List of largest languages without official status

Since it is impossible to list all the languages here, therefore, only languages with 2 million speakers and more will be listed here

Below is list of languages without any official status (or a minority language) with at least two million speakers, ordered by the number of native speakers

List

Rank Language Number of speakers Notes
1 Southwest Mandarin (incl. Sichuanese) 200 million –
2 Central Plains Mandarin (inc. Shaanxi dialect) 170 million –
3 Javanese language 100 million No official status in Indonesia[1]
4 Wu (incl. Shanghainese) 77 million –
5 Southern Min/Hokkien 48 million –
6 Sundanese language 42 million No official status in Indonesia
7 Xiang 30-36 million –
8 Gan 22 million –
9 Madurese language 13 million No official status in Indonesia
10 Eastern Min (incl. Fuzhou dialect) 9.5 million –
11 Venetian (incl. Talian) 8 million –
12 Batak languages (7 languages) 7 million No official status in Indonesia
13 Minangkabau language 7 million No official status in Indonesia
14 Krio 6 million De facto national language of Sierra Leone but without official status
15 Bhili language 6 million Largest linguistic community of India without regional status
16 Sicilian Language 5-10 million No official status in Italy
17 Balinese language 4 million No official status in Indonesia
18 Bugis language 4 million No official status in Indonesia
19 Hmong language 4 million No official status
20 Acehnese language 3.5 million No official status in Indonesia
21 Banjar language 3.5 million No official status in Indonesia
22 Tulu language 3-5 million No official status in India
23 Silesian language 2 million No official status
24 Aramaic language 2 million No official status
25 Yi language 2 million No official status
26 Northern Min 2 million –

Languages with official status in their region but not country

  1. Punjabi language: 100 million speakers, regional status in Pakistan where its speakers form the majority of the country's population, but state official status and scheduled language in India
  2. Telugu language: 81 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  3. Cantonese: 70 million, de facto official in Hong Kong and Macau, the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China
  4. Marathi language: 60 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  5. Rajasthani language:It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and neighbouring states of India and Pakistan, state official status in India
  6. Malayalam language: 38 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  7. Kannada language: 40 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  8. Gujarati language: 40 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  9. Odia language: 36 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India[2]
  10. Maithili language: 20 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  11. Assamese language: 13 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  12. Catalan language 9.4 million speakers, official language in Andorra, Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands, but not in the rest of Spain
  13. Uyghur language: 8–11 million speakers, regional official status in China
  14. Konkani language: 7.4 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  15. Santali language: 6.2 million speakers, state official status and scheduled language in India
  16. Tatar language: 5.4 million speakers, regional official status in Russia (Tatarstan)
  17. Low German: at least 4.5 million speakers with good skills, regional official language in Brazil, the Netherlands and Germany, state official status in Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and federal official status in Germany disputed
  18. Galician language: 3 million speakers, regional official language in Spain (Galicia)
  19. Mundari language: 2,080,000 speakers, state official status in India (no scheduled language)

Language with low regional status

  1. Bhojpuri language: 35 million speakers, formerly considered a dialect of Hindi, in the process of being granted regional status on its own right in India
  2. Kurdish language: 16–26 million speakers, regional status in Iraq
  3. Oromo language: 25 million speakers, regional status in Ethiopia and Kenya
  4. Cebuano language: 20 million speakers, regional status in Central Visayas, eastern Negros Island Region and Davao Region, Philippines
  5. Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo with close to 20 million speakers each are the major languages of Nigeria, all three with regional status, and none with majority status.
  6. Zhuang languages: 14 million speakers, regional status in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
  7. Sylheti language: 11 million speakers, regional status in Sylhet Division
  8. Balochi language: 8 million speakers, regional status in Balochistan
  9. Ilokano language: 8 million speakers, regional status in Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley, Philippines
  10. Hiligaynon language: 7 million speakers, regional status in Western Visayas, western Negros Island Region and SOCCSKSARGEN, Philippines

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Most Common Official Languages in the World
  2. ↑ Odia language
  • Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms (1990), ISBN 0-8048-1654-9 — lists official languages of the countries of the world, among other information.
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