Balinese language
| Balinese | |
|---|---|
| Basa Bali, Bhāṣa Bali1 ᬩᬲᬩᬮᬶ, ᬪᬵᬱᬩᬮᬶ1 | |
 Basa Bali written in Balinese script | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈbasə ˈbali] (standard) [ˈbaso ˈbali] (southern Bali, central Bali, western Bali, and Bangli dialects)[ˈbasa ˈbali] (Bali Aga dialect)[1] |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Bali, Nusa Penida, Western Lombok, Eastern Java, Southern Sumatra, Sulawesi |
| Ethnicity | |
Native speakers | (3.3 million cited 2000 census)[2] |
Early forms | Proto-Austronesian
|
Standard forms |
|
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script (Balinese Latin alphabet) Balinese script | |
| Official status | |
| Regulated by | Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa
Lembaga Bahasa, Aksara dan Sastra Bali[8] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ban |
| ISO 639-3 | ban |
| Glottolog | bali1278 |
 | |
Balinese (/ˈbɑːlɪniːz/ ⓘ bah-lih-NEEZ;[9] endonym: Basa Bali,[10] Balinese script: ᬩᬲᬩᬮᬶ, pronounced [ˈbasə ˈbali]) 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,[11][12] and also spread to southern Sumatra, and Sulawesi.[13] 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.[7]
The 2000 national census recorded 3.3 million people speakers of Balinese, however the Bali Cultural Agency estimated in 2011 that the number of people still using the Balinese language in their daily lives is under 1 million. The language has been classified as "not endangered" by Glottolog.[7]
Balinese is a part of the Bali-Sasak-Sumbawa languages groups, which consists of Balinese, Sasak language on Lombok and Sumbawa language on Sumbawa island.
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.[6] Most speakers of Balinese also speak Indonesian for official and commercial purposes as well as a means to communicate with non-Balinese-speaking Indonesians.
Classification and Historical Development
[edit]Balinese is an Austronesian language belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the family. Within Malayo-Polynesian, it is part of the Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa subgroup.[14] Internally, Balinese has two distinct varieties; Lowland (incl. Lombok dialect) and Highland Balinese (incl. Nusa Penida dialect).[7]
Although clearly related, Balinese is set apart from Sasak and Sumbawa by a more elaborated voice (verbal) system, indicating its own developmental path within the subgroup.[15] Like other Malayo-Polynesian languages, it has been shaped throughout its history as much by contact with neighbouring languages as by internal change.[16]
The earliest and most far-reaching contact was with Sanskrit and, above all, with Old Javanese (Kawi), the literary language of the Hindu–Buddhist courts whose influence reached Bali in the first millennium. Kawi still functions in Bali as a religious and ceremonial language, and it supplied most of the vocabulary of the higher, more refined registers of modern Balinese.[14][13] This long literary contact explains why the language today combines an inherited Austronesian core with a substantial layer of borrowed Javanese and Sanskrit forms, especially visible in formal speech and in the older written tradition recorded in the Balinese script (Aksara Bali).
Demographics and current situation
[edit]
According to the 2000 census, the Balinese language is spoken by 3.3 million people in Indonesia, mainly concentrated on the island of Bali and the surrounding areas.
In 2011, the Bali Cultural Agency estimated that the number of people still using the Balinese language in their daily lives on Bali Island does not exceed 1 million, as in urban areas their parents only introduce the Indonesian language or even English as a foreign language, while daily conversations in the institutions and the mass media have disappeared. The written form of the Balinese language is increasingly unfamiliar and most Balinese people use the Balinese language only as a means of oral communication, often mixing it with Indonesian in their daily speech. However, in the transmigration areas outside Bali Island, the Balinese language is extensively used and believed to play an important role in the survival of the language.[17]
In the present day, Balinese coexists with Indonesian, the national language, which dominates education, government, and the mass media, as well as most formal and commercial communication. The spread of a dominant national language is a central driver of language shift among the regional languages of Austronesian Indonesia, and Balinese clearly displays this pressure.[18] Following the general pattern of contact-induced change, in which borrowing usually begins with vocabulary and may gradually extend to grammar.[19] Indonesian has supplied everyday Balinese with new words, and Balinese–Indonesian code-switching has become routine in casual conversation.
This pressure is most visible among younger speakers, who increasingly turn to Indonesian for functions once served by the higher Balinese registers, and whose command of high vocabulary tends to be narrower than that of older generations.[20][13] English adds a further layer of contact through Bali’s large tourism industry, where it functions as a lingua franca of commerce. Studies of the linguistic landscape show that English dominates the commercial signage of tourist centres such as Kuta and Ubud, where it carries economic value and prestige, while Balinese is increasingly reduced to a symbolic, identity-marking role.[21][22]
Although the 2000 census recorded about 3.3 million speakers, the Bali Cultural Agency estimated in 2011 that fewer than one million people still used Balinese in daily life, a gap that reflects concern over intergenerational transmission. In response, the provincial government has sought to protect the language through schooling and regulation. Bali’s 2018 regulations on the Balinese language, script, and literature mandate their use in public space, and the presence of Balinese script on public signage has since recovered in tourist areas, where it had previously been largely confined to temples and other cultural sites.[21]
Dialects
[edit]Balinese has 2 main dialects, the Lowland dialect and the Highland dialect, the Lombok dialect is generally classified as part of the lowland dialect while the Nusa Penida dialect is still debated, but is often often classified as a subset of the highland 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.[22][23]
Lowland dialect
[edit]The lowland varieties are spoken across the plains and coastal districts which defined by phonological, morphological, and lexical innovations and most notably within the elaboration of the register; speech-level system that developed through contact with Old Javanese and which the Bali Aga (highland varieties) lack.[13] Due to of these contact shared innovations, the lowland group is generally treated as the basis standard of Balinese; at the 1974 congress on standardisation, the varieties of Buleleng (the capital is Singaraja) and Klungkung were recommended as models, partly because Singaraja had long served as a colonial-era administrative, educational and literary centre.[13]
The lowland varieties are difference by themselves, often along the lines of the former regional districts (Klungkung, Bangli, Karangasem, Buleleng, Gianyar, Badung, Tabanan, and Jembrana) with variation sometimes occurring over only a few kilometres.[13] The largest internal division is between the northern and eastern varieties (Buleleng, Klungkung, and Karangasem) and the southern variety of Denpasar greater area. A salient grammatical difference is that the Denpasar variety tends to lose or neutralise the verbal and nominal suffixes that the norther and eastern varieties retain in full.[13]
Phonologically, the Lowland variety that Clynes (1995) describe for Singaraja has eighteen consonants and six vowels. Its apical stop /t/ is alveolar rather than dental, a feature that distinguishes Balinese from many other western Indonesian languages, including Indonesian in which /t/ is dental.[13] In addition, word-final /k/ is normally realised as a glottal stop, /h/ is dropped in syllable onsets in casual speech, stress falls on the final syllable, and an orthographic word-final ⟨a⟩ is pronounced as a schwa [ə].[13]
Highland dialect
[edit]
The highland dialect, also known as Bali Aga dialect (because most of the speakers are indigenous people of Bali, the Bali Agas) 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.[22] According to Bawa (1983:394), the highland dialect is grouped into three main usage areas, namely the eastern, northern, and western regions which are detailed as follows:
- The eastern region of Bali Island which includes Karangasem Regency, Kintamani District (or around Lake Batur), Klungkung Regency, parts of East Buleleng, and Nusa Penida;
- Northern Badung mountainous region;
- The western region of Bali Island, which includes Pupuan district, Penebel district (precisely in Wongaya Gede village), and parts of West Buleleng and North Tabanan (precisely in Sepang, Padawa, and Bantiran villages).[23]
Overall, there are two Highland sub-dialects that are distinct from varieties spoken in the area mentioned. Those sub-dialects are Nusa Penida dialect, spoken mostly in Nusa Penida, and Kapara dialect (also called as Bali Kapara) notably spoken in Sembiran village, Tejakula District, Buleleng Regency with an estimated 4,883 users.[22] Nusa Penida dialect was thought to be a different dialect, but there is some indication that Nusa Penida dialect might be a sub-dialect of the highland dialect. According to Jendra, et al. (1997), both Nusa Penida and Highland dialects share the same phonological pattern as explained below:[24]
- presences of /h/ in the middle of word, such as in /bəhas/;[1]
- presences of /-ñə/ and /-cə/ affix or in the final-word position as allophony of /-ə/;
- the intonation of speakers' speech tends to have a fast tempo and louder stress
However, there are other notable differences between the two dialects, namely the absence or reduction of the distribution of the phoneme /a/ in word-final positions.
Nusa Penida dialect
[edit]
Currently, the Nusa Penida dialect is widely used only in Nusa Penida in Klungkung Regency. However, not all communities in Nusa Penida use the Nusa Penida dialect. There are several groups of people who communicate using different dialects. On the islands of Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan, which are located next to Nusa Penida, as well as in a small part of Nusa Penida close to these islands, there is a distinct dialect that is quite different from the Nusa Penida dialect. One of the most striking differences is in words like éda (you) and kola (I) in the Nusa Penida dialect. Speakers of the Nusa Lembongan dialect use words like cai or ci (you) and cang (I). Another example is əndək (Nusa Penida dialect) and tusing or sing' (Nusa Lembongan dialect), géléng-cenik, hangkén-kénkén, and so on.[24] Only 13 out of 16 villages in Nusa Penida use the Nusa Penida dialect. The remaining villages either speak the Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan dialect or a dialect resembling mainland Klungkung Balinese.[24]
The Nusa Penida dialect is also used outside Nusa Penida, mainly due to the migration of its speakers following the eruption of Mount Agung in 1963. Significant speakers relocated to southern Sumatra, particularly to Bandar Lampung, Palembang, Mesuji, and South Lampung.
Lombok dialect
[edit]
The Balinese spoken in Lombok is a dialect of the Balinese language of Bali. Based on regional classification, it comprises two dialect groups: the Pl (Pencilan) dialect (an outlier dialect) and the Mt dialect (a metropolitan dialect). Throughout their development, both dialects have been strongly influenced by the Sasak language and other regional languages on Lombok Island. Lexical innovation in Lombok Balinese occurs in two forms: internal innovation and extern