UNESCO recognizes Javanese alphabet

JAKARTA: UNESCO has agreed the Javanese alphabet, among other internationally accepted sets of characters such as Latin and Chinese, may be used as a computer script.

"The Javanese alphabet has been recognized by UNICODE, an organization under UNESCO that deals with alphabetic code standards in computers," Aryo Tumoro, chief editor of the oldest Javanese magazine Penyebar Semangat, told Antara state news agency Monday.

UNICODE awarded the international status to the Javanese alphabet on Oct. 2, the day when UNESCO accepted batik as an element of Indonesian cultural heritage. It was proposed by Javanese literature expert Ki Demang Sukowaten from Yogyakarta on Sept. 9, 2007.

"Thanks to this recognition, we can ask our computer programmers to introduce the Javanese alphabet as a computer font," Aryo said.

Sukowaten launched his Javanese language website www.ki-demang.com in January 2006, which contains, among other things, Javanese philosophy, short stories, folklore and recipes. - JP