Nusa Penida Balinese

Nusa Penida Balinese
ᬩᬲᬦᬸᬲ
basa nosa
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Bali (Nusa Penida)
Ethnicity	Balinese (Nak Nusé [id])
Native speakers	59,900 (2022 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan (?) Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa Balinese Nusa Penida Balinese
Writing system	Latin script Balinese script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	nusa1244
Areas in Klungkung Regency where Nusa Penida Balinese is a majority   Areas in Klungkung Regency where Nusa Penida Balinese is a minority
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This article contains Balinese alphabet. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Balinese characters.

The Nusa Penida Balinese (referred to by its speakers as basa Nosa) is a dialect of the Balinese language spoken by the Nak Nusé people, a sub-group of the Balinese people inhabiting Nusa Penida, an island located to the south of Bali which is administratively part of Klungkung Regency. This dialect is considered the most unique and distinct among Balinese dialects, as it is mutually unintelligible with standard Balinese and other Balinese dialects spoken in mainland Bali, both orally and in written form. Due to its significant differences from other Balinese dialects, and the extensive use of vocabulary not found in the Balinese dictionary, it is exceedingly difficult for mainland Balinese individuals to communicate fluently and directly with the Nusa Penida community.^[2]

Linguistically, the Nusa Penida Balinese is considered a dialect of Balinese, which is a Malayo-Polynesian language within the Bali-Sasak-Sumbawa branch of the Austronesian language family. This dialect is regarded as being closely related to the Bali Aga dialect, which is a derivative of Old Balinese.^[3]

This dialect is often classified as a sub-dialect of another variant within the Balinese language, namely the Bali Aga language. This classification arises because the Nusa Penida dialect shares linguistic features with the Aga dialect, which Jendra et al. (1997) described as follows:

• The distribution of the phoneme /h/ at the beginning and middle of words;
• The presence of the endings /-ñə/ and /-cə/, which are allophonic morphemes of the ending /-ə/;
• The speakers' intonation tends to have a faster tempo and stronger stress;
• Vocabulary in the Nusa Penida dialect resembles that of the Aga dialect and its other sub-dialects.

However, there is a notable difference between the two dialects, namely the loss or reduction of the phoneme /a/ at the end of words.^[2]

Currently, the Nusa Penida dialect is widely used only in Nusa Penida in Klungkung Regency. However, it is important to note that not all communities in Nusa Penida use the Nusa Penida dialect. There are several groups of people who communicate using different dialects. On the islands of Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan, which are located next to Nusa Penida, as well as in a small part of Nusa Penida close to these islands, there is a distinct dialect that is quite different from the Nusa Penida dialect. One of the most striking differences is in words like eda (you) and kola (I) in the Nusa Penida dialect. Speakers of the Nusa Lembongan dialect use words like cai or ci (you) and cang (I). Another example is əndək (Nusa Penida dialect) and tusing (Nusa Lembongan dialect), geleng-cenik, hangken-kenken, and so on.^[2] Only 13 out of 16 villages in Nusa Penida use the Nusa Penida dialect. The remaining villages either speak the Nusa Lembongan dialect or a dialect resembling mainland Klungkung Balinese.^[2]

The Nusa Penida dialect is also used outside Nusa Penida, mainly due to the migration of its speakers following the eruption of Mount Agung in 1963. Significant speakers relocated to southern Sumatra, particularly to Bandar Lampung, Palembang, Mesuji, and East Lampung.

There is a hypothesis that the existence of the dialect is linked to the invasion of Majapahit led by Gajah Mada against the Kingdom of Bali. After his inauguration ceremony as Patih Amangkubhumi Majapahit (great king) of Majapahit in 1336 CE (1258 Saka), Gajah Mada and his troops successfully conquered the Kingdom of Bali, including Nusa Penida, which was referred to as Gurun in the Palapa Oath by Gajah Mada. This conquest is believed to have influenced the linguistic conditions on both Bali Island and Nusa Penida.^[2]

According to Zoetmulder, Majapahit warriors who proudly identified themselves as Javanese nobility did not want to return to Majapahit. Therefore, Laksana (1977) suspects that some of the Majapahit warriors did not return to Java. They felt comfortable staying on Nusa Penida. It is possible that Majapahit warriors who were not nobility, who still retained their Old Javanese language, marked by the phoneme /h/ at the beginning of words in some of their vocabulary, as documented in Zoetmulder's Old Javanese–Indonesian Dictionary (2006) and Wojowasito's Kawi–Indonesian Dictionary (1997), have influenced the language on Nusa Penida.^[2]

Below is a comparison of several vocabulary words in the Nusa Penida dialect and standard Balinese:

In standard Balinese, the initial letter [u] is commonly used, whereas in the Nusa Penida dialect, [u] is replaced and pronounced as [o]. Additionally, the letters [o] and [h] are more frequently used at the beginning of words, such as in homah, honya, hoba, hobat, and poles.

• Nusa Penida