Makasar Letter Ta

It spells the Makasar syllable ta.

A base consonant sign includes an unwritten a vowel unless a vowel sign changes it, so 𑻦 reads as ta, not a bare t.

The script is also called ukiri' jangang-jangang, “bird writing”; that name refers to the writing tradition, while this letter spells ta.

How did Makasar writing develop?

It grew within the Makasarese court tradition of South Sulawesi.

The script wrote Makasarese, the language of the Makassarese people in South Sulawesi. The earliest dated evidence cited in comparative work is from the early 1600s, in Gowa–Talloq chronicle entries. Makassarese signatories appear on the Treaty of Bungaya in 1667; surviving full chronicle copies are eighteenth-century manuscripts.

Gowa and Talloq chronicles organize history around ruling lineages and genealogies; treaties, diaries, and official records show use beyond the chronicles. Comparative work links most letter forms to South Sumatran scripts, some to early modern Javanese, and Makasar's vowel system to Buginese practice. Buginese writing later displaced Makasar; by the nineteenth century it was no longer everyday writing.