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Terms, Names, and Spelling Many variations in pronunciation and spelling of Balinese terms can be found in Bali. I have followed the official dictionary, Kamus Bali-Indonesia, for all spelling. All italicized terms are Balinese unless otherwise indicated as Indonesian or Dutch. Proper nouns are not italicized. For instance, names of gods, names of altars, and names of people according to their occupation (e.g, the Pamangku—a particular priest of a certain temple) are not italicized. The term for a ritual (e.g., odalan) is italicized but the name of a ritual specific to a place is not (e.g., the Odalan of Batuan). Balinese words are built around “roots” with affixes. I try to give both the word with its affix and its root, as in mecaru and caru. The nasalized prefixes me- or nge- or n- turn a “passive” word into “active” (e.g., caru, “an offering that is given to the demons,” macaru, “to give an offering to the demons”). Adding the prefix ke- and the suffix -an can convert a concrete term into an abstraction (e.g., sakti, “spiritual power in the concrete,” kasaktian, “abstract spiritual power”). Balinese words have no plurals (except for doubling when one wants to stress plurality). I usually give them in the singular, relying on context to show that they are plural. An important meaning-bearing linguistic form in Balinese is the use of social register. An intricate vocabulary for indicating respect or familiarity is employed in nearly every sentence uttered. Such terms carry meanings not only concerning nuances of status of the persons to whom one is speaking, but also, importantly, the relative status of persons of whom one speaks. Honorific titles of people and of gods are required in everyday speech and writing, such as “Ida Bagus” for Brahmana men and “Ida Betara” and “Ida Sanghyang” for gods. I follow Balinese usage here, giving the entire title out of respect for the personages referred to, despite the fact that it adds difficulty for some readers. For rhetorical simplicity I use terms such as “gods,” “deities,” and “demons” to cover the various and changeable spiritual beings that the Balinese engage themselves with, even though many have mixed and fluid characteristics . Similarly, for convenience, sometimes I use the pronoun “he” for the gods, although, usually, there is no special reason for doing so since their gender is not marked linguistically. None of them is an “it,” and most of them are thought of as male, at least some of the time. ...

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