Proposal for encoding the Rejang script in the BMP of the UCS

Rejang is spoken by about 200,000 people living in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra in the southwest highlands, north Bengkulu Province, around Argamakmur, Muaraaman, Curup, and Kepahiang, and also in the Rawas area of South Sumatra Province, near Muara Kulam. There are five major dialects of Rejang: Lebong, Musi, Kebanagung, Pesisir (all in Bengkulu Province), and Rawas (in South Sumatra Province). Most of its users live in fairly remote rural areas, of whom slightly less than half are literate. The traditional Rejang corpus consists chiefly of ritual texts, medical incantations, and poetry. Origin The Rejang script is of the Brahmic type, and is related to other scripts of the region, like Batak, Buginese, and Kerinci. The script was in use prior to the introduction of Islam to the Rejang area; the earliest attested document appears to date from the mid-18th century CE. Structure Vowel signs are used in a manner similar to that employed by other Brahmi-derived scripts. Consonants have an inherent /a/ vowel sound. Consonant conjuncts are not formed. Syllable structure is C(V)(F) consonant followed by optional vowel sign and/or optional final consonant or virama. Ordering The arrangement of the consonants is basically Brahmic and turns up in numerous sources. No strong evidence has been found for any strong preference with regard to the relative order of the vowel signs and of the final consonants; indeed most secondary sources give contradictory evidence in their charts. A generic Brahmic relative ordering for these characters is used in the code chart, with the vowel signs following the consonants, and the final consonant signs following the vowel signs. Naming Character names use the usual UCS conventions for Brahmic scripts. Digits and punctuation Unique Rejang digits are unknown; Jaspan presents a letter written to him in Rejang by Ali Akbar which uses both Roman numerals in an ordered list and European digits in a date. Ali Akbar uses comma, full stop, and colon, as well as the unique REJANG SECTION MARK which he uses both at the beginning and end of paragraphs. Linebreaking Traditional texts tend not to use spacing, but Ali Akbar’s letter to Jaspan does; NON-BREAKING SPACE can be used in scriptio continua and SPACE otherwise. Hyphenation has not been observed, but could only occur after an orthographic syllable. Unicode Character Properties A930;REJANG LETTER KA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A931;REJANG LETTER GA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A932;REJANG LETTER NGA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A933;REJANG LETTER TA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A934;REJANG LETTER DA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A935;REJANG LETTER NA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A936;REJANG LETTER PA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A937;REJANG LETTER BA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A938;REJANG LETTER MA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A939;REJANG LETTER CA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A93A;REJANG LETTER JA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A93B;REJANG LETTER NYA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A93C;REJANG LETTER SA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A93D;REJANG LETTER RA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A93E;REJANG LETTER LA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A93F;REJANG LETTER YA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A940;REJANG LETTER WA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A941;REJANG LETTER HA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A942;REJANG LETTER MBA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A943;REJANG LETTER NGGA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A944;REJANG LETTER NDA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A945;REJANG LETTER NYJA;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A946;REJANG LETTER A;Lo;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A947;REJANG VOWEL SIGN I;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;kaluan;;; A948;REJANG VOWEL SIGN U;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;kamitan;;; A949;REJANG VOWEL SIGN E;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;kamica;;; A94A;REJANG VOWEL SIGN AI;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;katiling;;; A94B;REJANG VOWEL SIGN O;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;;;; A94C;REJANG VOWEL SIGN AU;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;katulung;;; A94D;REJANG VOWEL SIGN EU;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;;;; A94E;REJANG VOWEL SIGN EA;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;kajina;;; A94F;REJANG CONSONANT SIGN NG;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;katulang;;; A950;REJANG CONSONANT SIGN N;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;duo deatas;;; A951;REJANG CONSONANT SIGN R;Mn;0;NSM;;;;;N;;kajunjung;;; A952;REJANG CONSONANT SIGN H;Mc;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; A953;REJANG CONSONANT SIGN VIRAMA;Mc;9;L;;;;;N;;;;; A95F;REJANG SECTION MARK;Po;0;L;;;;;N;;;;; Bibliography Jaspan, M. A. 1964. Folk literature of South Sumatra: Redjang Ka-Ga-Nga texts. Canberra: Australian National University. Acknowledgements This project was made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities,which funded the Universal Scripts Project (part of the Script Encoding Initiative at UC Berkeley). Figures Proposal for encoding the Rejang script in the UCS Doc Type: Working Group Document Title: Proposal for encoding the Rejang script in the BMP of the UCS Source: UC Berkeley Script Encoding Initiative (Universal Scripts Project) Author: Michael Everson Status: Individual Contribution Action: For consideration by JTC1/SC2/WG2 and UTC Date: 2006-04-24

June 20, 2008