Editing Javanese script (section)

==History==
Javanese script's evolutionary history can be traced fairly well because significant amounts of inscriptional evidence left behind allowed for [[epigraphy|epigraphical]] studies to be carried out. The oldest root of Javanese script is the [[Tamil-Brahmi]] script which evolved into the [[Pallava script]] in Southern and Southeast Asia between the 6th and 8th centuries. The Pallava script, in turn, evolved into Kawi script, which was actively used throughout Indonesia's Hindu-Buddhist period between the 8th and 15th centuries. In various parts of Indonesia, Kawi script would then evolve into Indonesia's various traditional scripts, one of them being Javanese script.<ref name="holle">{{Cite journal|title=Tabel van oud-en nieuw-Indische alphabetten|last=Holle|first=K F|journal=Bijdrage tot de Palaeographie van Nederlandsch-Indie|year=1882|place=Batavia|publisher=W. Bruining}}</ref> The modern Javanese script seen today evolved from Kawi script between the 14th and 15th centuries, a period in which Java began to receive significant Islamic influence.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cLUfAAAAIAAJ|title=Indonesian Palaeography: A History of Writing in Indonesia from the Beginnings to C. A.D. 1500|volume=4|isbn=9004041729|publisher=Brill|year=1975|first=J G de|last=Casparis}}</ref><ref name=lang>{{cite book|last=Campbell|first=George L.|title=Compendium of the World's Languages|volume=1|place=New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2000}}</ref>{{sfn|Behrend|1996|pp=161-162}}

From the 15th until the mid-20th centuries, Javanese script was actively used by the Javanese people for writing day-to-day and literary texts spanning a wide range of themes. Javanese script was used throughout the island at a time when there was no easy means of communication between remote areas and no impulse towards standardization. As a result, there is a huge variety of historical and local styles of Javanese writing throughout the ages. The great differences between regional styles make the "Javanese script" appear like a family of scripts.{{sfn|Behrend|1996|pp=162}} Javanese writing traditions were especially cultivated in the [[Kraton (Indonesia)|Kraton]] environment in Javanese cultural centers, such as [[Yogyakarta]] and [[Surakarta]]. However, Javanese texts are known to be made and used by various layers of society with varying usage intensities between regions. In [[West Java]], for example, the script was mainly used by the Sundanese nobility (''ménak'') due to the political influence of the [[Mataram kingdom]].{{sfn|Moriyama|1996|pp=166}} However, most Sundanese people within the same time period more commonly used the [[Pegon script]] which was adapted from the [[Arabic alphabet]].{{sfn|Moriyama|1996|pp=167}} Javanese writing tradition also relied on periodic copying due to the deterioration of writing materials in the tropical Javanese climate; as a result, many physical manuscripts that are available now are 18th or 19th century copies, though their contents can usually be traced to far older prototypes.{{sfn|Behrend|1996|pp=161-162}}