List of largest languages without official status

Since it is impossible to list all the languages here, therefore, only languages with more than 1 million speakers will be listed here

Below is list of languages without any official status (or a minority language) with more than a million speakers, ordered by the number of native speakers

List

1. Southwest Mandarin (incl. Sichuanese): 200 million
2. Javanese language: 100 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia^[1]
3. Wu (incl. Shanghainese) : 77 million
4. Southern Min/Hokkien: 48 million
5. Hakka: 34 million
6. Xiang: 30–36 million
7. Sundanese language: 27 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
8. Gan: 22 million
9. Northern Min: 11 million
10. Madurese language: 13 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
11. Eastern Min (incl. Fuzhou dialect): 9.5 million
12. Batak languages (7 languages): 7 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
13. Minangkabau language: 7 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
14. Banjar language: 6 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
15. Krio: 6 millions speakers, de facto national language of Sierra Leone but without official status
16. Bhili language: 6 million speakers, largest linguistic community of India without regional status
17. Balinese language: 4 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
18. Bugis language: 4 million speakers, no official status
19. Hmong language: 4 million speakers, no official status
20. Acehnese language: 3.5 million speakers, no official status in Indonesia
21. Silesian language: 2 million speakers, no official status
22. Aramaic language: 2 million speakers, no official status
23. Yi language: 2 million speakers, no official status
24. Esperanto (constructed language): Between 1 and 2 million speakers, no official status

Languages with official status in their region but not country

1. Telugu language: 81 million speakers, state official status in India
2. Cantonese: 70 million, de-facto official (as "Chinese") in Hong Kong and Macau, the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China
3. Marathi language: 60 million speakers, state official status in India
4. Rajasthani language:It is spoken by 50 million people in Rajasthan and neighbouring states of India and Pakistan, state official status in India
5. Malayalam language: 38 million speakers, state official status in India
6. Kannada language: 40 million speakers, state official status in India
7. Gujarati language: 40 million speakers, state official status in India
8. Oriya language: 30 million speakers, state official status in India
9. Punjabi language: 100 million speakers, regional status in Pakistan where its speakers form the majority of the country's population, but state official status in India
10. Maithili language: 20 million speakers, state official status in India
11. Assamese language: 13 million speakers, state official status in India
12. Catalan language 9.4 million speakers, official language in Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands, but not in the rest of Spain, and in Andorra.
13. Uyghur language: 8–11 million speakers, regional official status in China
14. Konkani language: 7.4 million speakers, state official status in India
15. Santali language: 6.2 million speakers, state official status in India
16. Tatar language: 5.4 million speakers, regional official status in Russia (Tatarstan)
17. Galician language: 3 million speakers, official language in Galicia, but no in the resto of Spain.
18. Mundari language: 2,080,000 speakers, state official status in India
19. Meitei language: 1.4 million speakers, state official status in India

Language with low regional status

1. Bhojpuri language: 35 million speakers, formerly considered a dialect of Hindi, in the process of being granted regional status on its own right in India
2. Kurdish language: 16–26 million speakers, regional status in Iraq
3. Oromo language: 25 million speakers, regional status in Ethiopia and Kenya
4. Cebuano language: 20 million speakers, regional status in Central Visayas, eastern Negros Island Region and Davao Region, Philippines
5. Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo with close to 20 million speakers each are the major languages of Nigeria, all three with regional status, and none with majority status.
6. Zhuang languages: 14 million speakers, regional status in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
7. Balochi language: 8 million speakers, regional status in Balochistan
8. Ilokano language: 8 million speakers, regional status in Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley, Philippines
9. Hiligaynon language: 7 million speakers, regional status in Western Visayas, western Negros Island Region and SOCCSKSARGEN, Philippines

See also

• Lists of languages
• Official language and List of official languages
• List of official languages by state
• List of languages by total number of speakers
• List of languages by number of native speakers
• List of Wikipedias

References

• 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.

External links