Balinese language

Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.9 million people (as of 2001) on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java. Most Balinese speakers also know Indonesian.

Kawi is a related priestly language.

Classification

Balinese is part of the Austronesian language family, and is closely related to the Sasak and Sumbawa languages.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop or affricate	Voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
	Voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s			h
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Lateral			l
Trill			r
Semivowel		w		j

Grammar

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.

Writing

Balinese has been written in two different writing systems: the Balinese script, and in modern times the Latin alphabet.

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. The Balinese Script almost the same as Javanese script.

Latin alphabet

Schools in Bali today teach a form of the Latin alphabet for writing Balinese, known as Tulisan Bali.

Notes

References

• Ager, Simon Balinese. Omniglot. Retrieved on 2007-03-07..
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.