Javanese language

Javanese language (Javanese: ꦧꦱꦗꦮ, romanized: Basa Jawa; Pegon: باسا جاوا) is the native language of Javanese people which originated from the island of Java. Being the most populous island in the world, a lot of community in Java island could understand the Javanese language naturally despite not having a Javanese-ethnic identity. The Javanese language is recognized as one of the regional languages (a.k.a. the native or indigenous languages) in Indonesia with the largest speakers concentrated in the provinces of Yogyakarta, Central Java, and East Java. The Javanese language also recognized as one of the minority languages in some countries worldwide, mainly in Suriname, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Hong Kong, Australia, Carribean, Sri Lanka, and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.

Javanese
Javanese: ꦧꦱꦗꦮ, romanized: Basa Jawa, lit. 'Javanese language'
Basa (language) written in the Javanese script
Pronunciation	[bɔsɔ dʒɔwɔ]
Native to	Java (Indonesia)
Ethnicity	Javanese
Native speakers	94 million (2013)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Javanese
Early forms	Proto Javanese Old Javanese / Ancient Javanese Classical Javanese Middle Javanese
Standard forms	Kawi (Early standard form) Surakartan Javanese (Modern standard form)
Dialects	Javanese dialects Central Javanese — Bagelen — Banyumasan — Blora — Eastern North-Coast Javanese — Kedu — Madiunan — Mataraman — Semarang — Solo Pesisir Lor — Pekalongan — Pemalang — Tegal Osing Tengger/Tenggerese (partly) East Javanese — Jombang Arekan — Malang-Pasuruan — Surabaya West Javanese — Banten — Cirebon Javanese — Indramayu South American Javanese — Javanese Surinamese — Javanese Carribean Oceanic Javanese — Javanese New Caledonian
Writing system	Latin script Javanese script Pegon
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Singapore Malaysia Suriname Netherlands New Caledonia Hong Kong Australia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	jv
ISO 639-2	jav
ISO 639-3	Variously: jav – Javanese jvn – Caribbean Javanese jas – New Caledonian Javanese osi – Osing tes – Tenggerese kaw – Kawi
Glottolog	java1253
Linguasphere	31-MFM-a
Dark green: areas where Javanese is the majority language. Light green: where it is a minority language.

Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers

Javanese is spoken throughout Indonesia, neighboring Southeast Asian countries, the Netherlands, Suriname, New Caledonia and other countries. However, the greatest concentration of speakers is in the six provinces of Java itself, and in the neighboring Sumatran province of Lampung.

Below, a table with the number of native speakers in 1980 is provided.

	Indonesian province	% of the population	Javanese speakers (1980)
1.	Aceh province	6.7%	175,000
2.	North Sumatra	21.0%	1,757,000
3.	West Sumatra	1.0%	56,000
4.	Jambi	17.0%	245,000
5.	South Sumatra	12.4%	573,000
6.	Bengkulu	15.4%	118,000
7.	Lampung	62.4%	2,886,000
8.	Riau	8.5%	184,000
9.	Jakarta	3.6%	236,000
10.	West Java	13.3%	3,652,000
11.	Central Java	96.9%	24,579,000
12.	Yogyakarta	97.6%	2,683,000
13.	East Java	74.5%	21,720,000
14.	Bali	1.1%	28,000
15.	West Kalimantan	1.7%	41,000
16.	Central Kalimantan	4.0%	38,000
17.	South Kalimantan	4.7%	97,000
18.	East Kalimantan	10.1%	123,000
19.	North Sulawesi	1.0%	20,000
20.	Central Sulawesi	2.9%	37,000
21.	Southeast Sulawesi	3.6%	34,000
22.	Maluku	1.1%	16,000

Other websites

• Javanese Writing System
• Ethnologue report on Javanese Archived 2008-04-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Javanese in Suriname strive to preserve origins Jakarta Post article