Javanese language

Javanese (/dʒɑːvəˈniːz/); 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, Carribean, 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	Javanese Banyumasan Cirebonese Osing Tenggerese
Native speakers	82 million  (2007)ne2007
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Javanese
Early forms:	Old Javanese Middle Javanese 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
Official language in	Special Region of Yogyakarta
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
Linguasphere	31-MFM-a
Dark green: areas where Javanese is the majority language. Light green: where it is a minority language.

Two Javanese speakers, recorded in Indonesia.

Demographic distribution of Javanese speakers

The word Jawa (Java) written in Javanese script.

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

Javanese Language Media

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  Madurese in Javanese script

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  A Javanese noble lady (left) would address her servant with one vocabulary, and be answered with another. (Studio portrait of painter Raden Saleh's wife and a servant, colonial Batavia, 1860–1872.)

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  Susuhunan Pakubuwono X of Surakarta. Surakarta has been a center of Javanese culture, and its dialect is regarded as the most "refined".

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  A modern bilingual text in Portuguese and Javanese in Yogyakarta

• Article one of Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Javanese language

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