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List of largest languages without official status

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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[edit]

Language Number of
speakers
(millions)
Notes
Wu (incl. Shanghainese) 77
Sundanese 42 No official status in Indonesia
Xiang 30-36
Gan 22
Madurese 13 No official status in Indonesia
Sukuma 8.1 No official status in Tanzania
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
Maasai 2 No official status in Tanzania or Kenya

Languages with official status in their region but not country[edit]

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
Javanese 100.3e23 Largest regional language in Indonesia, official status in Special Region of Yogyakarta, Surabaya.
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
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[1][circular reference]
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
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[clarification needed][edit]

Language Number of
speakers
(millions)
Notes
Kurdish 25–26 Iraq (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[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

  • Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms (1990), ISBN 0-8048-1654-9 Search this book on . — lists official languages of the countries of the world, among other information.


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