Banjarese language

Not to be confused with Banjari language.

The Banjar or Banjarese (basa Banjar; jaku Banjar, Jawi: باس بنجر‎) is an Austronesian language of the Malayic branch predominantly spoken by the Banjarese—an indigenous ethnic group native to Banjar regions— in the southeastern Kalimantan of Indonesia. The Banjarese language is the de facto lingua franca for various indigenous community especially in South Kalimantan, as well as Central Kalimantan (notably in Seruyan Regency and Sukamara Regency) and East Kalimantan in general.

Banjarese
basa Banjar jaku Banjar باس بنجر‎
A trilingual English–Indonesian–Banjar warning sign
Native to	Indonesia
Region	South Kalimantan Central Kalimantan East Kalimantan
Ethnicity	Banjarese
Native speakers	L1: 4,127,124 (2010 census)[1] L1 & L2: ~10,650,000
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayic Banjarese
Standard forms	Standard Banjarese
Dialects	Banjar Hulu[2][3] Banjar Kuala[4][5]
Writing system	Latin (predominantly) Jawi (sometimes)
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Indonesia South Kalimantan East Kalimantan
Regulated by	Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bjn
Glottolog	banj1239
Linguasphere	31-MFA-fd
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

A Banjarese speaker.

Apart from the native Banjarese in Indonesia, the Banjarese language also spoken by little Banjarese diaspora abroad (such as in Brunei, Malaysia (notably in Sabah and Perak), and Singapore); however, they tend to not use it as their primary language, and their fluency degree is questionable.

Dialects

There are at least two divisions of dialects within the Banjarese language:

1. Banjar Hulu^[2][3]
2. Banjar Kuala^[4][5]

According to Cense,^[6] the Banjar Hulu dialect are predominantly spoken by Banjarese people in the South Hulu Sungai Regency and North Hulu Sungai Regency regions. Berangas language, a Barito language that is almost extinct in South Kalimantan, also has a close relationship with Banjar Kuala dialect, where it absorbs much of the Banjarese language vocabulary, but lexically it is closer to other Barito languages, especially Bakumpai language.^[7]

Phonology

Consonants

The consonantal inventory of Banjarese language is shown below. All but [ʔ] occur at the onset of a syllable:^[8]

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	(ʔ)
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative			s			h
Lateral			l
Rhotic			r
Approximant		w		j

• [ʔ] is an allophone of /k/ at the end of a word.
• The following consonants can close a CVC syllable: /p t k m n ŋ s h r l/. Words cannot begin with consonant clusters. Within a root, an NC sequence will always be homorganic, though reduplication and a few prefixes such as sing- can produce other sequences, e.g. /ŋb, ŋp, ŋt, ŋr, ŋl, kr, /. Other medial sequences include /kt/, /kn/, /ŋn/, /nɲ/, /st/, /sn/, /hk/, /hj/, /lk/ and /rɡ/.^[2]

Vowels

Sudarmo finds five monophthongs:^[8]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	ɛ	(ə)	o
Open		a

[ə] is an allophone of /ɛ/.

Durasid finds three monophthongs and three diphthongs in Pahuluan Banjarese:^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Open		a

Regionally, /a/ has an allophone [ə] and /u/ has an allophone [ɔ]. The diphthongs are /ai/, /au/, /ui/. Loans with /e/ or /o/ are assimilated to these three vowels. E.g. kréték is realized as [karitik]. However, since most Banjarese speakers are effectively bilingual, this realization becomes rarer.

Alphabet

The standard alphabet is as follows:^[9]

Alphabet
a	b	c	d	é	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	ny	ng	o	p	r	s	t	u	w	y
Phonetic value
a	b	tʃ	d	ɛ	ɡ	h	i	dʒ	k	l	m	n	ɲ	ŋ	o	p	r	s	t	u	w	j

See also

• Indonesia portal

• Banjar people
• Banjarese architecture
• Banjarmasin
• South Kalimantan
• Paradisec