Javanese language

Javanese
ꦧꦱꦗꦮ Basa Jawa
basa (language) written in the Javanese script
Native to	Java (Indonesia)
Ethnicity	Javanese (Mataram, Osing, Tenggerese, Boyanese, Samin, Cirebonese, Banyumasan, etc)
Native speakers	100 million (2013)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Sunda-Sulawesi Javanese
Early forms	Old Javanese (Kawi) Javanese
Writing system	Latin script Javanese script Arabic script (Pegon alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Special Region of Yogyakarta Central Java East Java
Recognised minority language in	West Java Banten Malaysia Suriname Netherlands New Caledonia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	jv
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3	Variously: jav – Javanese jvn – Caribbean Javanese jas – New Caledonian Javanese osi – Osing tes – Tenggerese kaw – Kawi
Glottolog	java1253
Linguasphere	31-MFM-a
Dark green: areas where Javanese is the majority language. Light green: where it is a minority language.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Javanese /dʒɑːvəˈniːz/ (ꦧꦱꦗꦮ, basa Jawa; Javanese pronunciation: [bɔsɔ dʒɔwɔ]) (colloquially known as ꦕꦫꦗꦮ, cara Jawa; Javanese pronunciation: [tjɔrɔ dʒɔwɔ]) is the language of the Javanese people from the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. There are also pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java. It is the native language of more than 98 million people (more than 42% of the total population of Indonesia).

Javanese is one of the Austronesian languages, but it is not particularly close to other languages and is difficult to classify. Its closest relatives are the neighbouring languages such as Sundanese, Madurese and Balinese. Most speakers of Javanese also speak Indonesian, the standardized form of Malay spoken in Indonesia, for official and commercial purposes as well as a means to communicate with non-Javanese-speaking Indonesians.