Madurese language

This article's lead section contains information that is not included elsewhere in the article. If the information is appropriate for the lead of the article, this information should also be included in the body of the article. (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Madurese
Bhâsa Madhurâ بۤاسا مادورۤا‎ ꦧꦱꦩꦝꦸꦫ
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Madura Islands (incl. Sapudi, Masalembu), Java, Singapore, and Malaysia
Ethnicity	Madurese Baweanese Kangeanese
Native speakers	10–13.6 million (2008)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Malayo-Sumbawan (?) Madurese
Dialects	Bawean Bangkalan Pamekasan Sampang Sapudi Sumenep
Writing system	Latin script Carakan script Pegon alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2	mad
ISO 639-3	mad – Standard Madurese
Glottolog	nucl1460
Areas where Madurese is spoken by a majority of the population   Areas where Madurese is spoken by a significant minority of the population
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Madurese is a language of the Madurese people, native to the Madura Island and eastern part of Java, Indonesia; it is also spoken by migrants to other parts of Indonesia, namely the Surabaya, Malang, Gresik, eastern salient of Java (comprising Pasuruan, Bondowoso, Probolinggo, Situbondo, Jember, Lumajang, to Banyuwangi), the Masalembu Islands, and even some on Kalimantan. It was traditionally written in the Javanese script, but the Latin script and the Pegon script (based on Arabic script) is now more commonly used. The number of speakers, though shrinking, is estimated to be 10–14 million, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the country. Bawean language, which is a dialect of Madurese, is also spoken by Bawean people in Bawean Island, Indonesia. Then also by their descendants in Malaysia and Singapore.

According to K. Alexander Adelaar, Madurese is a Malayo-Sumbawan language of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, a branch of the larger Austronesian language family. Thus, despite apparent geographic spread, Madurese is more related to Balinese, Malay, Sasak and Sundanese, than it is to Javanese, the language used on the island of Java just across Madura Island.

Links between Bali–Sasak languages and Madurese are more evident with the vernacular form (common form).^{[citation needed]}