Sundanese script

Standard Sundanese script (Aksara Sunda Baku, ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (Aksara Sunda Kuno) which was used from the 14th to the 18th centuries.

History
Old Sundanese was developed based on the Pallava script of India, and was used from the 14th until the 18th centuries. The last manuscript written in Old Sundanese script was Carita Waruga Guru. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, Sundanese was mostly spoken and not written. Javanese and Pegon scripts were used to write Sundanese during this period. In 1996, the government of West Java announced a plan to introduce an official Sundanese script, and in October 1997, the Old Sundanese script was chosen and renamed to Aksara Sunda.

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

Consonants
Each consonant (aksara ngalagéna) carries an inherent vowel 'a', so the 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 letter 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 ||.

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, and , which contains a bindu panglong, are used to mark liturgical texts. , which contains a bindu purnama, denoted a historical text. is also sometimes used as a full stop, with acting as a comma. bindu chakra was also used as a comma.

The punctuation symbols resembling letters with stripes (da satanga, ba satanga, and ka satanga) originated as versions of the letters da, ba, and one half of the letter ka. Another symbol of unclear meaning is the leu satanga, based on the archaic syllable seu.

Sample text
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

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.

"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.