List of largest languages without official status
Below is a list of languages without official status (or minority languages) with at least two million speakers, ordered by the number of native speakers
- Since it is impossible to list all the languages here, only languages with 2 million speakers and more are listed here.
List
| Language | Number of speakers (millions) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Languages with no official status | ||
| Southwest Mandarin (incl. Sichuanese) |
200 | No official status in China |
| Central Plains Mandarin (incl. Shaanxi dialect) |
170 | – |
| Javanese | 100 | No official status in Indonesia[1] |
| Wu (incl. Shanghainese) | 77 | – |
| Sundanese | 42 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Xiang | 30-36 | – |
| Gan | 22 | – |
| Madurese | 13 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Eastern Min (incl. Fuzhou dialect) |
9.5 | – |
| Venetian (incl. Talian) | 8 | – |
| Batak (7 languages) |
7 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Minangkabau | 7 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Krio | 6 | De facto national language of Sierra Leone but without official status |
| Bhili | 6 | Largest linguistic community of India without regional status |
| Sicilian | 5-10 | No official status in Italy |
| Neapolitan | 5-6 | No official status in Italy |
| Balinese | 4 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Bugis | 4 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Hmong | 4 | No official status |
| Acehnese | 3.5 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Banjar | 3.5 | No official status in Indonesia |
| Tulu | 3-5 | No official status in India |
| Aramaic | 2 | No official status |
| Yi | 2 | No official status |
| Northern Min | 2 | – |
| Beja | 1.2 (2017) | No official status in Egypt |
| Nobiin | 0.669 (1996-2006) | No official status in Egypt |
| Kenzi | .05 (2014) | No official status in Egypt |
| Siwi | .02 (2013) | No official status in Egypt |
| Languages with official status in their region but not country | ||
| Punjabi | 100 | Regional status in Pakistan where its speakers form the majority of the country's population, but state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Telugu | 81 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Cantonese | 80 | De facto official in Hong Kong and Macau, the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China |
| Marathi | 60 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Rajasthani | 50 | Rajasthan and neighbouring states of India and Pakistan, state official status in India |
| Kannada | 40 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Gujarati | 40 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Malayalam | 38 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Odia | 36 | state official status and scheduled language in India[2] |
| Maithili | 20 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Assamese | 13 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Catalan | 9.4 | official language in Andorra, Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands, but not in the rest of Spain |
| Uyghur | 8–11 | regional official status in China |
| Konkani | 7.4 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Santali | 6.2 | state official status and scheduled language in India |
| Tatar | 5.4 | regional official status in Russia (Tatarstan) |
| Low German | at least 4.5 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 |
| Galician | 3 | regional official language in Spain (Galicia) |
| Mundari | 2.08 | state official status in India (no scheduled language) |
| Languages with low regional status | ||
| Bhojpuri | 35 | Formerly considered a dialect of Hindi, in the process of being granted regional status on its own right in India |
| Kurdish | 16–26 | Iraq (R) |
| Oromo | 25 | Ethiopia and Kenya (R) |
| Cebuano | 20 | Central Visayas, eastern Negros Island Region and Davao Region, Philippines (R) |
| Hausa(R) Yoruba (R) and Igbo(R) | Close to 20 each | Major languages of Nigeria, none with majority status. |
| Zhuang | 14 | Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (R) |
| Sylheti | 11 | Sylhet Division, Bangladesh (R) |
| Balochi | 8 | Balochistan, Pakistan (R) |
| Ilokano | 8 | Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley, Philippines (R) |
| Hiligaynon | 7 | Western Visayas, western Negros Island Region and SOCCSKSARGEN, Philippines (R) |
(R) = Regional status
See also
- Lists of languages
- Official language and List of official languages
- List of official languages by state
- List of languages by total number of speakers
- List of languages by number of native speakers
- List of Wikipedias
References
- 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.
External links
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