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This is a list of major and official Austronesian languages, a language family originating from Taiwan, that is widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia and Madagascar.
| Language | Speakers | Native name | Official status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fijian | 639,210 | Na Vosa Vakaviti |  Fiji |
| Filipino | 100,000,000 (L1 & L2) 20,000,000 (L1) 80,000,000 (L2) | Wikang Filipino |  Philippines |
| Gilbertese | 120,000 | Taetae ni Kiribati |  Kiribati |
| Hiri Motu | 120,000 (L2) | Hiri Motu |  Papua New Guinea |
| Indonesian | 300,000,000 | Bahasa Indonesia |  Indonesia |
| Malay | 35,000,000 | Bahasa Melayu/بهاس ملايو |  Brunei Indonesia [lower-alpha 1]  Malaysia [lower-alpha 2]  Singapore |
| Malagasy | 18,000,000 | Fiteny Malagasy |  Madagascar |
| Māori | 150,000 | Te Reo Māori |  New Zealand |
| Marshallese | 55,000 | Kajin M̧ajeļ |  Marshall Islands |
| Nauruan | 6,000 | Dorerin Naoero |  Nauru |
| Palauan | 15,000 | Tekoi er a Belau |  Palau |
| Samoan | 510,000 | Gagana Sāmoa |  Samoa |
| Tetum | 800,000 | Lia-Tetun |  East Timor Indonesia [lower-alpha 3] |
| Tongan | 108,000 | Lea Faka-Tonga |  Tonga |
| Tuvaluan | 13,000 | Te Ggana/Gagana Tuuvalu |  Tuvalu |
| Language | Speakers | Native name | Official status | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carolinian | 5,700 | Refaluwasch |  Northern Mariana Islands |  United States |
| Chamorro | 95,000 | Fino' CHamoru |  Guam Northern Mariana Islands | United States |
| Cook Islands Māori | 14,000 | Māori Kūki 'Āirani Te Reo Ipukarea |  Cook Islands | New Zealand |
| Hawaiian | 24,000 | ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi |  Hawaii | United States |
| Javanese | 100,000,000 approx.(~3,000,000 in the Special Region of Yogyakarta) | Basa Jawa |  Yogyakarta  Central Java  East Java | Indonesia  Suriname [lower-alpha 1] [1]  Sri Lanka [lower-alpha 2] [2]  New Caledonia [lower-alpha 3] [3] |
| Kanak |  New Caledonia |  France | ||
| Niuean | 8,000 | Ko e Vagahau Niuē |  Niue | New Zealand |
| Rapa Nui | 5,000 | Vananga Rapa Nui |  Easter Island |  Chile |
| Samoan | 55,000 | Gagana Sāmoa |  American Samoa | United States |
| Sonsorolese | 600 | Ramari Dongosaro |  Sonsorol | Palau |
| Tahitian | 120,000 | Reo Mā'ohi/Tahiti |  French Polynesia | France |
| Tobian | 100 | Ramarih Hatohobei |  Hatohobei | Palau |
| Tokelauan | 3,500 | Gagana Tokelau |  Tokelau | New Zealand |
Indonesian is the official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standardized variety of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, with over 279 million inhabitants of which the majority speak Indonesian, which makes it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Indonesian vocabulary has been influenced by various languages, including Javanese, Minangkabau, Buginese, Banjarese, Arabic, Dutch, and English. Many borrowed words have been adapted to fit the phonetic, and grammatical rules of Indonesian.
Malay may refer to:
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan. They are spoken by about 386 million people. This makes it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages include Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Tagalog (Filipino), Malagasy and Cebuano. According to some estimates, the family contains 1,257 languages, which is the second most of any language family.
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia in the areas near the Malay Peninsula, with Cambodia, Vietnam and the Chinese island Hainan as the northwest geographic outlier. Malagasy, spoken in the island of Madagascar off the eastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is the furthest western outlier.
Malay is an Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spoken in East Timor and parts of Thailand. Altogether, it is spoken by 290 million people across Maritime Southeast Asia.
Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, Sino-Tibetan, Kra–Dai and Koreanic. Many languages of Asia, such as Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, or Tamil, have a long history as a written language.
Javanese is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, Indonesia. There are also pockets of Javanese speakers on the northern coast of western Java. It is the native language of more than 98 million people.
Madurese is a language of the Madurese people, native to the Madura Island and Eastern Java, Indonesia; it is also spoken by migrants to other parts of Indonesia, namely the eastern salient of Java, the Masalembu Islands and even some on Kalimantan. It was traditionally written in the Javanese script, but the Latin script and the Pegon script is now more commonly used. The number of speakers, though shrinking, is estimated to be 8–13 million, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the country. Bawean Madurese, which is a dialect of Madurese, is also spoken by Baweanese descendants in Malaysia and Singapore.
In addition to its classical and modern literary form, Malay had various regional dialects established after the rise of the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia. Also, Malay spread through interethnic contact and trade across the south East Asia Archipelago as far as the Philippines. That contact resulted in a lingua franca that was called Bazaar Malay or low Malay and in Malay Melayu Pasar. It is generally believed that Bazaar Malay was a pidgin, influenced by contact among Malay, Hokkien, Portuguese, and Dutch traders.
Indonesians are citizens or people who are identified with the country of Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic country with a diversity of languages, culture and religious beliefs. The population of Indonesia according to the 2020 national census was 270.2 million. 56% live on the island of Java, the world's most populous island. Around 95% of Indonesians are Native Indonesians, with 40% Javanese and 15% Sundanese forming the majority, while the other 5% are Indonesians with ancestry from foreign origin, such as Arab Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, and Indos.
The Banjar or Banjarese are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Banjar regions in the southeastern Kalimantan regions of Indonesia. Nowadays, Banjarese diaspora can be found in neighbouring Banjar regions as well; including Kotabaru Regency, the southeastern regions of Central Kalimantan, southernmost regions of East Kalimantan, and some provinces of Indonesia in general. The Banjarese diaspora community also can be found in neighbouring countries of Indonesia, such as Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Native Indonesians, also known as Pribumi or Bumiputra, are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago, distinguished from Indonesians of known (partial) foreign descent, like Chinese Indonesians (Tionghoa), Arab Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, Japanese Indonesians and Indo-Europeans (Eurasians).
There are 1,340 recognised ethnic groups in Indonesia. The vast majority of those belong to the Austronesian peoples, with a sizeable minority being Melanesians. Indonesia has the world's largest number of Austronesians and Melanesians.
More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. This figure indicates that Indonesia has about 10% of the world's languages, establishing its reputation as the second most linguistically diverse nation in the world after Papua New Guinea. Most languages belong to the Austronesian language family, while there are over 270 Papuan languages spoken in eastern Indonesia. The language most widely spoken as a native language is Javanese.
The concept of a Malay race was originally proposed by the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840), and classified as a brown race. Malay is a loose term used in the late 19th century and early 20th century to describe the Austronesian peoples.
The Barito languages are around twenty Austronesian languages of Indonesia (Borneo), plus Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar. They are named after the Barito River located in South Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Bible translations into the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia have a lot of common history up until the modern era. Apart from the shared Malay language which historically was the lingua franca of the Malay archipelago and forms the basis for the national languages of Indonesia and Malaysia today, portions of the Bible have been translated into a variety of indigenous languages in the region.
Malay is spoken by a minority of Filipinos, particularly in the Palawan, Sulu Archipelago and parts of Mindanao, mostly in the form of trade and creole languages, such as Sabah Malay.
Javanese New Caledonians are an ethnic group of full or partial Javanese descent in New Caledonia. They have been present since between 1896 and 1949. They were sent as plantation workers administered by the Dutch colonial government in New Caledonia.