The script written above is very special to us.
It’s an example of the original Javanese writing system which, like 85% of the world’s alphabets, is endangered.
It also means “I love you” in Javanese.
Javanese is the native language of about 40% of the population of Indonesia and is spoken by around 98,000,000 people.
But nowadays Javanese is typically written in Latin script and the original writing system is mainly used for scholarly purposes and on occasional signs.
We’re sponsoring the inclusion of this script in an online atlas of endangered languages so that it won’t be forgotten.
The atlas is the work of a not-for-profit organisation called the Endangered Alphabets Project which is dedicated to recording and saving the endangered writing systems of cultures from around the world.
The Endangered Alphabets Project are supporting the writing systems of languages in the same way that we at uTalk are supporting the pronunciation of languages.
More than 20 endangered and vulnerable languages have been recorded on our uTalk app so far and more are in the pipeline. Endangered languages currently on uTalk include Manx, Sicilian, Southern Saami, Dzongkha, Maori and Scots.
If you would like to learn spoken Javanese go to our Javanese page!
(Please note that our app includes Javanese script in the Latin alphabet according to modern usage.)
To find out more about the traditional Javanese script and its history, go here.
We wish our friends at the Endangered Alphabets Project lots of success with their important work!