Balinese
Basa Bali
Spoken in	Bali, Nusa Penida, Lombok and Java, Indonesia
Total speakers	3.9 million (as of 2001[update])
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Nuclear Malayo-Polynesan Malayo-Sumbawan 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.

Balinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.9 million people (as of 2001^[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 1 Classification 2 Phonology 2.1 Vowels 2.2 Consonants 3 Grammar 3.1 Registers 4 Writing 4.1 Balinese script 4.2 Latin alphabet 5 Notes 6 References

[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

This section requires expansion.

[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] The Balinese Script is almost the same as Javanese script.

[edit] Latin alphabet

Schools in Bali today teach a form of the Latin alphabet for writing Balinese, known as Tulisan Bali.^[3]

[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.