The Ulu scripts, locally known as ''Surat Ulu'' ('upstream script') are a family of writing systems found in central and

south Sumatra South Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the southeast of the island of Sumatra. The capital and largest city of the province is the city of Palembang. The province borders the provinces of Jambi to the north ...

, in the regions of Kerinci,

Bengkulu Bengkulu (), historically known as Bencoolen, is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southwest coast of Sumatra. It was formed on 18 November 1968 by separating out the area of the historic Bencoolen Residency from the province of ...

Palembang Palembang (, Palembang: ''Pelémbang'', Mandarin: 巨港 (Jùgǎng), Hokkien: 舊港 (Kū-káng), Jawi: ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River in the ea ...

and

Lampung Lampung, officially the Province of Lampung (; ), is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. It has a short border with the province of Bengkulu to the northwest, and a longer border with the provi ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. They were used to write manuscripts in Sumatran languages and Malay. The Malay writing was gradually replaced by the

Jawi script Jawi (; ; ; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Betawi, Magindanao, Malay, Mëranaw, Minangkabau, Tausūg, Ternate and many other languages in Southeast Asia. Jawi ...

, a localized version of the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

Naming

The terms "surat" and "ulu" are the origin of the name Surat Ulu. While "ulu" ('upstream') refers to the highland region where the rivers in

South Sumatra South Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the southeast of the island of Sumatra. The capital and largest city of the province is the city of Palembang. The province borders the provinces of Jambi to the north ...

and

originate (the

Barisan Mountains The Bukit Barisan or the Barisan Mountains are a mountain range on the western side of Sumatra, Indonesia, covering nearly 1,700 km (1,050 mi) from the north to the south of the island. The Bukit Barisan range consists primarily of volca ...

), "Surat" refers to the script. The user community first referred to this script family as ''Surat Ulu''. The Rencong script () is another well-known naming system. "Rencong" is thought to be derived from the Old Malay word ''mèncong'', which means oblique or italics. It could also be derived from the word ''runcing'' ('sharp'), as this script family was originally written with a sharp knife tip. Regardless of its origin, Western scholars frequently use this term to refer to this family of scripts. The Kaganga script is another name coined by Mervyn A. Jaspan (1926-1975), an

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

at the

University of Hull The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hu ...

. He was probably not aware that most Brahmi script lineages use KA Ga and Nga as the first characters of the alphabetic order. The name "Kaganga" is derived from the first three letters of the Pāṇini sequence, which is used in the Brahmi (Indian) script family. This is equivalent to the word "alphabet," which is derived from the names of the first two letters of the

Greek alphabet The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as wel ...

(Α-Β, ''alpha-beta''), and the word "abjad," which is derived from the names of the first four letters of the

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

(ا-ب-ج-د, ''alif-ba-jim-dal''). Several tribes have their own names in addition to the three mentioned above. For example, this script family is known as the ''surat ʁincung'' among the Pasemah ethnic group.

Materials

Rencong script was often written on

tree bark Bark is the outermost layer of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consist ...

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

horn Horn may refer to: Common uses * Horn (acoustic), a tapered sound guide ** Horn antenna ** Horn loudspeaker ** Vehicle horn ** Train horn *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various animals * Horn (instrument), a family ...

s and palmyra-palm leaves.Miller, Christopher. (2011)
''Indonesian and Philippine Scripts and extensions not yet encoded or proposed for encoding in Unicode as of version 6.0: A report for the Script Encoding Initiative''.
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Disambiguation

The term "Rencong" is often confused with "Rejang", which refers to a specific Rencong alphabet that was used to write various dialects of the

Rejang language Rejang (, ) is an Austronesian language predominantly spoken by the Rejang people in southwestern parts of Sumatra ( Bengkulu), Indonesia. There are five dialects, spread from mountainous region to the coastal region of Bengkulu, including the ...

and for writing Malay in the region.

Distribution

This map below shows the distribution of various Rencong alphabets in South Sumatra:

Galleries

File:Kerinci MSS detail.jpg, Detail of a Kerinci manuscript (KITLV Or. 239). The text reads (Voorhoeve's spelling): "haku manangis ma / njaru ka'u ka'u di / saru tijada da / tang itu hadik sa, which is translated by Voorhoeve as: "I am weeping, calling you; though called, you do not come" (hitu adik sa- is the rest of 4th line). File:Nama Instansi.jpg, Signboard of government office buildings in Kerinci Regency File:Nama Jalan.jpg, Street sign in Kerinci Regency File:Plang SDN 1 Podomoro, Pringsewu, Lampung.jpg, SDN 1 Podomoro signboard, Pringsewu, Lampung File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Handschrift op 20 bamboelatjes TMnr A-3291.jpg, ''Gelumpai'' inscribed with the Rejang script

Notes

References

Bibliographies

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rencong Script Brahmic scripts Indonesian scripts