Registers Even though most basic vocabulary in Balinese and Indonesian originates from Austronesian and
Sanskrit, many cognates sound quite different between languages. Balinese has three different
registers: low (), middle (), and high (), the uses of which depend on the relationship and status of those speaking and those being spoken about, and most of Balinese speakers use the low register also known as
Kapara Balinese or
Common Balinese language (from
Kepara which literally means 'commonplace')
Numerals below Balinese has a decimal numeral system, but this is complicated by numerous words for intermediate quantities such as 45, 175, and 1600.
Basic numerals The numerals 1–10 have basic, combining, and independent forms, many of which are formed through
reduplication. The combining forms are used to form higher numbers. In some cases there is more than one word for a numeral, reflecting the Balinese
register system;
halus (high-register) forms are listed in italics. In the standard Balinese the final orthographic
-a is a schwa [ə].
Teens, tweens, and tens Like English, Balinese has compound forms for the teens and tens; however, it also has a series of compound 'tweens', 21–29. The teens are based on a root
*-welas, the tweens on
-likur, and the tens are formed by the combining forms above. Hyphens are not used in the orthography, but have been added to the table below to clarify their derivation. The high-register combining forms
kalih- 2 and
tigang- 3 are used with
-likur, -dasa, and higher numerals (below), but not for the teens. The teens are from Javanese, where the
-olas forms are regular, apart from
pele-kutus 18, which is
suppletive.
Sa-laé 25 (one thread [of 25
Chinese coins]), and
se-ket 50 (one tie [of two threads of coins]) are also suppletive, and cognate with Javanese
səlawé 25 and
səkət 50. There are additional numerals
pasasur ~ sasur 35 and
se-timahan ~ se-timan 45 (one opium packet [costing 45 coins]), and a compound
telung-benang (three threads [of coins]) for 75. • A less productive combining form of
a- 1 is
sa-, as can be seen in many of the numbers below. It,
ulung-, and
sangang- are from
Javanese.
Tiga 3 is from Sanskrit
trika.
Dasa 10 is from Sanskrit
daśa.
Higher numbers The unit combining forms are combined with
atus 100,
atak 200,
amas 400,
tali 1000,
laksa 10,000,
keti 100,000, and
yuta 1,000,000 as they do with
dasa 10:
Atak is a 'bundle' (of 200 coins) and
amas is 'gold' (a gold coin being worth 400 copper coins). In addition, there is
karobelah 150,
lebak 175, and
sepa (one
pa?) for 1600. At least
karobelah has a cognate in Javanese,
ro-bəlah, where
ro- is the short form for two (as in
rolas 12).
Pronouns Kinship terms can be used as pronouns. If these pronouns are used as
agents, they refer to either the speaker or the listener, depending on context. Though first and second person pronouns need no antecedent to be understood, third person pronouns do.
Time Instead of grammatical tense, Balinese uses temporal adverbs to talk about time. For present tense, the adverb
jani ("now") can be either definite or indefinite depending on context. Its more emphatic form,
jani san ("right now"), is definite. The indefinite word
ajanian ("up to now") refers to any time before or during the utterance. The word
buin/bin ("again") is obligatory for
puan and
telun to clarify that they are not being used for their past tense meanings.
Mani, manian, and
puan can all be prefixed with
mani to refer to the future. == Sample text ==