Balinese script

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 pitch 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]

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

Consonants are called wianjana (ᬯ᭄ᬬᬜ᭄ᬚᬦ) or aksara wianjana (ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬯ᭄ᬬᬜ᭄ᬚᬦ). Balinese script has 33 consonants, of which only 18 called wreṣāstra (ᬯᬺᬱᬵᬲ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬭ) are used for writing basic vocabulary in Balinese language. The other 15, known as sualalita (ᬰ᭄ᬯᬮᬮᬶᬢ), are mainly used for writing Sanskrit and Kawi loanwords in Balinese language. The consonants can be arranged into Sanskrit order and hanacaraka traditional order.

The modern Balinese languages does not make use of the whole inventory of consonants inherited from Sanskrit. The 18 consonants used in Balinese (Balinese: ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬯᬺᬱᬵᬲ᭄ᬢ᭄ᬭ, romanized: aksara wreṣāstra) are traditionally arranged following the Javanese hanacaraka sequence, in which 20 letters form a four-line pangram narrating the myth of Aji Saka. The remaining consonants (Balinese: ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬰ᭄ᬯᬮᬮᬶᬢ, romanized: aksara sualalita) are used in sanskrit transcription.

As in other members of the Brahmic family, consonant clusters are written cursively, by combining a consonant an appended letter (Balinese: ᬕᬦ᭄ᬢᬸᬗᬦ᭄, romanized: gantungan) or attached letter (ᬕᬾᬫ᭄ᬧᬾᬮᬦ᭄, gempelan). For example, ⟨ᬦ᭄ᬤ⟩, a ⟨ᬦ, na⟩ appended with ⟨◌᭄ᬤ, da⟩ is pronounced [nda]. Each consonant letter has a corresponding gantungan or gempelan.

A consonant may be marked with both a gantungan or gempelan and a vowel diacritic (pangangge), but attaching two or more gantungan to one letter is forbidden. When three consonants occur together, vowel-killer (adeg-adeg) may be used in the middle of a word. For example, in the word ᬢᬫ᭄‌ᬩ᭄ᬮᬂ, temblang, the consonant cluster mbl is spelled ⟨ᬫ + ◌᭄ + ᬩ + ◌᭄ᬮ⟩.^[7]

For a few letters, ⟨ᬧ, pa⟩, ⟨ᬨ, pha⟩, ⟨ᬲ, sa⟩ and ⟨ᬰ, ṣa⟩ adding a gantungan or gempelan also eliminates the letter's inherent vowel [a].

Vowels, called suara (ᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ) or aksara suara (ᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ), can be written as independent letters when vowels appear in initial position.

Diacritics (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢‌ᬗ᭄ᬕpangangge (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 pangangge suara, pangangge tengenan, and pangangge aksara.

Vowel diacritics (Balinese: ᬧᬗ᭢‌ᬗ᭄ᬕᬲ᭄ᬯᬭ, romanized: pangangge suara) change the inherent vowel of a consonant letter. For example, the letter ⟨ᬦ, na⟩ plus ⟨◌ᬶ, ulu⟩ becomes ⟨, ni⟩.

Pangangge tengenan (ᬧᬗ᭢‌ᬗ᭄ᬕᬢᭂᬗᭂᬦᬦ᭄), except adeg-adeg, adds a final consonant to a syllable. It can be used together with pangangge suara. For example, the letter ᬦ (na) with bisah (◌ᬄ) becomes ᬦᬄ (nah); ᬓ (ka) with suku (◌ᬸ) and surang (◌ᬃ) becomes ᬓᬸᬃ (kur). Compared to Devanagari, bisah is analogous to visarga, cecek to anusvara, and adeg-adeg to virama.

Adeg-adeg is zero vowel diacritics as in other Brahmic scripts in Balinese script. Adeg-adeg, as virama in Devanagari, suppress the inherent vowel /a/ in the consonant letter. 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 (tumpuk telu, lit. three layers), preservation of combination (watek ksatriya, ᬯᬢᭂᬓ᭄‌ᬓ᭄ᬱᬢ᭄ᬭᬶᬬ rather than ᬯᬢᭂᬓ᭄ᬓ᭄ᬱᬢ᭄ᬭᬶᬬ) and disambiguation.^[8]

Pangangge tengenan ᬧᬗ᭢‌ᬗ᭄ᬕᬢᭂᬗᭂᬦᬦ᭄
Balinese script		IPA	Translit.	Name
	◌ᬄ	[h]	h	Bisah
	◌ᬃ	[r]	r	Surang
	◌ᬂ	[ŋ]	ng	Cecek
	◌᭄	[∅]		Adeg-adeg

Pangangge aksara (ᬧᬗ᭢‌ᬗ᭄ᬕᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭ) 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 (ᬋ).

Pangangge aksara ᬧᬗ᭢‌ᬗ᭄ᬕᬅᬓ᭄ᬱᬭ
Balinese script		IPA	Translit.	Name
	◌᭄ᬭ	[ra]	ra	Cakra Guwung
	◌ᬺ	[rə]	rě	Guwung macelek
	◌᭄ᬯ	[ʋa]	ua	Suku kembung
	◌᭄ᬬ	[ja]	ia	Nania

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):

Balinese script	Transliteration
ᬩᬮᬶ᭞᭑᭞ᬚᬸᬮᬶ᭞᭑᭙᭘᭒᭟	Bali, 1 Juli 1982.

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
	᭞	Carik Carik Siki	Written in the middle of a sentence, like a comma (,). Also, written surrounding numerals to differentiate them from the text.
	᭟	Carik Kalih 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".
	ᬒᬁ	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:

1. assimilation rule, which based on articulation rule (Kalvi / Shiksha),
2. ᬧᬲᬂᬧᬕᭂᬄ (pasang pageh) rule, which the word is spelled based on the source,
3. ᬫᬤ᭄ᬯᬶᬢ (maduita) rule, which several words has doubled consonant.

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:^[9]

• ᬦ [n] assimilated into ᬜ [ɲ] if succeeded by palatal consonants, such as consonant cluster nc ᬜ᭄ᬘ and nj ᬜ᭄ᬚ. For example, word wianjana is written as ᬯ᭄ᬬᬜ᭄ᬚᬦ ([wjaɲdʒana]), not written as ᬯ᭄ᬬᬦ᭄ᬚᬦ (*[wjandʒana]).
• ᬲ [s] assimilated into ᬰ [ɕ] if succeeded by palatal consonants, such as consonant cluster sc ᬰ᭄ᬘ. For example, word pascad is written as ᬧᬰ᭄ᬘᬤ᭄ ([paɕcad]), not written as ᬧᬲ᭄ᬘᬤ᭄ (*[pascad]).
• ᬤ [d] assimilated into ᬚ [dʒ] if succeeded by palatal consonants, such as consonant cluster dny ᬚ᭄ᬜ. For example, word yadnya is written as ᬬᬚ᭄ᬜ ([jadʒɲa]), not written as ᬬᬤ᭄ᬜ (*[jadɲa]).
• ᬦ [n] assimilated into ᬡ [ɳ] if preceded by retroflex consonants, such as consonant cluster rn ᬭ᭄ᬡ. For example, word karna is written as ᬓᬭ᭄ᬡ ([karɳa]), not written as ᬓᬭ᭄ᬦ (*[karna]).
• ᬲ [s] assimilated into ᬱ [ʂ] if succeeded by retroflex consonants, such as consonant cluster st (ṣṭ) ᬱ᭄ᬝ and sn (ṣṇ) ᬱ᭄ᬡ. For example, word dusta (duṣṭa, lie) is written as ᬤᬸᬱ᭄ᬝ ([duʂʈa]), not written as ᬤᬸᬲ᭄ᬝ (*[dusʈa]).
• ᬦ [n] assimilated into ᬫ [m] if succeeded by labial consonants. For example, word tanbara is written as ᬢᬫ᭄ᬪᬭ ([tambʰara]), not written as ᬢᬦ᭄ᬪᬭ (*[tanbʰara]).

Liquid consonant, ᬭ [r] and ᬮ [l], may not be combined with ◌ᭂ (pepet, schwa) [ə] as ᬭᭂ and ᬮᭂ. These combination, rě [rə] and lě [lə], should be written as ᬋ (re repa) and ᬍ (le lenga). Word kěrěng (lit. eat a lot) and lekad are written as ᬓᭂᬋᬂ and ᬍᬓᬤ᭄. While combination of ◌᭄ᬮ (gantungan [l]) and ◌ᭂ (pepet) is possible as in ᬩᬼᬕᬜ᭄ᬚᬸᬃ (bleganjur), combination of ◌᭄ᬭ (cakra or gantungan [r]) and ◌ᭂ pepet is not allowed. If the combination follows a word which ends in a consonant, ◌᭄ᬋ (gempelan re repa) may be used as in ᬧᬓ᭄ᬋᬋᬄ (Pak Rěrěh, Mr. Rěrěh). If the combination is in a word, ◌ᬺ (guwung macelek) may be used instead as in ᬓᬺᬱ᭄ᬡ (Krěsna, Krishna).^[9][10]

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.^[11]

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^[12] and is given additional characters for loanwords of foreign origin.

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.^[13]

Bali Simbar is first font for Balinese script by I Made Suatjana Dipl Ing at 1999.^[14] Bali Simbar is not compatible for Mac-OS and Unicode.^[14][13] JG Aksara Bali, was designed by Jason Glavy, has over 1400 Balinese glyphs, including a huge selection of precomposed glyph clusters.^[13] The latest version of JG Aksara Bali was released on 2003, thus has no compatibility with Unicode.^[13] 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.^[14][13]

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 ⟨é⟩ correctly.^[13] 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.^[13] These all have serious flaws.^[13]

Another Unicode font is Noto Sans Balinese from Google.^[15] However, Noto Sans Balinese exhibits several critical flaws, such as an inability to correctly display more than one diacritic per consonant.^[13]

The free font Bali Galang, maintained by Bemby Bantara Narendra, displays correctly apart from the consonant-spanning vowels ⟨o⟩ and ⟨au⟩. However, those vowels can be manually substituted by their graphic components, ⟨é⟩ and ⟨ai⟩ followed by the length sign (tedung), which together display as ⟨o⟩ and ⟨au⟩. It also automatically assimilates some consonants within words. It displays corresponding Balinese glyphs instead of Latin letters.

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 script

ᬲᬫᬶᬫᬦᬸᬲᬦᬾᬲᬦᬾᬜ᭄ᬭᬸᬯᬤᬶᬯᬦ᭄ᬢᬄᬫᬭ᭄ᬤᬾᬓᬢᬸᬃᬫᬤᬸᬯᬾᬓᬳᬸᬢ᭄ᬢᬫᬳᬦ᭄ᬮᬦ᭄ᬳᬓ᭄ᬳᬓ᭄ᬲᬦᬾᬧᬢᭂᬄ᭟ᬲᬫᬶᬓᬮᬸᬕ᭄ᬭᬵᬳᬶᬦ᭄ᬧᬧᬶᬦᭂᬄᬮᬦ᭄ᬳᬶᬤᭂᬧ᭄ᬢᬸᬃᬫᬗ᭄ᬤᬦᬾᬧᬟᬫᬲᬯᬶᬢ᭄ᬭᬫᭂᬮᬭᬧᬦ᭄ᬲᭂᬫᬗᬢ᭄ᬧᬓᬸᬮᬯᬭ᭄ᬕᬳᬦ᭄᭞

Romanised

Sami manusané sané nyruwadi wantah mardéka tur maduwé kautamaan lan hak-hak sané pateh. Sami kalugrähin papineh lan idep tur mangdané paḍa masawitra melarapan semangat pakulawargaan.

English

All 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.^[16]

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  Page from a Bible printed with Balinese script
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  Balinese palm-leaf manuscript
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  Sign at Pura Puseh Temple, Batuan, Bali
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  Street sign in Singaraja, written in Latin and Balinese script
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  Klungkung Regent's Office sign
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  A date in Latin and Balinese script

• Surada, I Made (2007). Kamus Sanskerta-Indonesia. Surabaya: Penerbit Paramitha.
• Simpen, I Wayan. Pasang Aksara Bali. Bali: Dinas Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Provinsi Daerah Tingkat I.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balinese script.

• Outline of Balines script Archived 2020-07-28 at the Wayback Machine at BASAbali.org
• Entry on Balinese at Omniglot.com -- A guide to writing systems
• Computerization of Balinese Script
• Balinese character picker
• Balinese script converter