Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa languages

The Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Indonesia in the western Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali and West Nusa Tenggara). The three languages are Balinese on Bali, Sasak on Lombok, and Sumbawa on western Sumbawa.^[1]

The Malayo Sumbawa languages
(Bali-Sasak-Sumbawa languages are circled in green)

Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa
Geographic distribution	Indonesia (Bali and West Nusa Tenggara)
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan (?) Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa
Proto-language	Proto-Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa
Language codes
Glottolog	bali1277
Distribution of Bali-Sasak-Sumbawa languages: Balinese (blue), Sasak (red), and Sumbawa (orange).

• Balinese
• Sasak–Sumbawa
  • Sasak
  • Sumbawa

These languages have similarities with Javanese, which several classifications have taken as evidence of a relationship between them. However, the similarities are with the "high" registers (formal language/royal speech) of Balinese and Sasak; when the "low" registers (commoner speech) are considered, the connection appears instead to be with Madurese and Malay. (See Malayo-Sumbawan languages.)

The position of the Bali–Sasak–Sumbawa languages within the Malayo-Polynesian languages is unclear. Adelaar (2005) assigned them to a larger "Malayo-Sumbawan" subgroup, ^[2] but this proposal remains controversial.^[3][4]

Languages

Language	Native name	Historical script	Modern script	Number of speakers (in millions)	Native region
Balinese	Basa Bali ᬩᬲᬩᬮᬶ	Balinese script	Latin script	3.3 (2000)	Bali, Lombok, Java
Sasak	Base Sasak ᬪᬵᬲᬵᬲᬓ᭄ᬱᬓ᭄	Balinese script	Latin script	2.7 (2010)	Lombok
Sumbawa	ᨈᨘ ᨔᨆᨓ Basa Samawa	Lontara script	Latin script	0.3 (1989)	Sumbawa

References

1. Adelaar, K. Alexander (2005). "The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: a historical perspective". In Adelaar, K. Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus (eds.). The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar. London: Routledge. pp. 1–42.
2. Adelaar, Alexander (2005). "Malayo-Sumbawan". Oceanic Linguistics. 44 (2): 357–388. JSTOR 3623345.
3. Blust, Robert (2010). "The Greater North Borneo Hypothesis". Oceanic Linguistics. 49 (1): 44–118. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0060. JSTOR 40783586.
4. Smith, Alexander D. (December 2017). "The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem". Oceanic Linguistics. 56 (2). University of Hawai'i Press: 435–490. doi:10.1353/ol.2017.0021.