Javanese language
Javanese (/dʒɑːvəˈniːz/);[2] Basa Jawa; Aksara Jawa: ꦧꦱꦗꦮ; Pegon: باساجاوا; Javanese pronunciation: [bɔsɔ d͡ʒɔwɔ]) 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, Caribbean, Sri Lanka, and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries.
| Javanese | |
|---|---|
| Basa Jawa ꦧꦱꦗꦮ باسا جاوا | |
 Basa (language) written in the Javanese script | |
| Pronunciation | [bɔsɔ d͡ʒɔwɔ] |
| Native to | Java (Indonesia) |
| Ethnicity | |
Native speakers | 82 million (2007)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
Early forms | Old Javanese
|
Standard forms | Kawi
(Early standard form) Surakartan Javanese
(Modern standard form) |
| Dialects | Javanese dialects |
| Latin script Javanese script Pegon alphabet | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Special Region of Yogyakarta |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | jv |
| ISO 639-2 | jav |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:jav – Javanesejvn – Caribbean Javanesejas – New Caledonian Javaneseosi – Osingtes – Tenggeresekaw – 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
change
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.[3]
| 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[4] | 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 |
References
change- ↑ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2007" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2007), in Nationalencyklopedin
- ↑ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
- ↑ The data is taken from the census of 1980 as provided by James J. Fox and Peter Gardiner and published by S.A. Wurm and Shiro Hattori, eds. 1983. Language Atlas of the Pacific Area, Part II. (Insular South-east Asia). Canberra
- ↑ In 1980 this included the now separate Banten province
Other websites
change
- 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
