Symbols
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Makasar script (jangang-jangang): consonant series
The old Makassarese "bird script", in its traditional order: ka ga nga, pa ba ma, ta da na, ca ja nya. Every letter carries the vowel a.
Makasar script: the last six letters
ya ra la wa sa, then a, the carrier for a vowel at the start of a word. Unicode calls 𑻯 "va"; Makassarese read it wa.
Makasar script: vowel signs and marks
A vowel sign replaces the a of the letter before it. The angka repeats what comes before it; passimbang marks a pause or the end of a sentence.
Lontara for Makassarese: consonant series
The script Makassarese adopted from the Bugis and still teaches in school. The same order as the bird script; the four Buginese nasal-plus-stop letters (ngka, mpa, nra, nca) are not used for Makassarese.
Lontara for Makassarese: the last seven letters
ya ra la wa, sa, the vowel carrier a, and ha for words from Arabic. Unicode names these letters "Buginese".
Lontara vowel signs and punctuation
ᨀᨗ ki, ᨀᨘ ku, ᨀᨙ ke, ᨀᨚ ko: type the letter first, then the sign. Pallawa ᨞ marks a pause or a sentence end; ᨟ closes a section.
Latin alphabet
Makassarese in Latin letters uses Indonesian spelling with no accented letters. Q is not part of ordinary Indonesian-style spelling, but some scholarly spellings use it for the glottal stop (Mangkasaraq).
Punctuation
The apostrophe writes the glottal stop that ends words like tabe' and Mangkasara'; quotation marks follow Indonesian “like this”.
Where it's spoken
South Sulawesi, Indonesia: Makassar city and the regencies of Gowa, Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng and Maros.
Makassar in emoji
The bird script, the lontara manuscripts, the sailing prahu, the Rooster of the East, coto and konro, pisang epe, PSM Makassar and the mosque of a largely Muslim people.
On the map
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The Makassarese alphabet and writing systems
Makassarese (Basa Mangkasara') is the language of the Makassar people of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Over four centuries, its main writing systems have been Makasar, Lontara and Latin. The first of its two native scripts to fall out of use is the one Unicode calls Makasar, which Makassarese call ukiri' jangang-jangang, the 'bird letters', because many letter shapes resemble birds in different postures. It was used for royal chronicles and court diaries of the kingdoms of Gowa and Tallo' from the 17th century and gradually gave way to Lontara by the 19th.
Lontara, the script of the neighbouring Bugis, then became the usual way to write Makassarese by hand, and it is the one schools in South Sulawesi teach as aksara lontara Makassar. Today most Makassarese writing, from text messages to street names, uses the Latin alphabet with Indonesian spelling: plain Latin letters with no accents, and an apostrophe for the glottal stop. Muslim religious texts were also written in Arabic letters.
Makasar script: the old Makassarese bird letters
The bird script has 18 letters, each carrying the vowel a, in the same order as Lontara: 𑻠 𑻡 𑻢 (ka ga nga), 𑻣 𑻤 𑻥 (pa ba ma), 𑻦 𑻧 𑻨 (ta da na), 𑻩 𑻪 𑻫 (ca ja nya), then 𑻬 𑻭 𑻮 𑻯 𑻰 𑻱 (ya ra la wa sa a). Four vowel signs, 𑻳 𑻴 𑻵 𑻶, change that a into i, u, e or o. The angka 𑻲 is a repeat mark that saves writing a reduplicated word twice, the passimbang 𑻷 marks a pause or the end of a sentence, and 𑻸 closes a section.
Unicode added the script in version 11.0 in 2018 as the Makasar block, U11EE0 to U11EFF, mainly so that the old manuscripts can be transcribed and studied. Few fonts include it; Google's free Noto Serif Makasar does. If the letters on this page show as empty boxes, your device lacks the font; the text itself is fine and will display wherever such a font is installed.
Lontara Makassar: 19 letters and what the script doesn't write
Makassarese uses 19 of the 23 Lontara letters: ᨀ ᨁ ᨂ (ka ga nga), ᨄ ᨅ ᨆ (pa ba ma), ᨈ ᨉ ᨊ (ta da na), ᨌ ᨍ ᨎ (ca ja nya), ᨐ ᨑ ᨒ ᨓ (ya ra la wa), ᨔ ᨕ ᨖ (sa a ha). The four additional Buginese letters, ᨃ ᨇ ᨋ ᨏ, represent prenasalized consonants and are not used in Makassarese Lontara; the Buginese sign ᨛ for /ə/ is also omitted because Makassarese has no phonemic /ə/. The vowel signs are ᨗ i above, ᨘ u below, ᨙ e in front and ᨚ o after the letter; in Unicode you always type the consonant first and then its sign.
Neither of the two scripts can write a consonant without a vowel. That is why people search for how to write ng in Lontara Makassar: a final ng, the glottal stop, a doubled consonant and the nasal in clusters like ngk or mb are simply not written. Mangkasara' comes out as ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, ma-ka-sa-ra, and Gowa as ᨁᨚᨓ. A reader fills the gaps from knowing the language, so a Lontara spelling can stand for more than one word.
Makassarese in Latin letters: the apostrophe and how to type it
Latin spelling follows Indonesian: c is the ch of 'church', j as in 'jam', ng and ny are single sounds, and doubled consonants are written out, as in Balla Lompoa, the great wooden palace of Gowa. Makassarese words end in a vowel, in ng, or in a glottal stop, the catch in English 'uh-oh', which is written with an apostrophe: tabe' (excuse me), siri' (honour), Mangkasara'. Some scholarly spellings use q instead (Mangkasaraq), and Indonesian often drops it (Makassar).
No special letters are needed, so any keyboard can write Makassarese. The straight apostrophe ' is on every keyboard; the curly ’ is Alt0146 on Windows and OptionShift] on a Mac, and phones insert it when you hold the apostrophe key. For the scripts, copy the letters from this page; Windows has a Buginese keyboard under Language settings that covers Lontara, and Android keyboard apps for aksara lontara exist. Prices are written in Indonesian rupiah, Rp 25.000, which has no Unicode symbol of its own.
Where Makassarese is spoken
Makassarese is spoken by an estimated 2 million people in the south of South Sulawesi, Indonesia : in and around the city of Makassar, and in the regencies of Gowa, Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng and Maros, with the closely related Konjo varieties spoken in the highlands and the south-east. Makassar city itself is multilingual, and nearly every speaker also uses Indonesian, which colours everyday Makassarese with many loanwords.
It belongs to the South Sulawesi languages, alongside Buginese and Mandar; see the Buginese collection for the full 23-letter Lontara and the Indonesian collection for the national language. For the country itself, with its food, places and flag, see the Indonesia collection.
How to use them
5 situationsClick to copyMakassarese Alphabet & Script combos
10Worth knowing
- Makasar is the Unicode name for the old script, which Makassarese call ukiri' jangang-jangang, 'bird letters', because many letter shapes resemble birds.
- For more than a century before 1907, Macassan sailors from Sulawesi fished for trepang (sea cucumber) on the coast of Arnhem Land in northern Australia, and Yolŋu languages there still have loanwords from Macassans.
- Sultan Hasanuddin of Gowa, who fought the Dutch East India Company in the 1660s, is remembered as the Rooster of the East (hence ); he is a National Hero of Indonesia and Makassar's airport bears his name.
- Neither Makassarese script can write a final consonant, so Mangkasara', the language's own name for itself, is written with four syllables and no ng or glottal stop: ᨆᨀᨔᨑ.
Questions people ask
8What alphabet does Makassarese use?
Today it is usually written in Latin script; spellings vary, and some use an apostrophe for the glottal stop. Traditionally it was written in Lontara, shared with Buginese, and before that in its own Makasar 'bird script'.
What is aksara jangang-jangang?
The old Makassarese script, also called Makasar or Old Makassarese: 18 letters, 4 vowel signs and a few marks, used for chronicles and court records from the 17th century. Unicode encodes it at U11EE0 to U11EFF.
What is the difference between Lontara Makassar and Lontara Bugis?
The letters are shared. Makassarese uses 19 of them; Buginese Lontara also uses four letters for prenasalized consonants (ngka, mpa, nra and nca) and a sign for /ə/.
How do you write ng in Lontara Makassar?
A final ng is not written, and neither is the glottal stop or a doubled consonant. Only the syllable-initial ng has a letter, ᨂ (nga). Mangkasara' is written ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, ma-ka-sa-ra.
How many letters are in aksara lontara Makassar?
Nineteen: ka ga nga, pa ba ma, ta da na, ca ja nya, ya ra la wa, sa a ha, plus four vowel signs for i, u, e and o.
Why does the Makasar script show as boxes?
Your device has no font for it. Install one such as Noto Serif Makasar (for Lontara, Noto Sans Buginese); the text is standard Unicode and is not damaged.
How many people speak Makassarese?
An estimated 2 million, mostly in Makassar, Gowa, Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng and Maros in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Is Makassarese the same as Indonesian?
No. It is a separate language of South Sulawesi, closer to Buginese; almost all speakers also speak Indonesian. The Makassar dialect of Indonesian heard in the city is a different thing.
