Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

This cat is from Denpasar, Bali...a young Balinese friend of mine hipped me to him:




Pretty amazing...

Is he one of the Wayan Brothers ?

Cool....

No, Mitch, he's not from that family. For one thing, his 'first' name is pronounced 'wye-yahn', not 'way'-yun'. The letter 'I' that precedes it is a male honorific, like 'mister', and is pronounced like an english long 'e'. Since the Balinese were taught the western alphabet by the Dutch, their long 'e' sound was assigned the letter 'i', which is prounounced 'eee' by every European language except English. Here's a pretty good explanation of the Balinese naming system I found on Nationmaster.com:

"The Balinese name is a naming system used by the Balinese people of Bali and neighboring Lombok, Indonesia. Regardless of being male or female, each person receives one of four names based on birth order. Though there are significant variations in the four names of Balinese people, mostly due to caste membership, there are precisely four names in Balinese culture that are repeated endlessly. The firstborn is "Wayan" (or Yan, for short), second is "Made," third is "Nyoman" (Man for short), and fourth is "Ketut" (often elided to Tut). (The vowels are pronounced vowels similarly as in Spanish or Italian). Balinese names are rendered into Roman script by the Romanization of the Indonesian language. The spelling to pronunciation relationship is said to be "perfect" because the spelling of words was revised significantly in the 70's and/or 80's (and even more recently). The phrase 'birth order' is defined as a person's rank by age among his or her siblings.

The first born is Wayan, and if there is a fifth child, he/she is often called Wayan Balik (or Wayan "again"). Of course, Balinese children/people are given other names, including a new "name" after death. However, it is important to realize that by and large, everyone does use these birth order names to refer to each other, and to call each other constantly throughout the day. "Given" names may be chosen due to, for example, the influence of popular culture or politics. Like some other Indonesian cultures, Balinese do not use family names."

One of the many remarkable things in Balinese life is the fact that, in a crowded place like the village market or at a temple ceremony, someone can call out 'Wayan' at random and only the particular person they're calling will react and respond, despite there being a multitude of Wayans in the crowd. Don't ask me how they're able to do this.