Balinese language

thumb|250px|Balinese language speaker (in Kapara Balinese, low register)

Balinese ( ; , Balinese script: , ) is an Austronesian language spoken primarily by the Balinese people on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as Nusa Penida, Western Lombok, and Eastern Java, and also spread to Southern Sumatra, and Sulawesi due to the transmigration program. Most Balinese speakers also use Indonesian. The 2000 national census recorded 3.3 million people speakers of Balinese with only 1 million people still using the Balinese language in their daily lives according to the Bali Cultural Agency estimated in 2011.

The higher registers of the language borrow extensively from Javanese: an old form of classical Javanese, Kawi, is used in Bali as a religious and ceremonial language, while most of Balinese speakers use the low register known as Kapara Balinese as their everyday language. Internally, Balinese has three distinct varieties; Highland Bali, Lowland Bali, and Nusa Penida Balinese.

Dialects

Balinese has 2 main dialects, the Highland dialect and the Lowland dialect. The difference between the two dialects lies in the variety of vocabulary, phonology, and usage of register (e.g. High register vs. Low register). Highland dialect, also referred as Bali Aga dialect, has fewer high register variations, while the lowland dialect recognises both high register and low register.

Highland dialect

thumb|Distribution map of Highland Balinese languages (the map does not show the distribution in Badung and Tabanan regencies)

The highland dialect, also known as Bali Aga [dialect] is a dialect of the Balinese language spoken by the Bali Aga people in mountainous areas and northern part of Bali, especially in the mountain range of Kintamani, and regencies nearby such as Bangli, Buleleng, and Karangasem, as well in Nusa Penida.

presences of in the middle of word, such as in ;

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Balinese consonants

|- style="font-size: 90%;"

! colspan="2" | Labial

! colspan="2" | Alveolar

! colspan="2" | Palatal

! colspan="2" | Velar

! colspan="2" | Glottal

! Nasal

| width="20px" style="border-right: 0;" | || width="20px" style="border-left: 0;" |

| colspan="2" |

! Stop/Affricate

| style="border-right: 0;" ||| style="border-left: 0;" |

| colspan="2" |

! Fricative

| colspan="2" |

| style="border-right: 0;" ||| style="border-left: 0;" |

| colspan="2" |

| style="border-right: 0;" ||| style="border-left: 0;" |

! Approximant

| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |

| colspan="2" |

! Trill

| colspan="2" |

| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" |

| colspan="2" |

Depending on dialect, the phoneme is realized as a voiceless alveolar or retroflex stop. This is in contrast with most other languages in western Indonesia (including Standard Indonesian), which have a dental patterning with an otherwise alveolar phoneme series.

Few people today are familiar with the Balinese script. The Balinese script is almost the same as the Javanese script.

Latin alphabet

Schools in Bali today teach a Latin alphabet known as .

The standard alphabet is as follow:

{| class="wikitable"

! Letter

! Name (Balinese)

! IPA

! Diacritics

| A, a || a [a] || /a/ || –

| B, b || bé [be] || /b/ || –

| C, c || cé [ce] || /t͡ʃ/ || –

| D, d || dé [de] || /d/ || –

| E, e || é [e] || /e/ or /ə/ || é

| F, f || éf [ef] || /f/ || –

| G, g || gé [ge] || /g/ || –

| H, h || ha [ha] || /h/ || –

| I, i || i [i] || /i/ || –

| J, j || jé [d͡ʒe] || /d͡ʒ/ || –

| K, k || ka [ka] || /k/ || –

| L, l || él [el] || /l/ || –

| M, m || ém [em] || /m/ || –

| N, n || én [en] || /n/ || –

| O, o || o [o] || /o/ || –

| P, p || pé [pe] || /p/ || –

| Q, q || ki [ki] || /k/ (loanwords) || –

| R, r || ér [er] || /r/ || –

| S, s || és [es] || /s/ || –

| T, t || té [te] || /t/ || –

| U, u || u [u] || /u/ || –

| V, v || fé [fe] || /f/ (loanwords) || –

| W, w || wé [we] || /w/ || –

| X, x || éks [eks] || /ks/ (loanwords) || –

| Y, y || yé [je] || /j/ || –

| Z, z || zét [zet] || /z/ (loanwords) || –

The Balinese spelling system using Latin letters was implemented in 1974. This spelling system was implemented after the government established the Improved Spelling System (Eyd) for Indonesian in 1972. The purpose of implementing the EyD Bali Latin was to standardize the Balinese language without eliminating its unique characteristics. The EyD Bali Latin is based on the 26-letter Latin alphabet with 1 diacritic namely é. Several consonants such as /f/, /kh/, /q/, /sy/, /v/, /z/, /x/ are used to write foreign loanwords.

Grammar

Balinese is agglutinative. Verb and noun inflectional morphology is similarly minimal to Indonesian, but derivational morphology is extensive. The suffix -né / -é marks nouns for both definiteness and possession. Adjectives following possessive (and therefore definite) nouns function as predicative, while adjectives following unmarked nouns function as attributive.

Word order & voices

The word order is similar to that of Indonesian, and verb and noun inflectional morphology is similarly minimal. However, derivational morphology is extensive, and suffixes are applied to indicate definite or indefinite articles, and optionally to indicate possession.

Vocabulary

Registers

Even though most basic vocabulary in Balinese and Indonesian originates from Austronesian and Sanskrit, many cognates sound quite different between languages. Balinese has three different registers: low (), middle (), and high (), the uses of which depend on the relationship and status of those speaking and those being spoken about, and most of Balinese speakers use the low register also known as Kapara Balinese or Common Balinese language (from Kepara which literally means 'commonplace')

{| class="wikitable"

|+Basic Vocabulary Comparison

!English

!Low Balinese

!High Balinese

!Indonesian

!Old Javanese

!Javanese

|this

|iki (ngoko), punika (krama)

|that

|iku, kuwi, (ngoko), menika (krama)

|here

|kéné (ngoko),

mriki, ngriki (krama)

|there

|kana (ngoko),

mriku, ngriku, mrika, ngrika (krama)

|what

|apa (ngoko)

punapa, menapa (krama)

|human

|uwong, manungsa (ngoko)

tiyang, jalma (krama)

|hair

|rambut

|rambut (ngoko), rikma (krama)

|fire

|geni

|child

|anak (ngoko)

putra, siwi (krama)

|life

|urip (ngoko), gesang (krama)

|to drink

|ngombé (ngoko), ngunjuk (krama)

|big

|gĕḍe

|gedhé (ngoko), ageng (krama)

|new

|(h)añar

|anyar (ngoko), énggal (krama)

|day

|dina (ngoko), dinten (krama)

|sun

|sréngéngé (ngoko), surya (krama)

|lake

|ranu

|tlaga, ranu

|egg

|ĕṇḍog

|endhog (ngoko), tigan (krama)

|friend

|kañca, mitra, sakhā

|kanca, kenalan, mitra

|to sightsee

|name

|(h)aran,

|aran, jeneng (ngoko), wasta (krama), asma (krama inggil)

|to be, to become

|dadi (ngoko), dados (krama)

|to stay

|manggon (ngoko), manggén (krama)

|from

|saka (ngoko), saking (krama)

| right

| beneh

| patut

| benar

|bener (ngoko), leres (krama)

| where

| kija

| ring kija

| kemana

|menyang endi (ngoko)

dhateng pundi (krama)

| home

| umah, homah

| jero, griya

| rumah

|omah (ngoko)

griya, dalem (krama)

| done

| suba

| sampun

| sudah

|wis (ngoko), sampun (krama)

| all

| onya

| sami, makasami

| semua

| kabéh (ngoko), sedaya (krama)

|with

|ajak

|sareng

|dengan

|karo (ngoko), kaliyan (krama)

| hat, cap

| topong, capil

| topong

| topi

|topi, caping

| island

| pulo

| nusa

| pulau

|pulo

| to invite

| ngajak

| ngiring

| mengajak

|ngajak

Numerals

thumb|A school identification number in Bali, written with Balinese numerals above and [[Arabic numerals below]]

Balinese has a decimal numeral system, but this is complicated by numerous words for intermediate quantities such as 45, 175, and 1600.

Basic numerals

The numerals 1–10 have basic, combining, and independent forms, many of which are formed through reduplication. The combining forms are used to form higher numbers. In some cases there is more than one word for a numeral, reflecting the Balinese register system; halus (high-register) forms are listed in italics.

In the standard Balinese the final orthographic -a is a schwa [ə].

Gallery

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Geschrift op lontarblad TMnr 1534-8b.jpg|Balinese palm-leaf manuscript

File:Pura Puseh 05153.jpg|Sign at Pura Puseh Temple, Batuan, Bali

File:Bible printed with Balinese script.jpg|Page from a Bible printed with Balinese script

File:JL DIPONEGORO 200507.jpg|Street sign in Singaraja, written in Latin and Balinese script

File:Sign of Klungkung Regent's Office.JPG|Klungkung Regent's Office sign

File:Perawat bahasa ibu.jpg|Lontar manuscript restoration

</gallery>

Note

In Balinese script, Sanskrit and Kawi loanwords tend use conservative orthography as standard form in Balinese script. The word for language, basa, in Balinese is a loanword from Old Javanese which came from the Sanskrit word , hence it is written according to Sanskrit and Old Javanese spelling in Balinese script. The form in Balinese script is used by beginner writers. Meanwhile, diacritics are not written in the current romanization of the Balinese language. Thus, both and are the standard forms.

References

Sources

External links

The Balinese Digital Library.
Widiadana R. A. & Erviani N. K. (29 January 2011). Ancient 'lontar' manuscripts go digital . The Jakarta Post.
Erviani N. K. (14 January 2011). US scholar brings ancient Balinese scripts to digital age. The Jakarta Post.
Paradisec open access recording of Balinese song.
Kaipuleohone's Blust collection includes materials on Balinese, including RB2-006,RB2-009.

Dialects

Highland dialect

Consonants

Latin alphabet

Grammar

Word order & voices

Vocabulary

Registers

Numerals

Basic numerals

Gallery

Note

See also

References

Sources

External links