Three Virtues of the Balinese Language that We Should Be Proud of

Dean of the Faculty of Languages ??and Arts, Prof. Dr. I Made Sutama, M.Pd., opened the 2021 Balinese Language Month Celebration which was held by the Regional Indonesian Language and Literature Department Student Association. This celebration aims to support the Bali Provincial Government’s program to make Balinese a regional language known internationally.

The 2021 Balinese Language Month celebration will take place online (on the network). Attended by Deputy Dean III, Dr. I Nyoman Sila, M. Hum. Coordinator of Indonesian Language and Literature Education Study Program, I Made Astika, S.Pd., M.A., Coordinator of Balinese Language Education Study Program, Ida Bagus Rai, SS, M.Pd., Department level student advisor, I Kadek Wirahyuni, SPd., M.Pd. ., lecturers in the Department of Indonesian and Regional Language and Literature.

In his speech, Made Sutama explained three things that are the priority of this language. First, Balinese is capable and has been proven as a literary language. This is proven by the existence of various Balinese literary relics, both written in thousands of sacred lontar literature and oral-literary compositions.

Various aspects of Balinese literary culture in various forms, such as plays, gaguritan, kidung, proverbs, and sayings use Balinese language and script. All of this is a form of Balinese as a literary language, as explained by the Dean of FBS.

 “The second advantage that the Balinese language has is remembering that this language has characters,” he explained.

Prof. Dr. I Made Sutama, M.Pd., added that not all regional languages ??of the Indonesian archipelago have the script. Among those few, Balinese is included. On this basis, a sense of pride in the Balinese language must also be raised, of course by studying the script as practiced on this campus under the guidance of lecturers who have developed Balinese language education to prepare Balinese language teachers in the future.

The third priority of the Balinese language is that it records or documents all of Bali’s cultural treasures. One of the world’s concerns if the Balinese language becomes extinct is the loss of all cultural documentation. This is a strong reason why the Bali government has made every effort to preserve the Balinese language and script, especially since the leadership of the Governor of Bali, Wayan Koster.

He emphasized that students and campuses have a moral responsibility to preserve the Balinese language and script. For example, this can be seen in the support of the Faculty of Languages ??and Arts for the 2021 Bali Language Month celebration activities.