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PEGON LETTERS: HISTORY AND FORM OF LETTERS

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Daffaul Faizah
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 PEGON LETTERS: HISTORY AND FORM OF LETTERS
By: Daffaul Faizah

Arabic letters are the letters used by the people of Arab countries for writing and reading.
However, in fact this letters are also used in Indonesia, especially in Java. Kromoprawirto (as cited
in Tutik, 2004, p. 2) argued that Pegon was taken from the word “pego” which means unusual to
pronounce. The meaning of that sentence is Pegon letters are written using Arabic letters, but read
using Javanese pronunciation. Almost all of Pegon letters have the same forms as Arabic letters
and only a few forms have been modified to adapt to Javanese language. Pegon letters had
developed in Indonesia a long time ago, especially in Java. Pegon letters have been widely used
since Islam entered in Nusantara. To answer why Pegon letters have almost same forms as Arabic
letters, I will explain about the history in the use of Pegon letters in the Java and the forms of both
letters in terms of similarities and differences.

Irmawati (as cited in Fikri, 2014, p. 3) said there were several opinions about the history of
the emergence of Pegon letters in Nusantara. Koentjaraningrat argued that Pegon letters had
appeared around 1200 AD or 1300 AD after the entry of Islam into Nusantara. Another opinion
also mentioned that Pegon letters were made by Raden Rahmat (Sunan Ampel) in 1400 AD at the
Dentha Islamic Boarding School in Surabaya. In addition, the Pegon letter was also initiated by
Syarif Hidayatullah (Sunan Gunung Djati) and Imam Nawawi Banten.

In its historical development, Pegon letters have supported the survival of life in Nusantara.
Pegon letters grew rapidly during the Islamic civilization. Pegon letters were used in the education
sector in pesantren. Since then, texts that have been written with Pegon letters have developed.
Pegon letters were also used as the official language of several Nusantara kingdoms, one of which
was the Sultanate of Banten. Many treaty letters and inscriptions were written using Pegon letters.
After a few years, the use of these letters was increasingly limited to the colonial era of the Dutch
East Indies. However, the Pegon letters are still used to write regulations in the colonies. After
being freed from the shackles of the invaders, Pegon letters still exist today. Education in Pesantren
still uses this letters so that they are well preserved in Indonesia, especially in Java.
 Based on this history, the main purpose in the use of Pegon letters was helping the
dissemination of Islam which is identical with Arabic letters. Pegon letters were used to make it
easier for people in Java to understand Islamic teachings. In its development, this letters were used
too for other purposes, such as in politics. However, Pegon letters did not change many forms of
Arabic letters, only a few letters were modified to adjust pronunciation in Javanese.

To find out the similarities and differences forms of Pegon letters and Arabic letters, consider
the following table.

The Table of Arabic Letters and Pegon Letters

ARABIC LETTERS PEGON LETTERS
Consonants Consonants
‫أ‬ a ‫ض‬ d} ‫أ\ ﻫ‬ h/a ‫ڤ‬ p
‫ب‬ b ‫ط‬ t} ‫ن‬ n ‫ڎ‬ dh
‫ت‬ t ‫ظ‬ z} ‫ﭺ‬ c ‫ج‬ j
‫ث‬ th ‫ع‬ ‘ ‫ر‬ r ‫ي‬ y
‫ج‬ j ‫غ‬ gh ‫ك‬ k ‫ڽ‬ ny
‫ح‬ h} ‫ف‬ f ‫د‬ d ‫م‬ m
‫خ‬ kh ‫ق‬ q ‫ت‬ t ‫ڮ‬ g
‫د‬ d ‫ك‬ k ‫س‬ s ‫ب‬ b
‫ذ‬ dh ‫ل‬ l ‫و‬ w ‫ڟ‬ th
‫ر‬ r ‫م‬ m ‫ل‬ l ‫ڠ‬ ng
‫ز‬ z ‫ن‬ n Vowels
‫س‬ s ‫و‬ w ‫أ‬ a ‫َو‬ o
‫ش‬ sh ‫ﻫ‬ h ‫ي‬ i ‫َي‬ é
‫ص‬ s} ‫ي‬ y ‫و‬ u ˜ ê
Vowels and Diphthongs
َ
َ a i>
‫ي‬
َ
َ i u>
‫و‬
َ
َ u aw
‫و‬
َ
‫َا‬ a> ay
‫ي‬
 Arabic alphabet has 28 consonants, 6 vowels and 2 diphthongs while the Pegon alphabet only
has 20 consonants and 6 vowels. This difference is caused by Pegon letters following the system
of Javanese letters, hanacaraka so that the number of letters is not the same as Arabic letters. If
was seen, the forms of the Pegon letters clearly adapted from the Arabic letters so the some letters
were same.

Pegon letters have several uniqueness which were not owned by Arabic letters. Pegon letters
have three dots in consonant, including ‫‘ ﭺ‬c’, ‫‘ ڤ‬p’, ‫‘ ڎ‬dh’, ‫‘ ڽ‬ny’, ‫‘ ڮ‬g’, ‫‘ ڟ‬th’, dan ‫‘ ڠ‬ng’. The
vowels in Pegon alphabet use‫ أ‬for ‘a’, ‫ ي‬for ‘i’, and ‫ و‬for ‘u’ where they are called long vowels in
Arabic letters. The only vowel Pegon letters have is ˜ ‘ê’ called pêpêt which is used in Javanese
letters. In addition, the difference of both also lies on diphthong ‫‘ َ و‬aw’ in Arabic letter being َ
‫‘ و‬o’ in vowel of Pegon letter and diphthong ‫‘ َ ي‬ay’ in Arabic letter being ‫‘ َ ي‬é’ in vowel of
Pegon letter.

How to write Pegon letters is not different from Arabic letters in general. Thatcher (1993,
p.1) said that Arab Pegon was a text that was written from right to left, did not recognize capital
letters, the vowel was above, below, or parallel to the consonant, and there were four form letters
that appeared by themselves, beginning, middle, and end. The writing rules also apply to Pegon
letters. However, Ali Akbar (2019, p. 15) said too that Pegon letters were still written as a language
approved by Arabic using the word absorption.

Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that Pegon letters have forms that are
almost the same as Arabic letters. This is due to the history of the use of Pegon letters when Islam
entered in Nusantara. Arabic letters were adopted into Pegon letters by used Javanese
pronunciation to make it easier for Javanese people to understand Islamic teachings, but over time
Pegon letters were also used for other purposes. It is also known that although the forms of Pegon
letters have similarities, these Pegon letters also have differences that make it unique and not
owned by Arabic letters. Therefore, these Pegon letters must be maintained because they are a
valuable cultural heritage in Indonesia, especially in Java.
 REFERENCES

Akbar, Muhammad Ali. (2019). Perancangan Informasi Aksara Arab Pegon Melalui Media Buku
Cerita Bergambar (Thesis, UNIKOM). Retreived from
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unikom_m-i.pdf

Fikri, Ibnu. (2014). Aksara Pegon: Studi Tentang Simbol Perlawanan Islam di Jawa pada Abad
XVIII–XIX (Research Repot, LP2M IAIN Walisongo). Retrieved from
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Indradjaja, Hartanti. (2018). BAB II Pengajaran Arab Pegon. Retreived from

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Thatcher, G.W.. (1993). Arabic Grammar of the written Language. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books/about/Arabic_Grammar_of_the_Written_Language.html?id
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The Library of Congress. (2012). ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Arabic. Retrieved from
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