The Balinese script, natively known as and , is an

abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel no ...

used in the island of

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

, commonly for writing the Austronesian

Balinese language Balinese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.3 million people () on the Indonesian island of Bali as well as Northern Nusa Penida, Western Lombok, Eastern Java, Southern Sumatra, and Sulawesi. Most Balinese speakers also know Indo ...

Old Javanese Old Javanese or Kawi is the oldest attested phase of the Javanese language. It was spoken in the eastern part of what is now Central Java and the whole of East Java, Indonesia. As a literary language, Kawi was used across Java and on the island ...

, and the

liturgical language A sacred language, holy language or liturgical language is any language that is cultivated and used primarily in church service or for other religious reasons by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Concept A sacr ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

. With some modifications, the script is also used to write the

Sasak language The Sasak language is spoken by the Sasak ethnic group, which make up the majority of the population of Lombok in Indonesia. It is closely related to the Balinese and Sumbawa languages spoken on adjacent islands, and is part of the Austrone ...

, used in the neighboring island of

Lombok Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is ...

. The script is a descendant of the

Brahmi script Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...

, and so has many similarities with the modern scripts of South and Southeast Asia. The Balinese script, along with the

Javanese script The Javanese script (natively known as ''Aksara Jawa'', ''Hanacaraka'', ''Carakan'', and ''Dentawyanjana'') is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese langu ...

, is considered the most elaborate and ornate among Brahmic scripts of Southeast Asia.Kuipers, Joel (2003)
''Indic Scripts of Insular Southeast Asia: Changing Structures and Functions''
. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Though everyday use of the script has largely been supplanted by the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

, the Balinese script has a significant prevalence in many of the island's traditional ceremonies and is strongly associated with the

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

religion. The script is mainly used today for copying or

palm leaf manuscripts Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia reportedly dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and sp ...

containing religious texts.Fox, Richard (2013)
''Rival Styles of Writing, Rival Styles of Practical Reasoning''
Heidelberg: Institut für Ehtnologie.

Characteristics

There are 47 letters in the Balinese script, each representing a syllable with inherent vowel or at the end of a sentence, which changes depending on the

diacritics A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

around the letter. Pure Balinese can be written with 18 consonant letters and 9 vowel letters, while

transliteration or loan words from Sanskrit and

utilizes the full set. A set of modified letters are also used for writing the

. Each consonant has a conjunct form called ''gantungan'' which nullifies the inherent vowel of the previous syllable. 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 pitch information. Text are written left to right without word boundaries (''

Scriptio continua ''Scriptio continua'' (Latin for "continuous script"), also known as ''scriptura continua'' or ''scripta continua'', is a style of writing without spaces or other marks between the words or sentences. The form also lacks punctuation, diacritic ...

''). There is also a set of "holy letters" called which appears in religious texts and protective talismans. Most of them are constructed using diacritic 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.

Letters

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

Consonants

Consonants are called () or (). Balinese script has 33 consonants, of which only 18 called () are used for writing basic vocabulary in Balinese language. The other 15, known as (), are mainly used for writing

and Kawi loanwords in Balinese language. The consonants can be arranged into

order and traditional order.

traditional order

The consonants can be arranged in traditional order. The sequence forms a poem of 4 verses narrating the myth of

Aji Saka Aji Saka is a Javanese legend that tells the story of how civilization came to Java, brought by the legendary first king of Java named Aji Saka, and the mythical story of the origin of Javanese script. Origin Aji Saka is said to have come from Bh ...

. However, the sequence only has the 18 consonants of () and exclude (). However, this table below include as the current romanization have no diacritics for the consonants.

Sanskrit order

As other

Brahmic scripts The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient In ...

, consonants in Balinese script can be arranged into

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

order. Thus, Balinese script had been influenced by Kalvi /

Shiksha ''Shiksha'' ( sa, शिक्षा IAST: ISO: Śikṣā) is a Sanskrit word, which means "instruction, lesson, learning, study of skill".Sir Monier Monier-WilliamsSiksha A DkSanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arr ...

. The table below uses the order. . They are, in traditional order: ha na ca ra ka / da ta sa wa la / ma ga ba nga / pa ja ya nya.
The consonant is sometimes not pronounced. For example, (lit. rain) is pronounced .
The exact form of is unknown because only the appended () form is left. However, the independent form is included in

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

.

Actually an

alveolar consonant Alveolar (; UK also ) consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated wit ...

, but classified as dental by tradition
The former of the two letter forms is more frequently used.

Vowels

Vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (len ...

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

and

() (appended letters) and () (attached letters) should be used to represent the consonant cluster, as zero vowel signs () are not used in the middle of sentences in general. Thus, as other members of the

Brahmic family The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...

(Javanese), the consonant cluster is written cursively. Each consonant letter has a corresponding either or (for , , and only) form, and the presence of and eliminates the inherent vowel of the letter it is appended to. For example, if the letter () is appended with (), the pronunciation becomes (). or can be applied with (diacritic) to a letter. However, attaching two or more to one letter is forbidden; this condition is known as (three layers). may be used in the middle of a sentence to avoid such situation. For example, with consonant cluster is written as . The forms of and are as follows:

Diacritics

Diacritics ( (), pronounced , also known as when referring to the

) are symbols that cannot stand by themselves. When they are attached to the independent letters, they affect the pronunciation. The three types of diacritics are , (pronounced ) and .

() change the inherited vowel of a consonant letter. For example, the letter () with () becomes (); () with () becomes (). The diacritics in this category are summarized in the following list: As first romanization of Balinese Language was developed during Dutch Colonial Era, letter ''e'' represents sound and letter ''é'' represents sound and as in Van Ophuijsen Indonesian and

Dutch orthography Dutch orthography uses the Latin alphabet. The spelling system is issued by government decree and is compulsory for all government documentation and educational establishments. Legal basis In the Netherlands, the official spelling is regulated ...

. After 1957, sounds , and are represented with ''e'' as in current Indonesian orthography with exception for new learner and dictionary usage. Many consonants can form ligatures with tedung: Aksara Bali polih tedung

(), except , adds a final consonant to a syllable. It can be used together with . For example, the letter () with () becomes (); () with () and () becomes (). Compared to

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

, is analogous to

visarga Visarga ( sa, विसर्गः, translit=visargaḥ) means "sending forth, discharge". In Sanskrit phonology ('' ''), ' (also called, equivalently, ' by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone voiceless glottal fricative, , written as ...

, to

anusvara Anusvara (Sanskrit: ') is a symbol used in many Indic scripts to mark a type of nasal sound, typically transliterated . Depending on its location in the word and the language for which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary. In the context ...

, and to

virama Virama ( ्) is a Sanskrit phonological concept to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter, commonly used as a generic term for a codepoint in Unicode, representing either # halanta, hasanta or explicit vir� ...

. is zero vowel diacritics as in other

in Balinese script. , as

, suppress the

inherent vowel An inherent vowel is part of an abugida (or alphasyllabary) script. It is a vowel sound which is used with each unmarked or basic consonant symbol. For example, if the Latin alphabet used 'i' as an inherent vowel, "Wikipedia" could be rendered as "W ...

in the consonant letter. is used on impossibility of gantungan and gempelan usage such as succeeded by punctuation marks, attachment of two or more gantungan to one letter (, lit. three layers), preservation of combination (, rather than ) and disambiguation.

() is appended below consonant letters. are the appended () forms of the (semivowel) consonants. is the appended form of the vowel ().

Numerals

Balinese numerals are written in the same manner as

Arabic numerals Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers such a ...

. 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):

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:

Orthography

Balinese language

Loanword from Sanskrit and Old Javanese

Balinese have many loanwords from

and

. In general, the Balinese orthography in Balinese script preserve the original orthography. The preservation of original orthography result on several rules: # assimilation rule, which based on articulation rule (Kalvi /

), # () rule, which the word is spelled based on the source, # () rule, which several words has doubled consonant.

Assimilation

Assimilation Assimilation may refer to: Culture * Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs ** Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the prog ...

in Balinese occurs within the conjuncts/consonant clusters. Balinese script represents assimilation occurred, however Latin script sometimes may not represent this. In general, alveolar consonants are assimilated into

palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...

, retroflex or

labial The term ''labial'' originates from '' Labium'' (Latin for "lip"), and is the adjective that describes anything of or related to lips, such as lip-like structures. Thus, it may refer to: * the lips ** In linguistics, a labial consonant ** In zoolog ...

. There are more specific descriptions in assimilation combination: * assimilated into �if succeeded by

consonants, such as consonant cluster ''nc'' and ''nj'' . For example, word is written as (), not written as (). * assimilated into �if succeeded by

consonants, such as consonant cluster ''sc'' . For example, word is written as (), not written as (). * assimilated into ʒif succeeded by

consonants, such as consonant cluster ''dny'' . For example, word is written as (), not written as (). * assimilated into �if preceded by retroflex consonants, such as consonant cluster ''rn'' . For example, word is written as (), not written as (). * assimilated into �if succeeded by retroflex consonants, such as consonant cluster ''st'' (ṣṭ) and ''sn'' (ṣṇ) . For example, word (,

lie A lie is an assertion that is believed to be false, typically used with the purpose of deceiving or misleading someone. The practice of communicating lies is called lying. A person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar. Lies can be inter ...

) is written as (), not written as (). * assimilated into if succeeded by

consonants. For example, word is written as (), not written as ().

Liquid Consonant-Schwa Combination

Liquid consonant In phonetics, liquids are a class of consonants consisting of voiced lateral approximants like together with rhotics like . Etymology The grammarian Dionysius Thrax used the Ancient Greek word (, ) to describe the sonorant consonants () of cl ...

, and may not be combined with (''pepet'',

schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...

) �as and . These combination, rě əand lě ə should be written as (''re repa'') and (''le lenga''). Word ''kěrěng'' (lit. eat a lot) and ''lekad'' are written as and . While combination of (''gantungan'' and (''pepet'') is possible as in (''bleganjur''), combination of (''cakra'' or ''gantungan'' and ''pepet'' is not allowed. If the combination follows a word which ends in a consonant, (''gempelan re repa'') may be used as in (''Pak Rěrěh'', Mr. Rěrěh). If the combination is in a word, (''guwung macelek'') may be used instead as in (''Krěsna'',

Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...

Latin Script Transliteration

Latin script transliteration into Balinese script is based on

phonetics Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

. As vocabulary expands, foreign sounds are introduced and have no equivalent on Balinese script. In general, transliteration of foreign sounds is shown as below.

Sasak language

The

, spoken in

Lombok Island Lombok is an island in West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia. It forms part of the chain of the Lesser Sunda Islands, with the Lombok Strait separating it from Bali to the west and the Alas Strait between it and Sumbawa to the east. It is ...

east of Bali, is related to Balinese, is written in a version of the Balinese script known as ''Aksara Sasak'', which is influenced by the

and is given additional characters for loanwords of foreign origin.

Fonts

There are some fonts for Balinese script as of 2016. Bali Simbar, Bali Galang, JG Aksara Bali, Aksara Bali, Tantular Bali, Lilitan, Geguratan and Noto Sans Balinese are some fonts that included Balinese script. The fonts have different degree of compatibility each other, and most contain critical flaws. '
Bali Simbar
'' is first font for Balinese script by I Made Suatjana Dipl Ing at 1999. Bali Simbar is not compatible for Mac-OS and Unicode. JG Aksara Bali, was designed by Jason Glavy, has over 1400 Balinese glyphs, including a huge selection of precomposed glyph clusters. The latest version of JG Aksara Bali is released on 2003, thus has no compatibility with Unicode. Bali Simbar and JG Aksara Bali, in particular, may cause conflicts with other writing systems, as the font uses code points from other writing systems to complement Balinese's extensive repertoire as Balinese script was not included in Unicode at the creation time. Aksara Bali by Khoi Nguyen Viet is the first hacked Unicode Balinese font with a brute-force OpenType implementation. The results depend on how well other OpenType features are implemented in the renderer. The font has about 370 Balinese glyphs, but does not display the vowel correctly. The team of Aditya Bayu Perdana, Ida Bagus Komang Sudarma, and Arif Budiarto has created a small series of Balinese fonts: Tantular Bali, Lilitan, and Geguratan, all using hacked Unicode and a brute-force OpenType implementation. Tantular has about 400 Balinese glyphs. These all have serious flaws. Another Unicode font is '
Noto Sans Balinese
'' from Google. However, Noto Sans Balinese exhibit
several critical flaws
such as an inability to correctly display more than one diacritic per consonant. The free font Bali Galang, maintained by Bemby Bantara Narendra, displays correctly apart from the consonant-spanning vowels and . However, those vowels can be manually substituted by their graphic components, and followed by the length sign (''tedung''), which together display as and . It also automatically assimilates some consonants within words. It displays corresponding Balinese glyphs instead of Latin letters.

Unicode

Balinese script was added to the

Standard in July, 2006 with the release of version 5.0. The Unicode block for Balinese is U+1B00–U+1B7F:

Examples

Article 1 of the ''

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt ...

'':
ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.ref>

Kakawin Bhāratayuddha Kakawin Bhāratayuddha is an Old Javanese poetical rendering of some books (''parva'') of the ''Mahabharata'' by Mpu Sedah and his brother Mpu Panuluh in Indian meters (''kāvya'' or ''Kakawin''). The commencement of this work was exactly 6 No ...

Pasalin 1 Verse 1 (''wirama jagaddhita''):

Gallery

File:Bible printed with Balinese script.jpg, Page from a

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

printed with Balinese script File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Geschrift op lontarblad TMnr 1534-8b.jpg, Balinese

palm-leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia reportedly dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and ...

File:Pura Puseh 05153.jpg, Sign at Pura Puseh Temple, Batuan, Bali File:JL DIPONEGORO 200507.jpg, Street sign in Singaraja, written in Latin and Balinese script File:Sign of Klungkung Regent's Office.JPG, Klungkung Regent's Office sign File:Date on a plaque in Jimbaran.jpg, A date in Latin and Balinese script

References

External links

Outline of Balines script
at BASAbali.org * Entry o

a
Omniglot.com -- A guide to writing systems

Unicode block

Balinese character picker

Balinese script converter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balinese script Brahmic scripts Balinese language Indonesian scripts Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes