Balinese alphabet

Aksara Bali
Type
Languages Balinese
Sasak
Time period
 c. 1000–present
Parent systems
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
Sister systems
 Batak
Baybayin
Kulitan
Buhid
Hanunó'o
Javanese
Lontara
Old Sundanese
Rencong
Rejang
Tagbanwa
ISO 15924 Bali, 360
Direction Left-to-right
Unicode alias
 Balinese
Unicode range
 U+1B00–U+1B7F

The Balinese script, natively known as Aksara Bali and Hanacaraka, is an abugida used in the island of Bali, Indonesia, commonly for writing the Austronesian Balinese language, Old Javanese, and the liturgical language Sanskrit. With some modifications, the script is also used to write the Sasak language, used in the neighboring island of Lombok.[1] The script is a descendant of the Brahmi script, and so has many similarities with the modern scripts of South and Southeast Asia. The Balinese script, along with the Javanese script, is considered the most elaborate and ornate among Brahmic scripts of Southeast Asia.[2]

Though everyday use of the script has largely been supplanted by the Latin alphabet, the Balinese script has significant prevalence in many of the island's traditional ceremonies and is strongly associated with the Hindu religion. The script is mainly used today for copying lontar or palm leaf manuscripts containing religious texts.[2][3]

Characteristics

There are 47 letters in the Balinese script, each representing a syllable with inherent vowel /a/ or/ə/ at the end of a sentence, which changes depending on the diacritics around the letter. Pure Balinese can be written with 18 consonant letters and 9 vowel letters, while Sanskrit transliteration or loan words from Sanskrit and Old Javanese utilizes the full set. A set of modified letters are also used for writing the Sasak language. Each consonant has a conjunct form called gantungan which nullifies the inherent vowel of the previous syllable.[4][5]

Punctuation includes a comma, period, colon, as well as marks to introduce and end section of a text. Musical notation uses letter-like symbols and diacritical marks in order to indicate metrical information. Text are written left to right without word boundaries (Scriptio continua).[1]

There is also a set of "holy letters" called aksara modre which appears in religious texts and protective talismans. Most of them are constructed using diacritic ulu candra with corresponding characters. A number of additional characters, known to be used inline in text (as opposed to decoratively on drawings), remains under study and those characters are expected to be proposed as Balinese extensions in due course.[1]

Letters

A basic letter in Balinese is called aksara (ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭ), and each letter stands for a syllable with inherent vowel /a/.

Consonants

Consonants are called wianjana (ᬯ᭄ᬬᬦ᭄ᬚᬦ), and there are 33 consonants letters in Balinese, though only 18 called wreṣāstra (ᬯᬺᬱᬵᬲ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬭ) are used for writing the Balinese language. The rest are mainly used for writing Sanskrit and Kawi loanwords.

Aksara wianjana (Consonants)
Warga
(Place of articulation)		 Pancawalimukha Ardhasuara
(Semivowels)		 Usma
(Fricatives)		 Wisarga
Unvoiced Voiced Nasal
Kanthya
(Guttural)
(Ka)
Ka1
(Kha)
Ka mahaprana
(Ga)
Ga1
(Gha)
Ga gora
(Nga)
Nga1
(Ha)
Ha12
Talawya
(Palatal)
(Ca)
Ca murca1
(Cha)
Ca laca3
(Ja)
Ja1
(Jha)
Ja jera
(Nya)
Nya1
(Ya)
Ya1
(Śa)
Sa saga
Murdhanya
(Retroflex)
(Ṭa)
Ta latik
(Ṭha)
Ta latik m.5
(Ḍa)
Da murda a.4
(Ḍha)
Da murda m.5
(Ṇa)
Na rambat
(Ra)
Ra1
(Ṣa)
Sa sapa
Dantya
(Dental)
(Ta)
Ta1
(Tha)
Ta tawa
(Da)
Da lindung1
(Dha)
Da madu
(Na)
Na kojong1
(La)
La1
(Sa)
Sa danti16
Osthya
(Labial)
(Pa)
Pa1
(Pha)
Pa kapal
(Ba)
Ba1		 or (Bha)
Ba kembang7
(Ma)
Ma1
(Wa)
Wa1

^1 Aksara wreṣāstra. They are, in traditional order: ha na ca ra ka / da ta sa wa la / ma ga ba nga / pa ja ya nya.
^2 The consonant ha is sometimes not pronounced. For example, hujan is pronounced ujan.[6]
^3 The exact form of ca laca is unknown because only the appended (gantungan) form is left.[7] However, the independent form is included in Unicode.[8]
^4 alpaprana ^5 mahaprana
^6 Actually an alveolar consonant, but classified as dental by tradition
^7 The former of the two letter forms is more frequently used.

Vowels

Vowels, called suara (ᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ), can be written as independent letters when vowels appear in initial position. They are described in the following list:

Aksara suara (Vowels)
Warga
(Place of articulation)		 Aksara suara hresua
(Short vowels)		 Name Aksara suara dirgha
(Long vowels)
Symbol Transliteration IPA Symbol Transliteration IPA
Kantya
(Guttural)
A [a] A kara
Ā [ɑː]
Talawya
(Palatal)
I [i] I kara
Ī [iː]
Murdhanya
(Retroflex)
Ṛ [ɹ̩] Ra repa
Ṝ [ɹ̩ː]
Dantya
(Dental)
Ḷ [l̩] La lenga
Ḹ [l̩ː]
Osthya
(Labial)
U [u] U kara
Ū [uː]
Kanthya-talawya
(Palato-guttural)
E [e]; [ɛ] E kara (E)
Airsanya (Ai)
Ai [aːi]
Kanthya-osthya
(Labio-guttural)
O [o]; [ɔ] O kara
Au [aːu]

Gantungan

Adeg-adeg may not used in the middle of a sentence, so gantungan (appended letters) has to be used to kill the vowel of a consonant letter in such case. Each consonant letter has a corresponding gantungan form, and the gantungan eliminates the inherent vowel /a/ of the letter it is appended to. For example, if the letter na is appended with gantungan da, the pronunciation becomes nda.

Gantungan and pangangge (diacritic) can be applied together to a letter. However, attaching two or more gantungan to one letter is forbidden; this condition is known as tumpuk telu (three layers). Adeg-adeg may be used in the middle of a sentence to avoid such situation.[9]

The forms of gantungan are as follows:

Gantungan/Gempelan
Warga
(Place of articulation)		 Pancawalimukha Ardhasuara
(Semivowels)		 Usma
(Fricatives)		 Wisarga
Unvoiced Voiced Nasal
Kanthya
(Guttural)
Ka
Ka mahaprana
Ga
Ga gora
Nga
Ha
Talawya
(Palatal)
Ca murca
Ca laca
Ja
Ja jera
Nya
Ya
Sa saga
Murdhanya
(Retroflex)
Ta latik
Ta latik m.
Da madu a.
Da madu m.
Na rambat
Ra
Sa sapa
Dantya
(Dental)
Ta
Ta tawa
Da lindung
Da madu
Na kojong
La
Sa danti
Osthya
(Labial)
Ba
Ba kembang
Pa
Pa kapal
Ma
Wa

Diacritics

Diacritics (pangangge, pronounced /pəŋaŋɡe/, also known as sandhangan when referring to the Javanese script) are symbols that cannot stand by itself. When they are attached to the independent letters, they affect the pronunciation. The three types of diacritics are pangangge suara, pangangge tengenan (pronounced /t̪əŋənan/) and pangangge aksara.

Pangangge suara

If a consonant letter is embellished with a pangangge suara, its vowel is changed. For example, the letter na with ulu becomes ni; ka with suku becomes ku. The diacritics in this category is summarized in the following list:

Pangangge suara
Warga
(Place of articulation)		 Symbol Transliteration IPA Name
Kanthya
(Guttural)
ě [ə] Pepet
 ā [ɑː] Tedung
Talawya
(Palatal)
i [i] Ulu
 ī [iː] Ulu sari
Osthya
(Labial)
u [u] Suku
 ū [uː] Suku ilut
Kanthya-talawya
(Palato-guttural)
é [e]; [ɛ] Taling
 ai [aːi] Taling detya
Kanthya-osthya
(Labio-guttural)
o [o]; [ɔ] Taling tedung
 au [aːu] Taling detya matedung

Many consonants can form ligatures with tedung:

Pangangge tengenan

Pangangge tengenan, except adeg-adeg, adds a final consonant to a syllable. It can be used together with pangangge suara. For example, the letter na with bisah becomes nah; ka with suku and surang becomes kur. Adeg-adeg kills the inherent vowel /a/ in the consonant letter. Compared to Devanagari, bisah is analogous to visarga, cecek to anusvara, and adeg-adeg to virama.

Symbol Pronunciation Name
 /h/ Bisah
 /r/ Surang
 /ŋ/ Cecek
 - Adeg-adeg

Pangangge aksara

Pangangge aksara is appended below consonant letters. Pangangge aksara are the appended (gantungan) forms of the ardhasuara (semivowel) consonants. Guwung macelek is the appended form of the vowel ra repa.

Symbol Pronunciation Name
 /ra/ Cakra/Guwung
 /rə/ Guwung macelek
 /ʋa/ Suku kembung
 /ja/ Nania

Numerals

Balinese numeral Hindu numeral Name Balinese numeral Hindu numeral Name
 0 Bindu/Windu
5 Lima
 1 Siki/Besik
6 Nem
 2 Kalih/Dua
7 Pitu
 3 Tiga/Telu
8 Kutus
 4 Papat
9 Sanga/Sia

Balinese numerals are written in the same manner as Hindu numerals. For example, 25 is written with the Balinese numbers 2 and 5. If the number is written in the middle of a text, carik has to be written before and after the number to differentiate it from the text. Below is an example of how a date is written using Balinese numerals (date: 1 July 1982, location: Bali):

Balinese script Transliteration
 Bali, 1 Juli 1982.

Other symbols

There are some special symbols in the Balinese script. Some of them are punctuation marks, and the others are religious symbols. The symbols are described in the following list:

Symbol Name Remarks
 Carik or Carik Siki. Written in the middle of a sentence, like a comma (,). Also, written surrounding numerals to differentiate them from the text.
Carik Kalih or Carik Pareren Written at the end of a sentence, like a full stop (.).
 Carik pamungkah Functions like a colon (:).
 Pasalinan Used at the end of a prose, letter, or verse.
 Panten or Panti Used at the beginning of a prose, letter, or verse.
 Pamada Used at the beginning of religious texts. This symbol is a ligature of the letters ma, nga, ja, and pa, forming the word mangajapa, which roughly means "praying for safety".
Ongkara Sacred symbol of Hinduism. This symbol is pronounced "Ong" or "Om".

Unicode

Balinese script was added to the Unicode Standard in July, 2006 with the release of version 5.0.

The Unicode block for Balinese is U+1B00–U+1B7F:

Balinese[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+1B0x ᬀ ᬁ ᬂ ᬃ ᬄ ᬅ ᬆ ᬇ ᬈ ᬉ ᬊ ᬋ ᬌ ᬍ ᬎ ᬏ
U+1B1x ᬐ ᬑ ᬒ ᬓ ᬔ ᬕ ᬖ ᬗ ᬘ ᬙ ᬚ ᬛ ᬜ ᬝ ᬞ ᬟ
U+1B2x ᬠ ᬡ ᬢ ᬣ ᬤ ᬥ ᬦ ᬧ ᬨ ᬩ ᬪ ᬫ ᬬ ᬭ ᬮ ᬯ
U+1B3x ᬰ ᬱ ᬲ ᬳ ᬴ ᬵ ᬶ ᬷ ᬸ ᬹ ᬺ ᬻ ᬼ ᬽ ᬾ ᬿ
U+1B4x ᭀ ᭁ ᭂ ᭃ ᭄ ᭅ ᭆ ᭇ ᭈ ᭉ ᭊ ᭋ
U+1B5x ᭐ ᭑ ᭒ ᭓ ᭔ ᭕ ᭖ ᭗ ᭘ ᭙ ᭚ ᭛ ᭜ ᭝ ᭞ ᭟
U+1B6x ᭠ ᭡ ᭢ ᭣ ᭤ ᭥ ᭦ ᭧ ᭨ ᭩ ᭪ ᭫ ᭬ ᭭ ᭮ ᭯
U+1B7x ᭰ ᭱ ᭲ ᭳ ᭴ ᭵ ᭶ ᭷ ᭸ ᭹ ᭺ ᭻ ᭼
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Gallery

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Everson, Michael; Suatjana, I Made (2005). Proposal for encoding the Balinese script in the UCS.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Kuipers, Joel (2003). Indic Scripts of Insular Southeast Asia: Changing Structures and Functions. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
  3. ↑ Fox, Richard (2013). Rival Styles of Writing, Rival Styles of Practical Reasoning. Heidelberg: Institut für Ehtnologie.
  4. ↑ Ida Bagus Adi Sudewa (14 May 2003). "The Balinese Alphabet, v0.6". Yayasan Bali Galang. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  5. ↑ Richard Ishida (2012). "Balinese Script Notes". Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Tinggen, p. 16
  7. ↑ Tinggen, p. 23
  8. ↑ "Unicode Table" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-11-13.
  9. ↑ Tinggen, p. 27

References

External links

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