Banjarese language

Banjarese
Banjar
Basa Banjar, Jaku Banjar
باس بنجر
A trilingual English–Indonesian–Banjar warning sign
Pronunciation[basa bandʒar], [dʒaku bandʒar]
Native toIndonesia
RegionKalimantan

Sumatra

Diaspora:
Malaysia (notably in Perak, Selangor, Kedah and Johor), Singapore and Brunei Darussalam
EthnicityBanjarese
Native speakers
L1: 4,127,124 (2010 census)
L1 & L2: ~10,650,000
Standard forms
Standard Banjarese
Dialects
  • Banjar Hulu
  • Banjar Kuala
  • Banjar Pesisir
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byBadan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa (in Indonesia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3bjn
Glottologbanj1239
Linguasphere31-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

Banjarese (/ˈbændʒəˌriːz/ BAN-juh-reez; Basa Banjar, Jaku Banjar, Jawi script: باس بنجر, IPA: [basa bandʒar], [dʒaku bandʒar]) or simply Banjar, 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 communities, especially in South Kalimantan, as well as Central Kalimantan (notably in Seruyan Regency and Sukamara Regency) and East Kalimantan in general.

Banjarese also has a significant population in other provinces of Indonesia, especially in Sumatra (Riau and North Sumatra), and some regencies of Riau have a Banjarese-majority population, such as Indragiri Hilir Regency.

Apart from the native Banjarese in Indonesia, the Banjarese language also spoken by a small Banjarese diaspora abroad, notably in the Malaysian states of Perak, Selangor, Kedah and Johor, with significant minorities in Sabah, Brunei Darussalam and Singapore; however, they tend to not use it as their primary language, and their degree of fluency is questionable.

Dialects

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

  1. Banjar Hulu
  2. Banjar Kuala

According to Cense, 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.

Phonology

Consonants

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

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

Vowels

Sudarmo finds five monophthongs:

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:

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:

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

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Banjarese:

Sabarataan urang ngitu diranakakan bibas lagi sama rata di dalam harga diri wan hak-haknya. Sabarataan dibarii akal wan hati nurani, maka handaknya bekelakuan gasan sesama jua di dalam jiwa kasaraban.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kewarganegaraan, Suku Bangsa, Agama, dan Bahasa Sehari-hari Penduduk Indonesia (Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2010) [Citizenship, Ethnicity, Religion, and Languages of the Indonesian Population (Results of the 2010 Population Census)] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Central Bureau of National Statistics of the Republic of Indonesia, 2010
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bahasa Banjar Hulu [Pahuluan Banjar Language] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Language Development Center of the Republic of Indonesia. 1978.
  3. 1 2 Kamus Bahasa Banjar Dialek Hulu-Indonesia [Pahuluan Banjarese Dictionary to Indonesian] (in Indonesian). Banjarmasin: Banjarmasin Linguistic Center, Department of National Education of the Republic of Indonesia. 2008. ISBN 978-979-685-776-0.
  4. 1 2 Struktur Bahasa Banjar Kuala [Language Structure of Kuala Banjarese] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Language Development Center of the Republic of Indonesia. 1981.
  5. 1 2 Morfo Sintaksis Bahasa Banjar Kuala [Syntactic Morphology of Kuala Banjarese] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Language Development Center of the Republic of Indonesia. 1986.
  6. ↑ "Etnik Banjar Di Perak" (in Malay). The Malaya Post. 7 December 2020.
  7. ↑ A.A.Cee - E.M. Uhienbeck, Critical Survey of Studies on the Language of Borneo, 'S-Gravenhage-Martinus Nijhoff. 1958, hal. 9.
  8. ↑ Hapip, Abdul D. (1984). Struktur Bahasa Barangas (in Indonesian). Jakarta, Indonesia: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
  9. 1 2 Sudarmo, Sudarmo (2016). Fonotaktik Bahasa Banjar. Jurnal Bahasa Sastra Dan Pembelajarannya 6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ Hapip, Abdul Jebar (2006). Kamus Banjar Indonesia, Cetakan V.
  11. ↑ "Parnyataan Umum tantang Hak-Hak Asasi Manusia" (PDF). Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (in Banjar). Retrieved 12 March 2026.

Bibliography