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Indonesia is home to over 700 living languages spoken across its extensive archipelago.[1][2] This significant linguistic variety constitutes approximately 10% of the world’s total languages,[3] positioning Indonesia as the second most linguistically diverse nation globally, following Papua New Guinea.[4] The majority of these languages belong to the Austronesian language family, prevalent in the western and central regions of Indonesia, including languages such as Acehnese, Sundanese, and Buginese. In contrast, the eastern regions, particularly Papua and the Maluku Islands, are home to over 270 Papuan languages, which are distinct from the Austronesian family and represent a unique linguistic heritage.[5] The language most widely spoken as a native language is Javanese, primarily by the Javanese people in the central and eastern parts of Java Island, as well as across many other islands due to migration.[6]
Languages in Indonesia are classified into nine categories: national language, locally used indigenous languages, regional lingua francas, foreign and additional languages, heritage languages, languages in the religious domain, English as a lingua franca, and sign languages.[7][8]
- ^ "Bahasa dan Peta Bahasa". Kemdikbud.com. Kemdikbud. Retrieved 18 August 2024.
- ^ Lewis, M. Paul (2009), Ethnologue: Languages of the World (16th ed.), SIL International, retrieved 17 November 2009
- ^ Florey 2010, pp. 121–140.
- ^ "What Countries Have the Most Languages?". Ethnologue. 22 May 2019. Archived from the original on 20 August 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
- ^ Simons & Fennig 2018.
- ^ "Javanese language". britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2021.
- ^ Zein 2020, pp. 27–63.
- ^ "Indonesia". The World Factbook. CIA. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.