When
two strange Balinese meet, as for instance on the they call each
other as djero, a safe, polite way of addressing someone whose title
is unknown. Since there are no outward signs of caste, the appropriate
titles cannot be used and a words for " you " (cai, nyai,
nani) are extremely familiar, derogatory. Strangers talk in the
middle language, a compro between the daily speech and the polite
tongue. Should, how ever, one be of low caste and the other a nobleman,
it would be wrong for them to continue talking in this manner, and
one of the two, probably the high-caste man, will ask the other:
" Antuh
lingge? Where is your place (caste) ? " which is answered by
the other man's stating his caste. Then the usual system is adopted;
the low man speaks the high tongue and the aristocrat answers in
the common language.
When
I started to study Balinese I found it disturbing to hear the
people around the house talking in the daily language and then
suddenly shifting to high to address Gusti, our landlord prince,
who answered them in the common language. The high and low tongues
are not two dialects or even variations of the same languages,
but two distinct, unrelated languages with separate roots, different
words, and extremely dissimilar character. It was always incongruous
to hear an educated nobleman talking the harsh, guttural low tongue,
while an ordinary peasant had to address him in the refined high
Balinese.
The
low language is the everyday tongue spoken by equals at home,
at work, and at the market. It is undoubtedly the native language
of the island and belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian dialects, the
aboriginal languages of the archipelago. The high language is
similar to Javanese and is of Sanskrit-Javanese origin. It is
flowery, and rich in shades of meaning; I have been told that
to speak it well, one should know about ten different words to
express the same idea. Few Balinese can speak the high language
well, and the ordinary peasant generally ignores it, except perhaps
for standard expression to address a superior. The peasant learned
to listen only when he became a vassal of the Hindu Javanese feudal
lords, who had to learn the language of the island, but they demanded
to be addressed in their own, high tongue by the unworthy natives.
The natural politeness of the Balinese perhaps gave birth to the
middle language, used when in doubt of a man's caste.
It
is an important rule that one may not use high terms when speaking
about oneself; it would be poor taste to call one's head by the
elegant term prabu, instead of the common word sirah, or to refer
to one's feet as Cokor instead of batis. It would be a dreadful
insult to speak of someone's head as tandas, meaning the head
of animals.
The type of language used in conversation is prescribed by one
of the strict rules of caste etiquette, and the use of the wrong
from is a serious offence. A prince has to be addressed as "highness"
(Ratu'or Agun ) but he and the people of his caste talk to everybody
in the low language, except perhaps to their parents, elder brothers,
and members of the priestly caste, the Brahmana Polite people
(not all high-born people are considered polite) are supposed
to address old people in the high language.
There
is still a fourth language, the Kawi, used on ritual occasions,
in poetry and classic literature. It is archaic
javanese in which nine out of ten words are Sanskrit; but the
knowledge of Kawi rests almost entirely with the priests and scholarly
Balinese.
The
language problem of Bali has been further complicated by the addition
of Malay, now officially the language of the Dutch East Indies.
It is taught in the schools and is spreading rapidly among the
Balinese youth because it is considerably simpler than the difficult
Balinese and is free of the caste regulations. Thus a modern Balinese
scholar would require five languages for social and cultural intercourse:
the high, middle; low Balinese, plus Kawi and Malay. Such a linguist
is not rare, today in Bali.