Lontara Letter Ma

ᨆ is Lontara’s m-letter with a built-in a. Unmarked, it reads «ma»; adding ᨗ changes the vowel. Latin m alone has no built-in vowel.

Used for Bugis, Makasar and Mandar, and formerly Bima, Lontara recorded genealogies, chronicles, diaries, treaties, law and literature. Attested by the fourteenth century, it served everyday writing until Latin script largely displaced it by the early twentieth century. Accounts differ: one traces it from Luwu to Gowa and Tallo’; a 2025 RRI account credits Gowa court official Daeng Pamette with devising it.

Lontara is Brahmic: consonants carry built-in vowels. It may relate to Javanese and has some affinity with Tagalog. Some fonts misplace vowel signs.