Balinese language
| Balinese | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ᬩᬲᬩᬮᬶ (Basa Bali) | ||||
| Spoken in | Bali, Nusa Penida, Lombok and Java, Indonesia | |||
| Native speakers | 3.3 million (2000 census) | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Writing system | Latin, Balinese | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-2 | ban | |||
| ISO 639-3 | ban | |||
|
||||
Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.3 million people (as of 2000[update]) on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java.[1] Most Balinese speakers also know Indonesian.
Kawi is a related priestly language.
Contents |
[edit] Classification
Balinese is part of the Austronesian language family, and is closely related to the Sasak and Sumbawa languages.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Low | a |
The official spelling denotes both /a/ and /ə/ by a. However, a is usually pronounced [ə] when it ends a word, and [ə] occurs also in prefixes ma-, pa- and da-.[2]
[edit] Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | c | ɟ | k | ɡ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||||||
[edit] Stress
Stress falls on the last syllable.[2]
[edit] Grammar
Word order is similar to that of standard 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.[2]
[edit] Registers
Balinese has different registers depending on the relationship and status of those speaking: low (basa ketah), middle (basa madia), and high (basa singgih). Basa singgih contains many loanwords from Sanskrit and Javanese.
[edit] Numerals
Balinese has a decimal numeral system, but this is complicated by numerous words for intermediate quantities such as 45, 175, and 1600.
[edit] Writing
Balinese has been written in two different writing systems: the Balinese script, and in modern times the Latin script.
[edit] Balinese script
The Balinese script (Carakan) is an abugida, ultimately derived from the Brāhmī script of India. The earliest known inscriptions date from the 11th century AD.
Few people today are familiar with the Balinese script.[3] The Balinese Script is almost the same as Javanese script.
[edit] Latin alphabet
Schools in Bali today teach a Latin alphabet known as Tulisan Bali.[4]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Ager, Simon. "Balinese". Omniglot. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/balinese.htm. Retrieved 2007-03-07.
- Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). "Bali". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ban.
[edit] External links
 |
Balinese language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- 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.
