THE 
JOURNAL 
OF 
THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 
AND 
EASTERN ASIA. 
ON THE ALPHABETS OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
By John Crawfurd, Esq., F.R.S. 
The use of letters has been immemorially known to all the more 
civilized nations of the Indian Archipelago, of the brown-complex- 
ioned, lank-haired race, and many alphabets, at once distinct from 
each other, and not borrowed from any foreign source, are to be 
found among them, from Sumatra to the west, to Celebes and the 
Philippines to the east. 
Modern writers have supposed that the earliest writing was pic¬ 
torial or hieroglyphic, and that in process of time, this became 
vocal or phonetic, ending in literal alphabets. Of the truth of this 
theory, however, no evidence is to be discovered in the insular lan¬ 
guages. Hieroglyphic writing is no where to be seen on any anci¬ 
ent monuments,—the letters of the numerous alphabets which ex¬ 
ist bear no resemblance to any object of nature, animate or inani- 
mat e 5 __the names of the letters simply express their sounds, and the 
word for an alphabet consists, as with ourselves, only of an enume¬ 
ration of a few of the first letters in order of which they are com¬ 
posed. 
The Javanese is certainly the most perfect alphabet of the Archi¬ 
pelago, and a brief account of it wijl give a general notion of the 
rest which, although they differ in form, bear it, in principle, a com¬ 
mon resemblance. It has a distinct, and invariable chaiaetoi foi eve¬ 
ry sound in the language, and so far, therefore, it is a perfect sys¬ 
tem. The consonants amount to 19, and I represent them in ro¬ 
man letters, as follow ; b. c. d. *d g. j. k. 1. m. n. n, n. p. r. s. t. *t. 
V(0Tj• IT. NO. XII. DECEMBER, 1848. L ^ 
