The Balinese alphabet (Balinese: Aksara Bali) is 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 The use of the Balinese script has mostly been replaced by the Latin script. Although it is learned in school, few people use it. It is mostly used in temples and for religious writings.
The Balinese script was derived from the Old Kawi script, which ultimately derived from the Brāhmī script, the root of all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. The abugida consists of 47 characters, 14 of which are vowels (aksara suara), and the remaining 33 are consonants (aksara wianjana).
| Brāhmī |
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| The Brahmic script and its descendants |
Northern Brahmic
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Southern Brahmic
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Read more about Balinese Alphabet: Diacritics, Appended Letters, Numerals, Other Symbols, Similarities With The Javanese Script, Unicode, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the word alphabet:
“I believe the alphabet is no longer considered an essential piece of equipment for traveling through life. In my day it was the keystone to knowledge. You learned the alphabet as you learned to count to ten, as you learned “Now I lay me” and the Lord’s Prayer and your father’s and mother’s name and address and telephone number, all in case you were lost.”
—Eudora Welty (b. 1909)