Balinese language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Balinese Basa Bali |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Bali, Nusa Penida, Lombok and Java, Indonesia | |
| Total speakers: | 3.9 million (as of 2001) | |
| Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Bali-Sasak Balinese |
|
| Writing system: | Latin, Balinese | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | ban | |
| ISO 639-3: | ban | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
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.[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 |
[edit] 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 | ||||
[edit] Grammar
[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] Writing
Balinese has been written in two different writing systems: the Balinese script, and in modern times the Latin alphabet.
[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.[2]
[edit] Latin alphabet
Schools in Bali today teach a form of the Latin alphabet for writing Balinese, known as Tulisan Bali.[3]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ethnologue.
- ^ Omniglot.
- ^ [http://www.balivision.com/Article_Resources/TheBaliniseLanguage.asp The Balinese Languages By Fred B Eiseman, Jr] - Bali Vision
