Balinese is an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesian island of Bali. However; Balinese script has largely been replaced by the Roman alphabet in modern times. Although it is learned in school; few people use it. It is mostly used in temples and for religious writings.

The Balinese script was derived from the Old Kawi alphabet; which ultimately derived from the Brahmi alphabet; the root of all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. The alphabet consists of 47 characters; 14 of which are vowels; and the remaining 33 are consonants. Among the 33 consonants; only 18 are commonly used; the rest are mainly used to write loanwords from Kavi and Sanskrit.