Balinese have their own script called Aksara. With roots
in Sanskrit, Aksara is closely related, and bears a similar
appearance to, Javanese. The script is made up of only eighteen
characters with each one composed of flowing wiggles, as opposed
to ‘flicks’ as seen in other Asian language scripts
such as Chinese and Japanese.
The way you write Balinese is quite different from Japanese,
Korean or Chinese. The script makes use of hanging and floating
characters which are placed either above or below the primary
characters to change the sound. Depending on which hanging
or floating character is chosen, it may cut, lengthen, aspirate
or change the vowel sound of the primary character.
Writing the script is very systematic and there is little
room for error. This doesn’t mean that people don’t
make common mistakes. There are a lot of exceptions and interesting
rules, like putting full stops even after words which stand
on their own. Apparently few Balinese understand these rules,
unless they are academics or palm-leaf-script (lontar) writers.
Like all languages, few people truly comprehend all the grammar
rules. However, recently due to a revival and promotion of
all things Balinese (a.k.a. Ajeg Bali) a fair majority of
school children have an idea of how to read and write Balinese
and also how to confidently put sentences together. There
are even Aksara school competitions which have both a reading
and a writing component. The calligraphy is not only judged
on its beauty but also its grammatical correctness.
Writing Aksara is very therapeutic and while the script may
not have applications outside of Bali, it sure gives your
brain a good work-out! Balinese say that learning Aksara helps
deepen your understanding of the Balinese language in general,
particularly on pronunciation side of things.
A recent positive development for written Balinese is the
development of the Bali Simbar font that allows you to use
the regular computer keyboard to type Balinese. Now you can
create typewritten documents, or even email in Balinese.
Copyright@ Kulture Kid 2006
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