Old Javanese

Old Javanese
Old Javanese
Kawi
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Java, Bali, Madura, Lombok
Era	literary language, developed into Middle Javanese by 13th–14th century
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Old Javanese; ;
Writing system	Kawi, Javanese, Balinese
Language codes
ISO 639-2	kaw
ISO 639-3	kaw
Linguist List	kaw
Glottolog	kawi1241

Old Javanese or Kawi (lit. 'poet', Sanskrit: कवि, romanized: kavi) is the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was spoken in the eastern part of what is now Central Java and the whole of East Java, Indonesia. As a literary language, Kawi was used across Java and on the islands of Madura, Bali, and Lombok. It had a sizable vocabulary of Sanskrit loanwords but had not yet developed the formal krama language register, to be used with one's social superiors that is characteristic of modern Javanese.