Bahasa Bali - the language of Bali

Indonesia is an amazing country, 17,000 islands, 180 ethnic groups and many languages.

Most people on Bali speak Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) but all the Balinese people also speak Bahasa Bali ( Balinese). These language are of course related but are different enough that someone from Java could not understand a conversation in Balinese.

I’ve asked locals what language they speak in various situations and its seems that at work they speak Indonesian, but at home its Balinese. When locals ask me ‘apa kabar’ (how are you?) I joke with them by saying ‘becik becik’ (fine) and they usually get a laugh out of it, surprised that a ‘bule’ would know any Balinese words.

My friend Miguel was planning on marrying a Balinese last year and was learning the language. He told me that there are in fact 3 levels of Balinese and these levels intersperse their dialogue with words not used in the other levels. Sounds complicated eh?

Roughly speaking the 3 main levels, High (Ida), Middle (Ipun) and Low (Ia) are designed to point out what caste a person is and to make sure proper respect is being paid. I joke too that I’m in the lowest caste…’bulenese’.

How does a Balinese person know which level to use? Well if one is speaking to family members the low form is used, if speaking to a stranger the middle or ‘polite’ form is used. Ninety percent of the Balinese belong to the Sudra or low caste and the 3 higher castes ( Wesya, Satriya and Brahmana) have special duties during religious festivals. If the person being addressed is a higher caste then the high form is used.

How does a Balinese person know the caste of a stranger? I can tell roughly by the names. Anyone called Putu, Made, Komang, Katut etc. is from the Sudra caste and anyone called Ida Bagus, Ida Ayu or Dayu is a Brahmana caste. But what if names are not mentioned? A polite question ‘where do you sit?’ can be asked to find out.

Miguel was showing some Balinese locals his prowess in high caste Balinese that his girlfriend had taught him and they didn’t know many of the words because the high caste like to keep a lot of things, language, blood lines and certain ceremonies among themselves.

Here are some words in Bahasa Bali:

Good - becik
Bad - corah
Friend - switra
Husband - rabi
Wife - timpal
Child - putra (boy), putri (girl)
How are you? - kenken kabare
What is that? - Napi punika?

Here’s 1 to 10

1 - siki
2- kalih
3 - tiga
4 - pat
5 - lima
6 - enem
7 - pitu
8 - kutus
9 - sia
10 - dasa