave birth to traditional Malay literature when it featured prominently in official correspondences, religious texts, and literary publications. With the arrival of Western influence through colonization and education, Jawi was relegated to religious education, with the Malay language eventually adopting a form of the Latin alphabet called Rumi that is currently in general usage.

Today, Jawi is one of two official scripts in Brunei. In Malaysia, the position of Jawi is protected under Section 9 of the National Language Act 1963/67, as it retains a degree of official use in religious and cultural contexts. In some states, most notably Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, Jawi has co-official script status as businesses are mandated to adopt Jawi signage and billboards. Jawi is also used as an alternative script among Malay communities in Indonesia and Thailand.^[2]

Until the early 20th century, there was no standard spelling system for Jawi. The earliest orthographic reform towards a standard system was in 1937 by The Malay Language and Johor Royal Literary Book Pact. This was followed by another reform by Za'aba, published in 1949. The final major reform was the Enhanced Guidelines of Jawi Spelling issued in 1986, which was based on the Za'aba system. Jawi can be typed using the Jawi keyboard.