The Balinese alphabet is a type of alphabet called an abugida that was used to write the Balinese language, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesian island of Bali. The use of the Balinese alphabet has mostly been replaced by the Roman alphabet, and very few people are familiar with it. It is mostly used for religious writings. A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... An abugida or alphasyllabary is a writing system composed of signs (graphemes) denoting consonants with an inherent following vowel, which are consistently modified to indicate other vowels (or, in some cases, the lack of a vowel). ... Balinese is the language spoken by people in the island of Bali, Indonesia. ... The Austronesian languages are a family of languages widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... Bali is an Indonesian island located at , , one of the Lesser Sunda Islands. ... ...
The Balinese alphabet was probably derived from Pallava and Old Kawi alphabets, which ultimately were derived from the Brahmi alphabet, the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. Pallava, were a South Indian dynasty who established their capital at Kanchipuram in the 4th cent. ... Old Kawi is the oldest Kawi script used on Bali in 775 AD. It is written on palm leaves. ... The Brahmi alphabet was the first of a type of alphabet called an abugida. ...
Like most abugidas, each letter has an inherent vowel of /a/. Other vowels are indicated by using diacritics, which can appear above, below, to the left, or to the right of the consonant. A diacritical mark or diacritic, sometimes called an accent mark, is a mark added to a letter to alter a words pronunciation (ie. ...
External links
Entry on Balinese at Omniglot.com -- A guide to writing systems
While he was at A.s.K.I. (college level traditional music conservatory) he founded and directed the Balinese gamelan groups, as well as participating in rehearsals and performances of a new style of music called "Eksperimen Karawitan Baru", or new experimental music on traditional instruments.
At the Indonesian Pavilion at EXPO’86 in Vancouver, Canada, his composition "Asanawali" for Balinese gamelan and chorus was performed as part of the first International Gamelan Festival, sharing a program with the Vancouver Symphony’s performance of pieces by Debussy and Colin McPhee.
As a composer, he is concerned with not only the music itself, but with the social context of the performance, seeing the development of an audience to appreciate new music as important as the works themselves.
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