Balinese

About Balinese

Balinese is the language of the Indonesian island of Bali, spoken by about 3.3 million people there and on nearby Lombok and Java. Almost all speakers also speak Indonesian, the national language, which is used in schools and the media.

Balinese has speech levels that change with who you speak to. A refined level, basa alus, is used with elders, priests and people of higher status, and an ordinary level with friends and family. It has its own traditional script, aksara Bali, seen on temples and street signs, but everyday writing uses Latin letters. See also Indonesian.

FamilyAustronesian, Malayo-Polynesian
Native speakersabout 3.3 million (2000)
Where spokenIndonesia (Bali, Lombok, Java)
ScriptBalinese script, Latin alphabet
Codeban (ISO 639-3)

Speaker number: Ethnologue (2000), via Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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