This article aims to reconstruct the origin, development, and spread of the Lontaraq script, the only script still in use among those once employed in South Sulawesi. It applies a qualitative historical approach with a philological reading of the sources: scholarly theories on the script's origin (Holle, Kern, Mills, Noorduyn, Fachruddin, Mukhlis) are compared with one another and tested against manuscripts and inscribed objects, namely La Galigo, Lontaraq Kutika, Lontaraq bilang, Sérang texts, a Gowa lontaraq fragment, and a Bugis amulet from South Africa; the old and new letter forms are compared, and the locations and uses of Lontaraq manuscripts are traced to follow its dissemination. The study finds that Lontaraq derives from the Indian Brahmi script through Kawi and reached the Bugis via Sumatran scripts rather than directly from Java. A reference to palm-leaf writing dated 977 AD suggests that the script existed by about the 10th century, well before the oldest surviving manuscripts (17th century) and the 16th-century figure Daeng Pamatte, who the evidence indicates did not invent it. The script grew from 18 to 23 letters after the introduction of paper, and prenasalized letters appear mainly in printed rather than manuscript sources. Bugis migration, motivated by the values of siriq na pessé, carried the script beyond South and West Sulawesi to Ende, Sumbawa, and Bima, where additional characters were added to suit local languages.
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