The Banjar or Banjarese (; ) is an Austronesian language predominantly spoken by the Banjarese—an indigenous ethnic group native to Banjar regions— in the southeastern Kalimantan of Indonesia. The Banjarese language is the 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.
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 three divisions of dialects within the Banjarese language: Banjar Hulu 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.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonantal inventory of Banjarese language is shown below. All but occur at the onset of a syllable:
is an allophone of at the end of a word.
The following consonants can close a CVC syllable: . 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. . Other medial sequences include and .
Vowels
Sudarmo finds five monophthongs:
is an allophone of .
Durasid finds three monophthongs and three diphthongs in Pahuluan Banjarese:
Regionally, has an allophone and has an allophone . The diphthongs are . Loans with /e/ or /o/ are assimilated to these three vowels. E.g. is realized as . However, since most Banjarese speakers are effectively bilingual, this realization becomes rarer.
Alphabet
The standard alphabet is as follows:
Sample text
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The following texts are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Banjarese language along with the original declaration in English.
Simple conversation
Here are examples of simple conversation in Banjarese language:
Expression
Here are examples of expressions in Banjarese language: