List of major and official Austronesian languages
Encyclopedia
This is a list of major and official Austronesian languages
, a language family
widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia
and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia
and Madagascar
.
Official languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
, a language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia refers to the maritime region of Southeast Asia as opposed to mainland Southeast Asia and includes the modern countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, East Timor and Singapore....
and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
.
Major languages
Languages with at least 4 million native speakers- JavaneseJavanese languageJavanese language is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...
(76 million) - Filipino / TagalogFilipino languageThis move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
(47 million native, ~90 million total) - MalayMalay languageMalay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
/ IndonesianIndonesian languageIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, (45 million native, ~250 million total) - SundaneseSundanese languageSundanese is the language of about 27 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population....
(27 million) - CebuanoCebuano languageCebuano, referred to by most of its speakers as Bisaya , is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 20 million people mostly in the Central Visayas. It is the most widely spoken of the languages within the so-named Bisayan subgroup and is closely related to other Filipino...
(19 million native, ~30 million total) - MalagasyMalagasy languageMalagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
(17 million) - Madurese (14 million)
- IlokanoIlokano languageIlokano or Ilocano is the third most-spoken language of the Republic of the Philippines....
(8 million native, ~10 million total) - HiligaynonHiligaynon languageHiligaynon, often referred to as Ilonggo, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines.Hiligaynon is concentrated in the provinces of Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Capiz but is also spoken in the other provinces of the Panay Island group, including Antique,...
(7 million native, ~11 million total) - MinangkabauMinangkabau languageThe Minangkabau language is an Austronesian language, spoken by the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, the western part of Riau, South Aceh Regency, the northern part of Bengkulu and Jambi, also in several cities throughout Indonesia by migrated Minangkabau, who often trade or have a restaurant...
(7 million) - BatakBatak languagesThe Batak languages are spoken by Batak and Alas people of North Sumatra, Indonesia.Historically they were written using Batak script but the Latin alphabet is now used for most writing....
(7 million, all dialects) - BikolBikol languagesThe Bikol languages are a group of Central Philippine languages spoken particularly on the Bicol Peninsula on the island of Luzon and parts of Catanduanes and Burias Island, Masbate Province...
(4.6 million, all dialects) - BanjarBanjar languageBanjar language is the native language used by the Banjarese people of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. As many Banjarese are travelling merchants, they brought their language wherever they went all over Indonesia, even all over the world....
(4.5 million) - BalineseBalinese languageBalinese or simply Bali is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by 3.3 million people on the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as northern Nusa Penida, western Lombok and eastern Java...
(4 million)
Official languages
- CarolinianCarolinian languageCarolinian is an Austronesian language spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is an official language along with English and Chamorro. Spoken mostly by the Carolinian people, Carolinian is most closely related to Satawalese, Woleaian, and Puluwatese...
(5,700,
Northern Mariana Islands) - ChamorroChamorro languageChamorro is a Malayo-Polynesian language, spoken on the Mariana Islands by about 47,000 people Chamorro (Chamorro: Fino' Chamoru or simply Chamoru) is a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language, spoken on the Mariana Islands (Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan) by about 47,000 people Chamorro...
(60,000,
Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands) - FijianFijian languageFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
(350,000 native, 550,000 total,
Fiji) - FilipinoFilipino languageThis move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
(47 million native, ~90 million total,
Philippines) - Gilbertese (100,000,
Kiribati) - HawaiianHawaiian languageThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
(1,000 native, 8,000 competent,
Hawaii) - MalayMalay languageMalay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
/ IndonesianIndonesian languageIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
, (45 million native, ~250 million total,
Brunei, 
East Timor, 
Indonesia, 
Malaysia, and 
Singapore) - MalagasyMalagasy languageMalagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
(17 million,
Madagascar) - MāoriMaori languageMāori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
(100,000,
New Zealand) - MarshalleseMarshallese languageThe Marshallese language is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Marshall Islands, and the principal language of the country...
(> 44,000,
Marshall Islands) - NauruanNauruan languageThe Nauruan language is an Austronesian language spoken in Nauru. It is estimated that it has 7,000 speakers. Almost all speakers are bilingual in English....
(6,000,
Nauru) - NiueanNiuean languageThe Niuean language or Niue language is a Polynesian language, belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian languages. It is most closely related to Tongan and slightly more distantly to other Polynesian languages such as Māori, Sāmoan, and Hawaiian...
(8,000,
Niue) - PalauanPalauan languagePalauan is one of the two nationally recognized official languages spoken in the Republic of Palau...
(15,000,
Palau) - Rapa NuiRapa Nui languageRapa Nui , also known as Pascuan or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken on the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island....
(5,000,
Easter Island) - SamoanSamoan languageSamoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
(370,000,
Samoa, 
American Samoa) - SonsoroleseSonsorolese languageThe Sonsorolese language is a Micronesian language spoken in Palau, originally on the islands composing the state of Sonsorol, but nowadays mostly by immigrants in the rest of the country...
(600, SonsorolSonsorolSonsorol is one of the sixteen states of Palau. The administrative center is Dongosaru on Sonsorol island. The inhabitants speak Sonsorolese, a local Trukic language, and Palauan....
, Palau) - TahitianTahitian languageTahitian is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages...
(120,000,
French Polynesia) - TetumTetum languageTetum is an Austronesian language, a national language and one of the two official languages of East Timor. It is also used in parts of West Timor that adjoin East Timor, particularly in Belu Regency...
(800,000 speakers, East Timor) - TobianTobian languageTobian is the language of Tobi, one of the Southwest Islands of Palau, and the main island of Hatohobei state...
(100, HatohobeiHatohobeiTobi Island, or Hatohobei , is the southernmost of Palau's sixteen states, consisting of Tobi Island and uninhabited Helen Reef. The total land area is about 0.88 km²...
, Palau) - TonganTongan languageTongan is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has around 200,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO language.-Related languages:...
(108,000,
Tonga) - TuvaluanTuvaluan languageTuvaluan is a Polynesian language of or closely related to the Ellicean group spoken in Tuvalu. It is more or less distantly related to all other Polynesian languages, such as Hawaiian, Maori, Tahitian, Samoan, and Tongan, and most closely related to the languages spoken on the Polynesian Outliers...
(13,000,
Tuvalu)
Dialects and Creoles
Dialects of major languages- Banyumas JavaneseBanyumasan languageThe Banyumasan language, spoken on the island of Java, is usually considered a dialect of Javanese in modern language classification.The Banyumasan language is mainly spoken in the three areas of the island of Java: the Banyumasan region, located in westernmost Central Java Province and surrounding...
(1,000,000 native, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
) - Batak Karo languageBatak Karo languageBatak Karo, referred to in Indonesia simply as Bahasa Karo , is an Austronesian language that is spoken by the Karo people of Indonesia. It is used by around 600,000 people in North Sumatra...
(600,000 native, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
) - Betawi languageBetawi languageThe Betawi language is the spoken language of the Betawi people in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the native language of about 2,700,000 people . It is a Malay-based creole, and closely related to Malay language. Betawi vocabulary have large amount of Hokkien Chinese, Arabic, and Dutch loanwords...
, (3,000,000 native, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
) - Sri Lanka MalaySri Lanka MalayThe Sri Lankan Malay is an Austronesian language formed through a unique mixture of the Sinhalese language and the Tamil language with Malay...
(50,000, Sri LankaSri LankaSri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
)