| Balinese script | |
| Also Known As: | Indonesian: Aksarä Bali Balinese: ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬩᬮᬶ |
| Type: | Abugida |
| Languages: | Balinese Sasakese Loloanese |
| Fam1: | Egyptian |
| Fam2: | Proto-Sinaitic |
| Fam3: | Phoenician |
| Fam4: | Aramaic |
| Fam5: | Brahmi script |
| Fam6: | Pallava |
| Fam7: | Old Kawi |
| Sisters: | Batak Baybayin scripts Javanese Lontara Makasar Old Sundanese Rencong Rejang |
| Time: | c. 1000 - present |
| Unicode: | U+1B00 - U+1B7F |
| Iso15924: | Bali |
| Sample: | Aksara Bali1.png |
The Balinese script, natively known as Balinese: Aksarä Bali and Balinese: 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 a 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 Balinese: lontar or palm leaf manuscripts containing religious texts.[2] [3]
There are 47 letters in the Balinese script, each representing a syllable with inherent vowel pronounced as //a// or pronounced as //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 pitch information. Text are written left to right without word boundaries (Scriptio continua).[1]
There is also a set of "holy letters" called Balinese: aksara modre which appears in religious texts and protective talismans. Most of them are constructed using diacritic Balinese: 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]
A basic letter in Balinese is called Balinese: aksara (Balinese: ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭ), and each letter stands for a syllable with inherent vowel /a/.
Consonants are called Balinese: wianjana (Balinese: ᬯ᭄ᬬᬜ᭄ᬚᬦ) or Balinese: aksara wianjana (Balinese: ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬯ᭄ᬬᬜ᭄ᬚᬦ). Balinese script has 33 consonants, of which only 18 called Balinese: wreṣāstra (Balinese: ᬯᬺᬱᬵᬲ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬭ) are used for writing basic vocabulary in Balinese language. The other 15, known as Balinese: sualalita (Balinese: ᬰ᭄ᬯᬮᬮᬶᬢ), are mainly used for writing Sanskrit and Kawi loanwords in Balinese language. The consonants can be arranged into Sanskrit order and Balinese: [[Javanese script|hanacaraka]] traditional order.
| Unvoiced | Voiced | Nasal | Semivowel | Sibilant | Fricative | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unaspirated | Aspirated | Unaspirated | Aspirated | |||||||
| scope=row | Velar | |||||||||
| scope=row | Palatal | |||||||||
| scope=row | Retroflex | |||||||||
| scope=row | Dental | |||||||||
| scope=row | Labial | |||||||||
The modern Balinese languages does not make use of the whole inventory of consonants inherited from Sanskrit. The 18 consonants used in Balinese (Balinese: {{Script|Bali|ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬯᬺᬱᬵᬲ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬭ) are traditionally arranged following the Javanese Balinese: hanacaraka sequence, in which 20 letters form a four-line pangram narrating the myth of Aji Saka. The remaining consonants (Balinese: {{Script|Bali|ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬰ᭄ᬯᬮᬮᬶᬢ) are used in sanskrit transcription.
| Javanese: {{Script|Java|ꦲꦤꦕꦫꦏ | ||||||
| Javanese: {{Script|Java|ꦢꦠꦱꦮꦭ | ||||||
| Javanese: {{Script|Java|ꦥꦝꦗꦪꦚ | ||||||
| Javanese: {{Script|Java|ꦩꦒꦧꦛꦔ |
A consonant may be marked with both a Balinese: gantungan or Balinese: gempelan and a vowel diacritic (Balinese: pangangge), but attaching two or more Balinese: gantungan to one letter is forbidden. When three consonants occur together, vowel-killer (Balinese: adeg-adeg) may be used in the middle of a word. For example, in the word Balinese: ᬢᬫ᭄ᬩ᭄ᬮᬂ|temblang|label=none, the consonant cluster mbl is spelled .[6]
For a few letters, (pa), (pha), (sa) and (ṣa) adding a Balinese: gantungan or Balinese: gempelan also eliminates the letter's inherent vowel pronounced as /[a]/.
Vowels, called Balinese: suara (Balinese: ᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ) or Balinese: aksara suara (Balinese: ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ), can be written as independent letters when vowels appear in initial position.
Diacritics (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕpangangge (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕ) 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 Balinese: pangangge suara, Balinese: pangangge tengenan, and Balinese: pangangge aksara.
Vowel diacritics (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ|pangangge suara) change the inherent vowel of a consonant letter. For example, the letter (na) plus (ulu) becomes (ni).
Balinese: Pangangge tengenan (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕᬢᭂᬗᭂᬦᬦ᭄), except Balinese: adeg-adeg, adds a final consonant to a syllable. It can be used together with Balinese: pangangge suara. For example, the letter Balinese: ᬦ (Balinese: na) with Balinese: bisah (Balinese: ◌ᬄ) becomes Balinese: ᬦᬄ (Balinese: nah); Balinese: ᬓ (Balinese: ka) with Balinese: suku (Balinese: ◌ᬸ) and Balinese: surang (Balinese: ◌ᬃ) becomes Balinese: ᬓᬸᬃ (Balinese: kur). Compared to Devanagari, Balinese: bisah is analogous to visarga, Balinese: cecek to anusvara, and Balinese: adeg-adeg to virama.
Balinese: Adeg-adeg is zero vowel diacritics as in other Brahmic scripts in Balinese script. Balinese: Adeg-adeg, as virama in Devanagari, suppress the inherent vowel pronounced as //a// in the consonant letter. Balinese: Adeg-adeg is used on impossibility of gantungan and gempelan usage such as succeeded by punctuation marks, attachment of two or more gantungan to one letter (Balinese: tumpuk telu, lit. three layers), preservation of combination (Balinese: watek ksatriya, Balinese: ᬯᬢᭂᬓ᭄ᬓ᭄ᬱᬢ᭄ᬭᬶᬬ rather than Balinese: ᬯᬢᭂᬓ᭄ᬓ᭄ᬱᬢ᭄ᬭᬶᬬ) and disambiguation.
| Balinese: Pangangge tengenan Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕᬢᭂᬗᭂᬦᬦ᭄ | |||||
| Balinese script | IPA | Translit. | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balinese: ◌ᬄ | [h] | h | Balinese: Bisah | ||
| Balinese: ◌ᬃ | [r] | r | Balinese: Surang | ||
| Balinese: ◌ᬂ | [ŋ] | ng | Balinese: Cecek | ||
| Balinese: ◌᭄ | [∅] | Balinese: Adeg-adeg | |||
Balinese: Pangangge aksara (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭ) is appended below consonant letters. Balinese: Pangangge aksara are the appended (Balinese: gantungan) forms of the Balinese: ardhasuara (semivowel) consonants. Balinese: Guwung macelek is the appended form of the vowel Balinese: ra repa (Balinese: ᬋ).
| Balinese: Pangangge aksara Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢ᬗ᭄ᬕᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭ | |||||
| Balinese script | IPA | Translit. | Name | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balinese: ◌᭄ᬭ | [ra] | ra | Balinese: Cakra<br>Guwung | ||
| Balinese: ◌ᬺ | [rə] | rě | Balinese: Guwung macelek | ||
| Balinese: ◌᭄ᬯ | [ʋa] | ua | Balinese: Suku kembung | ||
| Balinese: ◌᭄ᬬ | [ja] | ia | Balinese: Nania | ||
See main article: Balinese numerals. Balinese numerals are written in the same manner as Arabic 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):
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 | Symbol | Name | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center | align=center | Balinese: ᭞ | Balinese: Carik Balinese: Carik Siki | Written in the middle of a sentence, like a comma . Also, written surrounding numerals to differentiate them from the text. | ||
| align=center | Balinese: ᭟ | Balinese: Carik Kalih Balinese: Carik Pareren | Written at the end of a sentence, like a full stop (.). | |||
| align=center | align=center | Balinese: ᭝ | Balinese: Carik pamungkah | Functions like a colon (:). | ||
| align=center | align=center | Balinese: ᭟᭜᭟ | Balinese: Pasalinan | Used at the end of a prose, letter, or verse. | ||
| align=center | align=center | Balinese: ᭚ | Balinese: Panten or Balinese: Panti | Used at the beginning of a prose, letter, or verse. | ||
| align=center | align=center | Balinese: ᭛ | Balinese: Pamada | Used at the beginning of religious texts. This symbol is a ligature of the letters Balinese: ma, Balinese: nga, Balinese: ja, and Balinese: pa, forming the word Balinese: mangajapa, which roughly means "praying for safety". | ||
| align=center | align=center | Balinese: ᬒᬁ | Balinese: [[Om|Ongkara]] | Sacred symbol of Hinduism. This symbol is pronounced "Ong" or "Om". |
Balinese have many loanwords from Sanskrit and Old Javanese. In general, the Balinese orthography in Balinese script preserve the original orthography. The preservation of original orthography result on several rules:
Assimilation 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, retroflex or labial. There are more specific descriptions in assimilation combination:[7]
Liquid consonant, Balinese: ᬭ [r] and Balinese: ᬮ [l], may not be combined with Balinese: ◌ᭂ (pepet, schwa) [ə] as Balinese: ᬭᭂ and Balinese: ᬮᭂ. These combination, rě [rə] and lě [lə], should be written as Balinese: ᬋ (re repa) and Balinese: ᬍ (le lenga). Word kěrěng (lit. eat a lot) and lekad are written as Balinese: ᬓᭂᬋᬂ and Balinese: ᬍᬓᬤ᭄. While combination of Balinese: ◌᭄ᬮ (gantungan [l]) and Balinese: ◌ᭂ (pepet) is possible as in Balinese: ᬩᬼᬕᬜ᭄ᬚᬸᬃ (bleganjur), combination of Balinese: ◌᭄ᬭ (cakra or gantungan [r]) and Balinese: ◌ᭂ pepet is not allowed. If the combination follows a word which ends in a consonant, Balinese: ◌᭄ᬋ (gempelan re repa) may be used as in Balinese: ᬧᬓ᭄ᬋᬋᬄ (Pak Rěrěh, Mr. Rěrěh). If the combination is in a word, Balinese: ◌ᬺ (guwung macelek) may be used instead as in Balinese: ᬓᬺᬱ᭄ᬡ (Krěsna, Krishna).[8]
Latin script transliteration into Balinese script is based on phonetics. As vocabulary expands, foreign sounds are introduced and have no equivalent on Balinese script. In general, transliteration of foreign sounds is shown as below.[9]
| Foreign Sound Transliteration | ||||||||
| IPA | Foreign Sound Latin Script | Balinese Language | Example | |||||
| Latin Script | Balinese Script | Foreign Word | Balinese Language | Meaning | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latin Script | Balinese Script | |||||||
| [f] | f | p | Balinese: ᬧ | telefon | telepon | Balinese: ᬢᬾᬮᬾᬧᭀᬦ᭄ | telephone | |
| [v] | v | p | Balinese: ᬧ | vitamin | pitamin | Balinese: ᬧᬶᬢᬫᬶᬦ᭄ | vitamine | |
| [kw], [k], [q] | q | k | Balinese: ᬓ | quantum | kuantum | Balinese: ᬓ᭄ᬯᬦ᭄ᬢᬸᬫ᭄ | quantum | |
| [z] | z | j | Balinese: ᬚ | < | -- Balinese: --> | |||
| [z] | z | s | Balinese: ᬲ | ijazah | ijasah | Balinese: ᬳᬶᬚᬲᬄ | ijaza | |
The Sasak language, spoken in Lombok Island 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 Javanese script and is given additional characters for loanwords of foreign origin.
| Sasak letter | Name[10] | IPA | Derived from | Javanese equivalent | Arabic equivalent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balinese: ᭅ | qaf | pronounced as /[q~k~ʔ]/ | Balinese: ᬓ | |||
| Balinese: ᭆ | xot | pronounced as /[x]/ | Balinese: ᬓ+ᬳ | |||
| Balinese: ᭇ | tsir | pronounced as /[ts]/ | Balinese: ᬢ | |||
| Balinese: ᭈ | ef | pronounced as /[f]/ | Balinese: ᬧ | |||
| Balinese: ᭉ | ve | pronounced as /[v]/ | Balinese: ᬯ | |||
| Balinese: ᭊ | zal | pronounced as /[z]/ | Balinese: ᬲ | |||
| Balinese: ᭋ | asyura | pronounced as /[ʃ]/ | Balinese: ᬲ+ᬬ |
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.[11] Bali Simbar is not compatible for Mac-OS and Unicode.[12] 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 was 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.[13] However, Noto Sans Balinese exhibits 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.
See main article: Balinese (Unicode block). 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: