Javanese language

The Javanese language (Basa Jawa, Hanacaraka: ꦧꦱꦗꦮ, Pegon: باسا جاوا) is a Austronesian language. It is spoken mostly on Java, in Indonesia.

Javanese
ꦧꦱꦗꦮ Basa Jawa
Basa (language) written in the Javanese script
Pronunciation	[bɔsɔ dʒɔwɔ]
Native to	Java (Indonesia)
Ethnicity	Javanese (Mataram, Osing, Tenggerese, Boyanese, Samin, Cirebonese, Banyumasan, Javanese Surinamese, etc)
Native speakers	94 million (2013)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Nuclear MP Sunda–Sulawesi Old Javanese Kawi Javanese
Early forms	Old Javanese Classical Javanese Middle Javanese
Standard forms	Kawi (Early standard form) Surakartan Javanese (Modern standard form)
Dialects	Javanese dialects
Writing system	Latin script Javanese script Pegon alphabet
Official status
Recognised minority language in	West Java Banten Template:Country data Jakarta Malaysia Suriname Netherlands New Caledonia
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
• Javanese in Suriname strive to preserve origins Jakarta Post article