Sundanese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by about
39 million people mainly in western Java in Indonesia. There
are also speakers in Banten, Jakarta, parts of western Central
Java and southern Lampung. It is the third most-spoken language
in Indonesia. Sundanese is closely related to Madurese and Malay,
and more distantly related to Javanese.
There are six main dialects of Sundanese: Western, Northern, Southern or
Priangan, Mid-east, Northeast and Southeast. The Southern or Priangan dialect
is the most widely-spoken and is taught in schools in West Java and Banten
Province.
Latin alphabet for Sundanese
Notes
f, kh, q, sy, v and z are only used in loanwords and foreign names.
Information about the Sundanese Latin alphabet providied Michael Peter Füstumum
Sundanese script (Aksara Sunda)
Sundanese is normally written with the Latin alphabet, however
the Sundanese script is still used to some extent. The Sundanese
script developed from the Old Sundanese script (Aksara Sunda
Kuna), which was used between the 14th and 18th centuries,
and was standardized during the 1990s. Sundanese has also been
written with a version of the Arabic script known as Pegon,
and with the Javanese alphabet.
Notable features
Type of writing system: syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an inherent
vowel [ɑ]. Other vowels are indicated by separate letter or by diacritics.
Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines
Vowels (Aksara Swara) and Diacritics (Rarangkén)
Consonants (Aksara Ngalagena)
Numerals
Learn the Sundanese alphabet
Sample text in Sundanese
Corrections by Arif Budiarto and Ridwan Maulana
Transliteration
Sakumna jalma gubrag ka alam dunya téh sipatna merdika jeung
boga martabat katut hak-hak anu sarua. Maranéhna ibéré
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. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboard can help. It enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets, and is free.
