If you’ve learnt Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) and
you’ve either travelled around Indonesia or spoken to
Indonesians from different islands, you would’ve noticed
that people speak with a particular accent. Foreigners who
live in Bali for long enough are not immune either. In the
space of a couple of years they start speaking Indonesian
in a Balinese fashion.
One of the most obvious is the use of inflection in sentences.
You’ll hear many Balinese put emphasis on the ends of
words and sentences.
For example: “Pak Madé mau ke maná?”
As opposed to ‘standard Indonesian pronounciation: “Pak
Made mau ke mána?”
But it’s not just in the inflection that can hear the
‘Balinesia’; it’s also in the word order.
Often Balinese will change the word order, as in:
“Kasi saya lagi satu.” (lit. Give me more one);
compared with the standard word order: “Kasi saya satu
lagi.” (lit. Give me one more) The meaning is the same
but the ‘satu’ and ‘lagi’ are switched.
Balinese do this because in the vernacular they would say,
“Baang icang buin abesik.”
Other ‘Balinesiaisms’ include the use of tags
at the ends of their sentences. You may have heard (or use)
these:
“Kesana na’e!”
“Itu dah!” (That’s it! ‘dah’
is an abbreviation of ‘sudah’ which is a transliteration
of the Balinese word ‘suba/ba’)
“Aku ngapain men?” (What should I do?). This is
a transliteration of the Balinese: “Icang ngudiang men?”
‘Men’ can be translated as ‘terus’
in Indonesian.
A particularly characteristic feature of Balinesia is the
use of the double negative, a bit how blacks in America use
“I ain’t got no time for that.” For emphasis
the Balinese often say things like: “Gak ada gak.”
(There aren’t any.) The use of the double negative comes
from the Balinese which has exactly the same word order: “Sing
ada, sing.”
Next issue we’ll look at how English words are used
in Balinese, but often in a slightly peculiar way!
Copyright@ Kulture Kid 2007
You can read all past articles of Kulture Kid at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz
