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 total speakers. Unless otherwise noted, data of speakers are incorporated from Ethnologue.
Languages with no official status
| Language | Number of speakers (millions) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Javanese | 68.3[1] | No official status in Indonesia. |
| 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 | – |
Languages with official status in their region but not country
| Language | Number of speakers (millions) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Southwestern Mandarin (incl. Sichuanese) |
200 | The majority of its speakers are from China, but it is a regional official language in Myanmar |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Tibetan | 6-7 | regional official status in China, official status in Ladakh and Sikkim, 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
| Language | Number of speakers (millions) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 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
References
- Javanese at Ethnologue (23nd ed., 2020)
- Odia language
Sources
- 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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