The Congress Spelling System (Malay: Ejaan Kongres) is a spelling reform of Malay Rumi Script introduced during the third Malay Congress held in Johor Bahru and Singapore in 1956.[1][2][3] The main characteristics of the system are the use of symbols in the Americanist phonetic notation, going by the dictum of one symbol for one phoneme, and the new proposition in the writing of diphthongs.[3]
The innovation was originally intended to replace the Za'aba Spelling and ultimately to become a standard orthography in the Malay speaking world, but did not seem to gain acceptance in general.[3][2] It was deemed impractical for use by the masses, and certain graphemes proposed by the system were not represented in the common typewriters at that time. Even then, certain groups, particularly those affiliated to the Literary Movement 1950, used the Congress graphemes for diphthongs in their own publications.[3]