Languages of Indonesia

Languages of Indonesia
Sign in Yogyakarta encouraging people to prioritize the Indonesian language
Official	Indonesian
Regional	Acehnese Ambonese Malay Asmat Badui Balinese Bamayo Banjarese Batak Angkola Batak Dairi Batak Karo Batak Mandailing Batak Simalungun Batak Toba Betawi Biak Bima Buginese Central Maluku languages Butonese Gayo Galela Gorontalo Javanese Kendayan Kei Kerinci Komering Kutainese Lampung Ma'anyan Madurese Makassarese Manado Malay Manggarai Minangkabau Muna Ngaju Nias North Moluccan Malay Osing Palembang Papuan languages Rejang Sasak Sumbawa Sundanese Tae' Tagalog Miangas Ternate Tetum Tidore Tobati Tobelo Tolaki Toraja Sa'dan Uab Meto
Foreign	English Arabic Chinese languages Dutch German French Japanese Korean
Signed	Indonesian Sign Language
Keyboard layout	QWERTY

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Indonesia is home to over 700 living languages spoken across its extensive archipelago.^[1][2] This significant linguistic variety constitutes approximately 10% of the world’s total languages,^[3] positioning Indonesia as the second most linguistically diverse nation globally, following Papua New Guinea.^[4] The majority of these languages belong to the Austronesian language family, prevalent in the western and central regions of Indonesia, including languages such as Acehnese, Sundanese, and Buginese. In contrast, the eastern regions, particularly Papua and the Maluku Islands, are home to over 270 Papuan languages, which are distinct from the Austronesian family and represent a unique linguistic heritage.^[5] The language most widely spoken as a native language is Javanese, primarily by the Javanese people in the central and eastern parts of Java Island, as well as across many other islands due to migration.^[6]

Languages in Indonesia are classified into nine categories: national language, locally used indigenous languages, regional lingua francas, foreign and additional languages, heritage languages, languages in the religious domain, English as a lingua franca, and sign languages.^[7][8]