BASA Balinese Language Preservation (aka BASAbali)

On Bali, an island of 3.3 million people, only 1/3 can speak Balinese.  And, that number is dropping.

Balinese, the native language of Bali, is a language distinct from the national language of Indonesia.  Like all languages, Balinese contains the wisdom of the Balinese culture and history and offers to the world a distinct way of making sense of it.  Its complexity and eloquence has been compared to 13th Yiddish, only more intricate.

But is increasingly becoming replaced by Indonesian and English.  A recent piece in The Economist (http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/11/balinese?fsrc=rss) explains that for decades, Balinese has been coming into contact and conflict with modernity and nationalism. Balinese's intricate register system doesn't always fit with the rise of social mobility, globalization puts a premium on Indonesian and English, there has been a successful push toward communicating in the national language of Indonesian, which was meant to complement but in many cases has replaced Balinese, and imported (aka "loan") words like "googling" and "friending" are becoming increasingly commonplace.  Even just the medium of the internet, makes speaking Balinese, which requires that the speaker place himself relative to the age and caste of the listener and the formality and context of the situation -- very difficult. 

At the same time, there is a resurgence in revitalizing Balinese.  20-30 year olds in particular are seeing that Balinese is at a crossroads: it can be reinvigorated or it can go the way of thousands of other minority languages.  UNESCO estimates that one language is lost from the earth every two weeks.  Balinese script is already endangered.  This initiative, which brings together linguists, anthropologists, and software engineers to create the first multi-media materials for Balinese seeks to prevent spoken Balinese from falling into the same fate.

The materials will include 30 videos taken by Balinese videographers of typical interactions, some involving foreigners, some just between locals.  Each video will contain a set of exercises along with cultural and grammatical notes which aim to teach the language in the broader Balinese context.   The videos will offer instruction for those new to Balinese as well as for those with exposure but in want of a fuller understanding.  Culture references will include sections on the history, art, dance, music and ritual of Bali.  Transparent Language has generously agreed to donate their software to us and is permitting us to distribute the materials online or as a standalone DVD, free of charge, to any organization interested in them.

Although the materials will be primarily in Latin letters, we will include a section to introduce each character of Balinese script and to explain how the Balinese script system works.

We are indebted to the many people who have already come together to donate their time to this effort, starting with Prof. John Wolff of Cornell University who first introduced many of us to dialogue-based learning.   DwiJendra University in DenPasar has been a wonderful partner, providing linguistic expertise from its professors and students along with Pak Windhu Sancaya of Udayana University.  The videography team of Yoga and Ayu and the team at VisualBali.com are world class, beautifully capturing the aesthetics of Bali while fostering interesting dialogues.  The folks of Bale Banjar Bali, in Bali and beyond, have been wonderfully generous with their time as have the folks at Bali Spirit and from around the world with many areas of  expertise (please see http://basabali.org/about/semeton-basabali/).

These materials have encouraged a number of ancillary projects.  We are working with Google to translate the Google Home Page into Balinese and with a number of font experts to create a Balinese unicode font.  We're exploring creating an online dictionary -- the first of its type -- which will offer multiple levels of Balinese along with translations in English and Indonesian.  And, we are happy to report that since we started this project, several Balinese only Facebook groups have emerged, the first of their kind.

We have been operating on a shoe string, with funds reserved for video production and linguistic assistance.  To date we've shot 6 out of the 30 videos and have funds for about 9 more with supporting materials.  We're looking to raise the balance with your support.