Javanese pangkon

Pangkon cancels a consonant’s built-in a vowel. This lets that consonant close a syllable or join the next consonant.

The script tradition around pangkon developed from Pallava-derived writing in the Indonesian archipelago in the 4th–5th centuries, through Kawi’s use between the 8th and 16th centuries, to modern Javanese script, which emerged from Kawi in the 14th–15th centuries.

Javanese script has also been used to write Sanskrit, Sundanese, and Sasak. The related Balinese script has its own comparable vowel-cancelling sign, adeg adeg.

Why does pangkon disappear?

A following consonant usually absorbs pangkon into a joined form.

At a word end or before a space, pangkon appears as a separate mark. Between consonants, the renderer joins the next consonant beneath or beside the first, or reduces its shape. Pangkon remains in the text even when it no longer has a separate glyph.

Pasangan is the joined form of the following consonant, not another name for pangkon. Pangkon cancels the vowel; pasangan continues the spelling.

How do I type pangkon?

The Java Kongres layout maps pangkon to q. Enable a Javanese input method and use its assigned pangkon key.

If you need pangkon to stay visible before another consonant, the Aksara Nusantara keyboard inserts a zero-width non-joiner after it. Without that character, the following consonant normally joins.