List of writing systems
List of writing scripts by adoption
Table:
Name of script	Type	Number of characters	Population actively using ( in millions )	Languages associated with	Regions with predominant usage

Latin Latin	Alphabet	23 ( classical )	6120+	Latin and Romance languages ( Italian , French , Franco-Provençal , Occitan , Catalan , Portuguese , Galician , Spanish , Rhaeto-Romance languages , Sardinian and Romanian ) , Germanic languages ( English , Dutch , German , Nordic languages ) , Chinese ( Mandarin Pinyin ) , Austronesian languages ( Indonesian , Filipino , Malay , Polynesian languages ) , West and Southwest Slavic languages ( including Polish ) , Baltic languages ( Latvian and Lithuanian ) , Niger-Congo languages ( including Swahili , Yoruba , and Zulu ) , Turkish , Somali , Albanian , Vietnamese , Hungarian , Maltese , Finnic ( including Estonian and Finnish ) and Sami languages , others	Worldwide

Chinese 汉字 漢字	Logographic	> 50,000	1340	Mandarin , Yue , Wu , Gan , Min , Hakka , Xiang , Jin , Pinghua , Huizhou and other Chinese languages ( Chinese characters ) , Japanese ( Kanji ) , Korean ( Hanja ) , Vietnamese ( Chu Nom ) , Zhuang ( Sawndip ) , Okinawan ( Okinawan ) , Mulam	China , Taiwan , Singapore , Malaysia ( Chinese Malaysians ) , Japan , South Korea , Indonesia ( Chinese Indonesians ) , Hong Kong

Devanagari देवनागरी	Abugida	44	820+	Angika , Awadhi , Bhili , Bhojpuri , Bodo , Chhattisgarhi , Dogri , Haryanvi , Hindi , Kashmiri , Konkani , Magahi , Maithili , Marathi , Mundari , Nepali , Newar , Pali , Rajasthani , Sanskrit , Santali , Sindhi , others	India ( native in Hindi Belt , Goa , Maharashtra ) , Nepal

Arabic العربية	Abjad	28	660+	Arabic , Persian , Urdu , Punjabi , Pashto , Sindhi , Balochi , Malayan ( Jawi ) , Acehnese ( Jawi ) , Uyghur , Kazakh ( in China ) , Kurdish , Azeri ( in Iran ) , Javanese ( Pegon ) , Sundanese ( Pegon ) , others	Middle East and North Africa , Pakistan , India ( 7 states ) , China ( Xinjiang ) , Brunei ( co-official with Latin ) , Malaysia , Indonesia ( religious uses only )

Bengali-Assamese script	Abugida	52	300	Sanskrit , Bengali , Assamese , Kokborok , Bishnupriya Manipuri , Khasi , Meitei Manipuri , Hajong , Chakma , Maithili ( historical use ) , Angika ( historical use ) , Sylheti and others	Bangladesh , and India ( West Bengal , Mizoram , Jharkhand , Tripura , Assam , Manipur , Meghalaya , Andaman and Nicobar Islands )

Cyrillic Кирилица	Alphabet	33 ( Russian )	250	Bulgarian , Russian , Serbian , Ukrainian , Macedonian , Belarusian , Kazakh , others	Eastern Europe , Central Asia and Mongolia , the Russian Far East

Kana かな カナ	Syllabary	46	120	Japanese , Okinawan , Ainu , Palauan , other Japonic languages	Japan

Javanese ꦗꦮ	Abugida	53	80	Javanese , Cirebonese , Madurese , Sundanese	Indonesia ( Central Java , East Java , Special Region of Yogyakarta , Cirebon , Cirebon Regency , Indramayu Regency ) , Javanese diaspora

Chosŏn'gŭl/Hangul 한글 조선글	Alphabet , featural	24	78.7	Korean , Cia-Cia , Jeju	North Korea , South Korea , and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China , Indonesia ( Baubau )

Telugu తెలుగు	Abugida	60	74	Telugu , Sanskrit , Gondi	Andhra Pradesh , Telangana , Puducherry ( India )

Tamil தமிழ்	Abugida	30	70	Tamil , Kanikkaran , Badaga , Irula , Paniya	Tamil Nadu ( India ) , Puducherry ( India ) , Sri Lanka , Singapore , Malaysia , Mauritius

Gujarati ગુજરાતી	Abugida	47	48	Gujarati , Kutchi , Avestan , Bhili , Bhilori , Gamit , Chowdhary , Kukna , Bhili , Varli , Vasavi	India , Pakistan

Kannada ಕನ್ನಡ	Abugida	51 ( or 50 or 49 )	45	Kannada , Tulu , Kodava , Badaga , Beary , Sanketi , Konkani , Sanskrit	Karnataka ( India )

Burmese မြန်မာ	Abugida	26	39	Burmese , Pali , Sanskrit	Myanmar

Malayalam മലയാളം	Abugida	51	38	Malayalam , Sanskrit , Paniya , Betta Kurumba , Ravula	Kerala , Puducherry ( India )

Thai ไทย	Abugida	68	38	Thai , Northern Thai , Southern Thai , Northern Khmer , and Isan , Kelantan-Pattani Malay , Pali , Sanskrit , others	Thailand

Sundanese ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ	Abugida	44	38	Sundanese , Bantenese , Baduy	West Java and Banten ( Indonesia )

Zhuyin Fuhao ( a.k.a . Bopomofo ) ㄅㄆㄇㄈ ㄓㄨㄧㄣ ㄈㄨˊㄏㄠˋ	Alphabet , Semisyllabary	37 ( plus four tone marks )	23	A phonetic transcription system used in Taiwan for Mandarin Chinese , studied mainly by schoolchildren	Taiwan

Gurmukhi ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ	Abugida	35	22	Sanskrit , Punjabi , Sant Bhasha , Sindhi	Punjab ( India )

Odia ଉତ୍କଳ	Abugida	64	21	Odia , others	Odisha ( India )

By analysing the provided table and the background passages listed.

Give the answer to the question: What is the type of the script that has its own set of numerals that are based on the Hindu-Arabic numeral system ? Provide just your answer in a JSON object {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}. Base your answer solely on the given information.

Latin or Roman script is a set of graphic signs ( script ) based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet . This is derived from a form of the Cumaean Greek version of the Greek alphabet used by the Etruscans . Several Latin-script alphabets exist , which differ in graphemes , collation and phonetic values from the classical Latin alphabet . The Latin script is the basis of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the 26 most widespread letters are the letters contained in the ISO basic Latin alphabet . Latin script is the basis for the largest number of alphabets of any writing system and is the most widely adopted writing system in the world ( commonly used by about 70 percent of the world 's population ) . Latin script is used as the standard method of writing in most Western , Central , as well as in some Eastern European languages , as well as in many languages in other parts of the world .
An alphabet is a standard set of letters ( basic written symbols or graphemes ) that represent the phonemes ( basic significant sounds ) of any spoken language used for its written form . This is in contrast to other types of writing systems , such as syllabaries ( in which each character represents a syllable ) and logographic systems ( in which each character represents a word , morpheme , or semantic unit ) . The first fully phonemic script , the Proto-Canaanite script , later known as the Phoenician alphabet , is considered to be the first alphabet , and is the ancestor of most modern alphabets , including Arabic , Greek , Latin , Cyrillic , Hebrew , and possibly Brahmic . Peter T. Daniels , however , distinguishes an abugida or alphasyllabary , a set of graphemes that represent consonantal base letters which diacritics modify to represent vowels ( as in Devanagari and other South Asian scripts ) , an abjad , in which letters predominantly or exclusively represent consonants ( as in the original Phoenician , Hebrew or Arabic ) , and an alphabet , a set of graphemes that represent both vowels and consonants . In this narrow sense of the word the first true alphabet was the Greek alphabet , which was developed on the basis of the earlier Phoenician alphabet . Of the dozens of alphabets in use today , the most popular is the Latin alphabet , which was derived from the Greek , and which many languages modify by adding letters formed using diacritical marks . While most alphabets have letters composed of lines ( linear writing ) , there are also exceptions such as the alphabets used in Braille . The Khmer alphabet ( for Cambodian ) is the longest , with 74 letters . Alphabets are usually associated with a standard ordering of letters . This makes them useful for purposes of collation , specifically by allowing words to be sorted in alphabetical order . It also means that their letters can be used as an alternative method of numbering ordered items , in such contexts as numbered lists and number placements .
Latin ( Latin : lingua latīna , IPA : [ ˈlɪŋɡʷa laˈtiːna ] ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages . The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets and ultimately from the Phoenician alphabet . Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome , known as Latium . Through the power of the Roman Republic , it became the dominant language in Italy , and subsequently throughout the western Roman Empire . Latin has contributed many words to the English language . In particular , Latin ( and Ancient Greek ) roots are used in English descriptions of theology , the sciences , medicine , and law . By the late Roman Republic ( 75 BC ) , Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin . Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence and author Petronius . Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century and the colloquial form Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages , such as French , Italian , Portuguese , Romanian , Catalan and Spanish in the 6th to 9th centuries . Medieval Latin was used as a literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance which used Renaissance Latin . Later , Early Modern Latin and New Latin evolved . Latin was used as the language of international communication , scholarship and science until well into the 18th century , when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars ( including the Romance languages ) .
The Romance languages ( nowadays rarely Latin languages , or Neo-Latin languages ) are the modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries . They are a subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language family . Today , around 800 million people are native speakers worldwide , mainly in the Americas , Europe , and parts of Africa , as well as elsewhere . Additionally , the major Romance languages have many non-native speakers and are in widespread use as lingua francas . This is especially the case for French , which is in widespread use throughout Central and West Africa , Madagascar , Mauritius , and North Africa ( excluding Egypt ) . The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish ( 480 million ) , Portuguese ( 221 million ) , French ( 77 million ) , Italian ( 65 million ) , and Romanian ( 24 million ) . Because of the difficulty of imposing boundaries on a continuum , various counts of the modern Romance languages are given ; for example , Dalby lists 23 based on mutual intelligibility . The following , more extensive list [ citation needed ] , includes 35 current , living languages , and one extinct language , Dalmatian :
Italian ( italiano [ itaˈljaːno ] ( listen ) or lingua italiana [ ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna ] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family . Italian descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire and , together with Sardinian , is by most measures the closest language to it of the Romance languages . Italian is an official language in Italy , Switzerland ( where it is the first language in Canton Ticino and in the districts of Moesa and Bernina in Canton Graubünden ) , San Marino and Vatican City . It has an official minority status in western Istria ( Croatia and Slovenia ) . It formerly had official status in Albania , Malta , Monaco , Montenegro ( Kotor ) and Greece ( Ionian Islands and Dodecanese ) , and is generally understood in Corsica ( due to its close relation with the Tuscan-influenced local language ) and Savoie . It also used to be an official language in the former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa , where it still plays a significant role in various sectors . Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia . Italian is included under the languages covered by the European Charter for Regional or Minority languages in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Romania , although Italian is neither a co-official nor a protected language in these countries . Many speakers of Italian are native bilinguals of both Italian ( either in its standard form or regional varieties ) and other regional languages . Italian is a major European language , being one of the official languages of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and one of the working languages of the Council of Europe . It is the fourth most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 69 million native speakers ( 13% of the EU population ) and it is spoken as a second language by 16 million EU citizens ( 3% ) . Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries ( such as Switzerland and Albania ) and on other continents , the total number of speakers is around 90 million .
French ( le français [ lə fʁɑ̃sɛ ] or la langue française [ la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz ] ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire , as did all Romance languages . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the spoken Latin in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul . Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl - languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium , which French ( Francien ) has largely supplanted . French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders . Today , owing to France 's past overseas expansion , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French . French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents , most of which are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie ( OIF ) , the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French . It is spoken as a first language ( in descending order of the number of speakers ) in France , the Canadian provinces of Quebec , Ontario and New Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions , Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ) , western Switzerland ( cantons of Bern , Fribourg , Geneva , Jura , Neuchâtel , Vaud , Valais ) , Monaco , partly in Luxembourg , the states of Louisiana , Maine , New Hampshire and Vermont in the United States , and in northwestern Italy ( region of Aosta Valley ) , and by various communities elsewhere . In 2015 , approximately 40% of the francophone population ( including L2 and partial speakers ) lived in Europe , 35% in sub-Saharan Africa , 15% in North Africa and the Middle East , 8% in the Americas , and 1% in Asia and Oceania . French is the fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively , approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language .
Franco-Provençal ( also Francoprovençal , Arpitan , or Romand ) is a dialect group within Gallo-Romance spoken in east-central France , western Switzerland , northwestern Italy , and in enclaves in the Province of Foggia in Apulia , Italy . Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separate from but closely related to neighboring Romance dialects ( the langues d'oïl and Occitan , Rhaeto-Romance , Lombard , Piedmontese ) . The designation Franco-Provençal ( Franco-Provençal : francoprovençâl ; French : francoprovençal ; Italian : francoprovenzale ) dates to the 19th century . Traditionally , the dialect group is also referred to as patois ( patouès ) , and since the late 20th century as Arpitan ( Franco-Provençal : arpetan ; Italian : arpitano ) , and its areal as Arpitania . The number of speakers of Franco-Provençal has been declining significantly . According to UNESCO ( 1995 ) , Franco-Provençal is a potentially endangered language in Italy and an endangered language in Switzerland and France . Formerly spoken throughout the territory of Savoy , Franco-Provençal speakers are now found in the Aosta Valley , an autonomous administrative division of Italy . The language is also spoken in alpine valleys in the Metropolitan City of Turin , two isolated towns ( Faeto and Celle di San Vito ) in the Province of Foggia , and rural areas of the Swiss Romandie . It is one of the three Gallo-Romance language families of France and is officially recognized as a regional language of France , but its use is marginal . Organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events , education , scholarly research , and publishing . Aside from regional French dialects ( the Langues d'oïl ) , it is the most closely related language to French .
Occitan ( English : /ˈɒksɪtən , -tæn , -tɑːn/ , Occitan : [ utsiˈta ] , [ a ] French : [ ɔksitɑ̃ ] ) , also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan : [ ˈleŋɡɔ ˈðɔ ( k ) ] ( listen ) ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers , is a Romance language . It is spoken in Southern France , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , Monaco , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran ; collectively , these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese ( Calabria , Italy ) . Some include Catalan in Occitan , as the distance between this language and some Occitan dialects ( such as the Gascon language ) is similar to the distance among different Occitan dialects . In fact , Catalan was considered an Occitan dialect until the end of the 19th century . Today , Occitan is an official language in Catalonia , where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken in the Val d'Aran . Occitan 's closest relative is Catalan . Since September 2010 , the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran . Across history , the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ) , Languedocien ( Lengadocian ) , Gascon , and later Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan ; nowadays , Provençal is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France . Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , there is no single written standard language called Occitan , and Occitan has no official status in France , home to most of Occitania . Instead , there are competing norms for writing Occitan , some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal , whereas others are based on particular dialects . These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France , as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects .
Catalan ( /ˈkætəlæn , -ən , ˌkætəˈlæn/ ; autonym : català ; Eastern Catalan : [ kətəˈla ] ) is a Western Romance language derived from Vulgar Latin and named after the medieval Principality of Catalonia , in northeastern modern Spain . It is the only official language of Andorra , and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia , the Balearic Islands and Valencia ( where the language is known as Valencian ) . It also has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero . It is also spoken in the eastern strip of Aragon , in some villages of the region of Murcia called Carche and in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France . These territories are often called Països Catalans or Catalan Countries . Catalan evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees . 19th-century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival , culminating in the early 1900s .
Portuguese ( português or , in full , língua portuguesa ) is a Western Romance language originating in the Iberian Peninsula . It is the sole official language of Portugal , Brazil , Cape Verde , Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe . It also has co-official language status in East Timor , Equatorial Guinea and Chinese Macau . As the result of expansion during colonial times , a cultural presence of Portuguese and Portuguese creole speakers are also found in Goa , Daman and Diu in India ; in Batticaloa on the east coast of Sri Lanka ; in the Indonesian island of Flores ; in the Malacca state of Malaysia ; and the ABC islands in the Caribbean where Papiamento is spoken , while Cape Verdean Creole is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based Creole . A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as Lusophone ( Lusófono ) . Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal , and has kept some Celtic phonology and lexicon . With approximately 215 to 220 million native speakers and 250 million total speakers , Portuguese is usually listed as the sixth most natively spoken language in the world , the third-most spoken European language in the world in terms of native speakers , and the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere . It is also the second-most spoken language , after Spanish , in South America and all of Latin America , one of the 10 most spoken languages in Africa and is an official language of the European Union , Mercosur , OAS , ECOWAS and the African Union . The Community of Portuguese Language Countries is an international organization made up of all of the world 's officially Lusophone nations .
Galician ( /ɡəˈlɪʃən/ , /ɡəˈlɪsiən/ ; galego ) is an Indo-European language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch . It is spoken by some 2.4 million people , mainly in Galicia , an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain , where it is official along with Spanish . The language is also spoken in some border zones of the neighboring Spanish regions of Asturias and Castile and León , as well as by Galician migrant communities in the rest of Spain , in Latin America including Puerto Rico , the United States , Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe . Modern Galician is part of the West Iberian languages group , a family of Romance languages that includes the Portuguese language , which developed locally from Vulgar Latin and evolved into what modern scholars have called Galician-Portuguese . Dialectal divergences are observable between the northern and southern forms of Galician-Portuguese in 13th-century texts but the two dialects were similar enough to maintain a high level of cultural unity until the middle of the 14th century , producing the medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric . The divergence has continued to this day , producing the modern languages of Galician and Portuguese . The lexicon of Galician is predominantly of Latin extraction , although it also contains a moderate number of words of Germanic and Celtic origin , among other substrates and adstrates , having also received , mainly via Spanish , a number of nouns from Andalusian Arabic . The language is officially regulated in Galicia by the Royal Galician Academy . Other organizations without institutional support , such as the Galician Association of Language and the Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language , include Galician as part of the Portuguese language .
Spanish ( /ˈspænɪʃ/ ( listen ) ; español ( help·info ) ) , or Castilian ( /kæˈstɪliən/ ( listen ) , castellano ( help·info ) ) , is a Romance language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula and today has over 483 million native speakers , mainly in Spain and the Americas . It is a global language , the world 's second-most spoken native language , after Mandarin Chinese , and the world 's fourth-most spoken language , after Mandarin Chinese , English and Hindi . Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages , which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century . The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century , and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in the 13th century . Beginning in 1492 , the Spanish language was taken to the viceroyalties of the Spanish Empire , most notably to the Americas , as well as territories in Africa , Oceania and the Philippines . A 1949 study by Italian-American linguist Mario Pei , analyzing the degree of difference from a language 's parent ( Latin , in the case of Romance languages ) by comparing phonology , inflection , syntax , vocabulary , and intonation , indicated the following percentages ( the higher the percentage , the greater the distance from Latin ) : In the case of Spanish , it is one of the closest Romance languages to Latin ( 20% distance ) , only behind Sardinian ( 8% distance ) and Italian ( 12% distance ) . Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is derived from Latin , including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek . Spanish vocabulary has been in contact with Arabic from an early date , having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula . With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin , this language makes up the second greatest vocabulary source after Latin itself . It has also been influenced by Basque , Iberian , Celtiberian , Visigothic , and by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages . Additionally , it has absorbed vocabulary from other languages , particularly other Romance languages - French , Italian , Andalusi Romance , Portuguese , Galician , Catalan , Occitan , and Sardinian - as well as from Quechua , Nahuatl , and other indigenous languages of the Americas . Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations .
Rhaeto-Romance , or Rhaetian , is a traditional subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in north and north-eastern Italy and in Switzerland . The name Rhaeto-Romance refers to the former Roman province of Rhaetia . The linguistic basis of the subfamily is discussed in the so-called Questione Ladina . The Rhaeto-Romance languages form a group of Romance languages in the Alps region of northern Italy and Switzerland . Initially studied by Italian Linguist Graziadio Ascoli in 1873 , Ascoli found these languages to share a number of intricacies and believed they belonged to a specific linguistic group . What distinguishes Rhaeto-Romance languages from Italian and other Western languages are its phonemic vowel length ( long stressed vowels ) , consonant formation , and a central rounded vowel series . A few notable examples of these languages are Romansh , Friulian and Ladin , which are officially recognized alongside German , French and Italian , by the Swiss and Italian governments respectively . In total there are about 660,000 speakers of the Rhaeto-Romance languages combined , the vast majority of whom speak Friulian at approximately half a million .
Sardinian or Sard ( sardu/sadru [ ˈsaɾdu/ˈsadru ] , limba sarda [ ˈlimba ˈzaɾda ] or lìngua sarda [ ˈliŋɡu.a ˈzaɾda ] ) is a Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia . Many Romance linguists consider it the closest genealogical descendant to Latin . However , it also incorporates a Pre-Latin ( mostly Paleo-Sardinian and , to a much lesser degree , Punic ) substratum , as well as a Byzantine Greek , Catalan , Spanish and Italian superstratum due to the political history of the island , which became a Byzantine possession followed by a significant period of self-rule , fell into the Iberian sphere of influence in the late Middle Ages , and eventually into the Italian one in the 18th century . In 1997 , Sardinian was recognized by a regional law , along with other languages spoken on the island ; in 1999 , Sardinian was also granted recognition by the national Law no . 482/1999 with other eleven minoranze linguistiche storiche ( historical linguistic minorities ) , among which Sardinian stands out as the numerically biggest , even if continuously decreasing . However , the vitality of the Sardinian-speaking community is threatened , and UNESCO classifies the language as definitely endangered , although an estimated 68.4 percent of the islanders reported to have a good oral command of Sardinian in 2007 . While the level of language competence is in fact relatively high among the older generation beyond retirement age , it has been estimated to have dropped to less than 13 percent among children , with Sardinian being kept as a heritage language .
Romanian ( dated Rumanian or Roumanian ; autonym : limba română [ ˈlimba roˈmɨnə ] ( listen ) , the Romanian language , or românește , lit . in Romanian ) is a Balkan Romance language spoken by approximately 24-26 million people as a native language , primarily in Romania and Moldova , and by another 4 million people as a second language . It is an official and national language of both Romania and Moldova and is one of the official languages of the European Union . Romanian is a part of the Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages , a linguistic group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin , which was separated from the Western Romance during the 5th-8th centuries . To distinguish it within that group in comparative linguistics it is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives , Aromanian , Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian . Romanian is also known as Moldovan in Moldova , although the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled in 2013 that the official language of the republic is Romanian . [ nb 1 ] Numerous immigrant Romanian speakers are also scattered across many other regions and countries worldwide , with large populations in Italy , Spain , Germany , Russia , Canada , and the United States .
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people [ nb 1 ] mainly in Europe , North America , Oceania and Southern Africa . The most widely spoken Germanic language , English , is the world 's most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers . All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic , spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia . The West Germanic languages include the three most widely spoken Germanic languages : English with around 360-400 million native speakers ; [ nb 2 ] German , with over 100 million native speakers ; and Dutch , with 24 million native speakers . Other West Germanic languages include Afrikaans , an offshoot of Dutch , with over 7.1 million native speakers ; Low German , considered a separate collection of unstandardized dialects , with roughly 0.3 million native speakers and probably 6.7-10 million people who can understand it ( at least 5 million in Germany and 1.7 million in the Netherlands ) ; Yiddish , once used by approximately 13 million Jews in pre-World War II Europe , and Scots , both with 1.5 million native speakers ; Limburgish varieties with roughly 1.3 million speakers along the Dutch-Belgian-German border ; and the Frisian languages with over 0.5 million native speakers in the Netherlands and Germany . The largest North Germanic languages are Danish , Norwegian and Swedish , which are mutually intelligible and have a combined total of about 20 million native speakers in the Nordic countries and an additional five million second language speakers ; since the middle ages these languages have however been strongly influenced by the West Germanic language Middle Low German , and Low German words account for about 30-60% of their vocabularies according to various estimates . Other North Germanic languages are Faroese and Icelandic , which are more conservative languages with no significant Low German influence , more complex grammar and limited mutual intelligibility with the others today . The East Germanic branch included Gothic , Burgundian , and Vandalic , all of which are now extinct . The last to die off was Crimean Gothic , spoken until the late 18th century in some isolated areas of Crimea . The SIL Ethnologue lists 48 different living Germanic languages , 41 of which belong to the Western branch and six to the Northern branch ; it places Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German in neither of the categories , but it is often considered a German dialect by linguists . The total number of Germanic languages throughout history is unknown as some of them , especially the East Germanic languages , disappeared during or after the Migration Period . Some of the West Germanic languages also did not survive past the Migration Period , including Lombardic .
English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca . It is named after the Angles , one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name , as England . Both names derive from Anglia , a peninsula in the Baltic Sea . The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon , and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages , particularly Norse ( a North Germanic language ) , and to a greater extent by Latin and French . English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years . The earliest forms of English , a group of West Germanic ( Ingvaeonic ) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century , are collectively called Old English . Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England ; this was a period in which the language was influenced by French . Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London , the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel Shift . Modern English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century by the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States . Through all types of printed and electronic media of these countries , English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science , navigation and law . English is the largest language by number of speakers , and the third most-spoken native language in the world , after Standard Chinese and Spanish . It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states .
Dutch ( Nederlands ( help·info ) ) is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people as a first language and 5 million people as a second language , constituting the majority of people in the Netherlands ( where it is the sole official language countrywide ) and Belgium ( as one of three official languages ) . It is the third-most-widely spoken Germanic language , after its close relatives English and German . Outside the Low Countries , it is the native language of the majority of the population of Suriname where it also holds an official status , as it does in Aruba , Curaçao and Sint Maarten , which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean . Historical linguistic minorities on the verge of extinction remain in parts of France and Germany , and in Indonesia , [ n 1 ] while up to half a million native speakers may reside in the United States , Canada and Australia combined . [ n 2 ] The Cape Dutch dialects of Southern Africa have evolved into Afrikaans , a mutually intelligible daughter language [ n 3 ] which is spoken to some degree by at least 16 million people , mainly in South Africa and Namibia . [ n 4 ] Dutch is one of the closest relatives of both German and English [ n 5 ] and is colloquially said to be roughly in between them . [ n 6 ] Dutch , like English , has not undergone the High German consonant shift , does not use Germanic umlaut as a grammatical marker , has largely abandoned the use of the subjunctive , and has levelled much of its morphology , including most of its case system . [ n 7 ] Features shared with German include the survival of two to three grammatical genders - albeit with few grammatical consequences [ n 8 ] - as well as the use of modal particles , final-obstruent devoicing , and a similar word order . [ n 9 ] Dutch vocabulary is mostly Germanic and incorporates slightly more Romance loans than German but far fewer than English . [ n 10 ] As with German , the vocabulary of Dutch also has strong similarities with the continental Scandinavian languages , but is not mutually intelligible in text or speech with any of them .
German ( Deutsch , pronounced [ dɔʏtʃ ] ( listen ) ) is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe . It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , South Tyrol in Italy , the German-speaking Community of Belgium and Liechtenstein . It is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland . The languages that are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch , including Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , Low German/Low Saxon , Luxembourgish , and Yiddish . There are strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish , Norwegian and Swedish , although those belong to the North Germanic group . German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language , after English . One of the major languages of the world , German is a native language to almost 100 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union . German is the third most commonly spoken foreign language in the EU after English and French , making it the second biggest language in the EU in terms of overall speakers . German is also the second most widely taught foreign language in the EU after English at primary school level ( but third after English and French at lower secondary level ) , the fourth most widely taught non-English language in the US ( after Spanish , French and American Sign Language ) , and the second most commonly used scientific language as well as the third most widely used language on websites after English and Russian . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books , with one tenth of all books ( including e-books ) in the world being published in the German language . In the United Kingdom , German and French are the most sought-after foreign languages for businesses ( with 49% and 50% of businesses identifying these two languages as the most useful , respectively ) . German is an inflected language with four cases for nouns , pronouns and adjectives ( nominative , accusative , genitive , dative ) , three genders ( masculine , feminine , neuter ) , two numbers ( singular , plural ) , and strong and weak verbs .
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages , a sub-family of the Indo-European languages , along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages . The language group is also referred to as the Nordic languages , a direct translation of the most common term used among Danish , Faroese , Icelandic , Norwegian , and Swedish scholars and laypeople . In Scandinavia , the term Scandinavian languages refers specifically to the mutually intelligible modern languages of the three continental Scandinavian countries and is thus used in a more narrow sense as a subset of the Nordic languages , leaving aside the insular subset of Faroese and Icelandic . Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish are also referred to as Continental Nordic languages , while Faroese and Icelandic are grouped together as Insular Nordic languages . In scholarly literature in English , the term Scandinavian is also sometimes used synonymously with Nordic ( North Germanic ) languages when discussing the languages in a genetic perspective . The term Scandinavian arose in the 18th century as a result of the early linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement , referring to the people , cultures , and languages of the three Scandinavian countries and stressing their common heritage . The term North Germanic languages is used in comparative linguistics , whereas the term Scandinavian languages appears in studies of the modern standard languages and the dialect continuum of Scandinavia . Approximately 20 million people in the Nordic countries speak a Scandinavian language as their native language , including an approximately 5% minority in Finland . Languages belonging to the North Germanic language tree are also commonly spoken on Greenland and , to a lesser extent , by immigrants in North America .
Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; literally : 'Han language ' ; or especially though not exclusively for written Chinese : 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing ' ) is a group of languages that forms the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages . Chinese languages are spoken by the ethnic Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China . About 1.2 billion people ( around 16% of the world 's population ) speak some form of Chinese as their first language . The varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be regional variants of ethnic Chinese speech , without consideration of whether they are mutually intelligible . Due to their lack of mutual intelligibility , linguists generally describe them as distinct languages , perhaps hundreds , sometimes noting that they are more varied than the Romance languages . [ b ] Investigation of the historical relationships among the Sinitic languages is just getting started . Currently , most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups , based on often superficial phonetic developments , of which the most populous by far is Mandarin ( about 800 million speakers , e.g . Southwestern Mandarin ) , followed by Min ( 75 million , e.g . Southern Min ) , Wu ( 74 million , e.g . Shanghainese ) , Yue ( 68 million , e.g . Cantonese ) . These groups are unintelligible to each other , and generally many of their subgroups are mutually unintelligible as well ( e.g. , not only is Min Chinese a family of mutually unintelligible languages , but Southern Min itself is not a single language ) .
Hanyu Pinyin ( simplified Chinese : 汉语拼音 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語拼音 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ Pīnyīn ) , often abbreviated to pinyin , is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan . It is often used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese , which is normally written using Chinese characters . The system includes four diacritics denoting tones . Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters . The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists , including Zhou Youguang , based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese . It was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times . The International Organization for Standardization ( ISO ) adopted pinyin as an international standard in 1982 , and was followed by the United Nations in 1986 . The system was adopted as the official standard in Taiwan in 2009 , where it is used for international events rather than for educational or computer-input purposes . But some cities , businesses , and organizations , notably in the south of Taiwan , did not accept this , as it suggested that Taiwan is more closely tied to the PRC , so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use . The word Hànyǔ ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ) means 'the spoken language of the Han people ' , while Pīnyīn ( 拼音 ) literally means 'spelled sounds ' .
The Austronesian languages ( /ˌɒstroʊˈniːʒən/ , /ˌɒstrə/ , /ˌɔːstroʊ-/ , /ˌɔːstrə-/ ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Taiwan , Malay Peninsula , Maritime Southeast Asia , Madagascar and the islands of the Pacific Ocean . There are also a few speakers in continental Asia . They are spoken by about 386 million people ( 4.9% of the world population ) . This makes it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers . Major Austronesian languages include Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ) , Javanese , and Filipino ( Tagalog ) . According to some estimates , the family contains 1,257 languages , which is the second most of any language family . In 1706 , the Dutch scholar Adriaan Reland first observed similarities between the languages spoken in the Malay Archipelago and by peoples on islands in the Pacific Ocean . In the 19th century , researchers ( e.g . Wilhelm von Humboldt , Herman van der Tuuk ) started to apply the comparative method to the Austronesian languages . The first extensive study on the history of the sound system was made by the German linguist Otto Dempwolff . It included a reconstruction of the Proto-Austronesian lexicon . The term Austronesian was coined by Wilhelm Schmidt .
Indonesian ( bahasa Indonesia [ baˈha.sa in.doˈne.sja ] ) is the official language of Indonesia . It is a standardised variety of Malay , an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries . Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world . Of its large population , the majority speak Indonesian , making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world . Most Indonesians , aside from speaking the national language , are fluent in at least one of the more than 700 indigenous local languages ; examples include Javanese , Sundanese and Balinese , which are commonly used at home and within the local community . However , most formal education , and nearly all national mass media , governance , administration , judiciary , and other forms of communication , are conducted in Indonesian . The term Indonesian is primarily associated with the national standard dialect ( bahasa baku ) . However , in a more loose sense , it also encompasses the various local varieties spoken throughout the Indonesian archipelago . Standard Indonesian is confined mostly to formal situations , existing in a diglossic relationship with vernacular Malay varieties , which are commonly used for daily communication . The Indonesian name for the language ( bahasa Indonesia ) is also occasionally found in English and other languages .
Filipino ( English : /ˌfɪlɪˈpiːnoʊ/ ( listen ) ; Wikang Filipino [ wɪˈkɐŋ ˌfiːliˈpiːno ] ) is the national language ( Wikang pambansa / Pambansang wika ) of the Philippines . Filipino is also designated , along with English , as an official language of the country . It is a standardized variety of the Tagalog language , an Austronesian regional language that is widely spoken in the Philippines . As of 2007 , Tagalog is the first language of 28 million people , or about one-third of the Philippine population , while 45 million speak Tagalog as their second language . Tagalog is among the 185 languages of the Philippines identified in the Ethnologue . Officially , Filipino is defined by the Commission on the Filipino Language ( Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino in Filipino or simply KWF ) as the native dialect , spoken and written , in Metro Manila , the National Capital Region , and in other urban centers of the archipelago . Filipino is officially taken to be a pluricentric language , as it is further enriched and developed by the other existing Philippine languages according to the mandate of the 1987 Constitution . Indeed , there have been observed emerging varieties of Filipino which deviate from the grammatical properties of Tagalog in Cebu , Davao City , and Iloilo which together with Metro Manila form the four largest metropolitan areas in the Philippines .
Malay ( /məˈleɪ/ ; Malay : Bahasa Melayu , بهاس ملايو ) is an Austronesian language spoken in Brunei , Indonesia , Malaysia and Singapore , as well as parts of Thailand . A language of the Malays , it is spoken by 290 million people across the Strait of Malacca , including the coasts of the Malay Peninsula of Malaysia and the eastern coast of Sumatra in Indonesia and has been established as a native language of part of western coastal Sarawak and West Kalimantan in Borneo . It is also used as a trading language in the southern Philippines , including the southern parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula , the Sulu Archipelago and the southern predominantly Muslim-inhabited municipalities of Bataraza and Balabac in Palawan . As the Bahasa Kebangsaan or Bahasa Nasional ( national language ) of several states , Standard Malay has various official names . In Malaysia , it is designated as either Bahasa Malaysia ( Malaysian language ) or Bahasa Melayu ( Malay language ) . In Singapore and Brunei , it is called Bahasa Melayu ( Malay language ) and in Indonesia , an autonomous normative variety called Bahasa Indonesia ( Indonesian language ) is designated the Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu ( unifying language/lingua franca ) . However , in areas of central to southern Sumatra where vernacular varieties of Malay are indigenous , Indonesians refer to it as Bahasa Melayu and consider it one of their regional languages . Standard Malay , also called Court Malay , was the literary standard of the pre-colonial Malacca and Johor Sultanates , and so the language is sometimes called Malacca , Johor or Riau Malay ( or various combinations of those names ) to distinguish it from the various other Malayan languages . According to Ethnologue 16 , several of the Malayan varieties they currently list as separate languages , including the Orang Asli varieties of Peninsular Malay , are so closely related to standard Malay that they may prove to be dialects . There are also several Malay trade and creole languages which are based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay as well as Macassar Malay , which appears to be a mixed language .
The Polynesian languages form a language family spoken in geographical Polynesia and on a patchwork of outliers from south central Micronesia to small islands off the northeast of the larger islands of the southeast Solomon Islands and sprinkled through Vanuatu . Linguistic taxonomists classify them as a subgroup of the much larger and more varied Austronesian family , belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family . There are approximately forty Polynesian languages . The most prominent of these are Tahitian , Samoan , Tongan , Māori and Hawaiian . As humans first settled the Polynesian islands relatively recently and because internal linguistic diversification only began around 2,000 years ago , the Polynesian languages retain strong commonalities . There are still many cognate words across the different islands , for example : tapu , ariki , motu , kava , and tapa as well as Hawaiki , the mythical homeland for some of the cultures . All Polynesian languages show strong similarity , particularly in vocabulary . The vowels are often stable in the descendant languages , nearly always a , e , i , o and u. Consonant changes tend to be quite regular . The legendary homeland of many Polynesian peoples , reconstructed as *sawaiki , appears as Hawaiki among the Māori of New Zealand with s replaced by h ; but 'Avaiki in the Cook Islands with s replaced by the glottal stop , and w by v ; as Hawai ' i , the name of the largest island in the Hawaiian Islands , with s replaced by h , and k by the glottal stop ; as Savai ' i , the largest island in Samoa , with w replaced by v , and k by the glottal stop ; and as Havai ' i in the Society Islands with s replaced by h , w replaced by v , and k by the glottal stop .
The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic language group . They include Polish , Czech , Slovak , Kashubian , Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian . The languages are spoken across a continuous region encompassing the Czech Republic , Slovakia and Poland as well as the former East Germany and the westernmost regions of Ukraine and Belarus ( and into Lithuania ) .
The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages . There are approximately 30 million speakers , mainly in the Balkans . These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches ( West and East ) by a belt of German , Hungarian and Romanian speakers . The first South Slavic language to be written ( also the first attested Slavic language ) was the variety spoken in Thessaloniki , now called Old Church Slavonic , in the ninth century . It is retained as a liturgical language in some South Slavic Orthodox churches in the form of various local Church Slavonic traditions .
The Slavic languages ( also called Slavonic languages ) are the Indo-European languages spoken by the Slavic peoples . They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic , spoken during the Early Middle Ages , which in turn is thought to have descended from the earlier Proto-Balto-Slavic language , linking the Slavic languages to the Baltic languages in a Balto-Slavic group within the Indo-European family . The Slavic languages are conventionally ( that is , also on the basis of extralinguistic features ) divided intro three subgroups : East , West , and South , which together constitute more than 20 languages . Of these , 10 have at least one million speakers and official status as the national languages of the countries in which they are predominantly spoken : Russian , Belarusian and Ukrainian ( of the East group ) , Polish , Czech and Slovak ( of the West group ) and Bulgarian and Macedonian ( eastern dialects of the South group ) , and Serbo-Croatian and Slovene ( western dialects of the South group ) . The current geographic distribution of natively spoken Slavic languages covers Eastern Europe , the Balkans , Central Europe and all of the territory of Russia , which includes northern and north-central Asia . Furthermore , the diasporas of many Slavic peoples have established isolated minorities of speakers of their languages all over the world . The number of speakers of all Slavic languages together was estimated to be 315 million at the turn of the twenty-first century . Despite the large extent , the individual Slavic languages are considerably less differentiated than Germanic and Romance languages .
Polish ( język polski , [ 'jɛ̃w̃zɨk ˈpɔlskʲi ] ( listen ) , polszczyzna or simply polski , [ ˈpɔlskʲi ] ( listen ) ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group . It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles . In addition to being an official language of Poland , it is also used by Polish minorities in other countries . There are over 50 million Polish-language speakers around the world and it is one of the official languages of the European Union . Polish is written with the standardized Polish alphabet , which has nine additions to the letters of the basic Latin script ( ą , ć , ę , ł , ń , ó , ś , ź , ż ) . Among the major languages , it is most closely related to Slovak and Czech , but differs from other Slavic varieties in terms of pronunciation and general grammar . In addition , Polish was profoundly influenced by Germanic languages , most notably German , and Italic languages like Latin and French , which contributed to a large number of loanwords and similar grammatical structures . Polish currently has the largest number of speakers of the West Slavic group and is also the second most widely spoken Slavic language . Historically , Polish was a lingua franca , important both diplomatically and academically in Central and Eastern Europe . Today , Polish is spoken by over 38.5 million people as their first language in Poland . It is also spoken as a second language in Northern Czech Republic and Slovakia , western parts of Belarus and Ukraine as well as in Central-Eastern Lithuania and Latvia . Because of the emigration from Poland during different time periods , most notably after World War II , millions of Polish speakers can be found in countries such as Canada , Argentina , Brazil , Israel , Australia , the United Kingdom and the United States .
The Baltic languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . Baltic languages are spoken by the Balts , mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe . Scholars usually regard them as a single language family divided into two groups : Western Baltic ( containing only extinct languages ) and Eastern Baltic ( containing three living languages , Lithuanian , Latvian and Latgalian ) . The range of the Eastern Baltic linguistic influence once possibly reached as far as the Ural Mountains , but this hypothesis has been questioned . Old Prussian , a Western Baltic language that became extinct in the 18th century , ranks as the most archaic of the Baltic languages . Although morphologically related , the Lithuanian , Latvian and , particularly , Old Prussian vocabularies differ substantially from one another , and as such they are not mutually intelligible , mainly due to a substantial number of false friends , and foreign words , borrowed from surrounding language families , which are used differently .
Latvian ( latviešu valoda [ ˈlatviɛʃu ˈvaluɔda ] ) is an Eastern Baltic language spoken in the Baltic region . It is the language of Latvians and the official language of Latvia as well as one of the official languages of the European Union . There are about 1.3 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad . Altogether , 2 million , or 80% of the population of Latvia , speak Latvian . Of those , around 1.16 million or 62% used it as their primary language at home . As a Baltic language , Latvian is most closely related to neighboring Lithuanian , however Latvian has followed a more rapid development . In addition , there is some disagreement whether Latgalian and Kursenieki , which are mutually intelligible with Latvian , should be considered varieties or separate languages . Latvian first appeared in Western print in the mid-16th century with the reproduction of the Lord 's Prayer in Latvian in Sebastian Münster 's Cosmographia Universalis ( 1544 ) , in Latin script .
Lithuanian ( Lithuanian : lietuvių kalba ) is an Eastern Baltic language spoken in the Baltic region . It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of the official languages of the European Union . There are about 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 200 000 abroad . As a Baltic language , Lithuanian is closely related to neighbouring Latvian and more distantly to Slavic , Germanic and other Indo-European languages . It is written in a Latin alphabet . Lithuanian is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language , retaining features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other languages .
The Niger-Congo languages are the world 's third largest language family in terms of number of speakers and Africa 's largest in terms of geographical area , number of speakers and number of distinct languages . It is generally considered to be the world 's largest language family in terms of distinct languages , ahead of Austronesian , although this is complicated by the ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct language ; the number of named Niger-Congo languages listed by Ethnologue is 1,540 . It is the third-largest language family in the world by number of native speakers , comprising around 700 million people as of 2015 . Within Niger-Congo , the Bantu languages alone account for 350 million people ( 2015 ) , or half the total Niger-Congo speaking population . The most widely spoken Niger-Congo languages by number of native speakers are Yoruba , Igbo , Fula and Zulu . The most widely spoken by total number of speakers is Swahili . While the ultimate genetic unity of the core of Niger-Congo ( called Atlantic-Congo ) is widely accepted , the internal cladistic structure is not well established . Other primary branches may include Dogon , Mande , Ijo , Katla and Rashad . The connection of the Mande languages especially has never been demonstrated , and without them the validity of Niger-Congo family as a whole ( as opposed to Atlantic-Congo or a similar subfamily ) has not been established . One of the most distinctive characteristics common to Atlantic-Congo languages is the use of a noun-class system , which is essentially a gender system with multiple genders .
Swahili , also known as Kiswahili ( translation : language of the Swahili people ) , is a Bantu language and the first language of the Swahili people . It is a lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of eastern and south-eastern Africa , including Kenya , Tanzania , Uganda , Rwanda , Burundi , some parts of Malawi , Somalia , Zambia , Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( DRC ) . Comorian , spoken in the Comoros Islands , is sometimes considered to be a dialect of Swahili , though other authorities consider it a distinct language . The exact number of Swahili speakers , be it native or second-language speakers , is unknown and a matter of debate . Various estimates have been put forward and they vary widely , ranging from 100 million to 150 million . Swahili serves as a national language of the DRC , Kenya , Tanzania , and Uganda . Shikomor , the official language in Comoros and also spoken in Mayotte ( Shimaore ) , is related to Swahili . Swahili is also one of the working languages of the African Union and officially recognised as a lingua franca of the East African Community . In 2018 , South Africa legalized the teaching of Swahili in South African schools as an optional subject to begin in 2020 . A significant fraction of Swahili vocabulary derives from Arabic , in part conveyed by Arabic-speaking Muslim inhabitants . For example , the Swahili word for book is kitabu , traceable back to the Arabic word كتاب kitāb ( from the root K-T-B write ) . However , the Swahili plural form of this word ( books ) is vitabu , rather than the Arabic plural form كتب kutub , following the Bantu grammar in which ki- is reanalysed as a nominal class prefix , whose plural is vi- .
Yoruba ( English : /ˈjɒrʊbə/ ; Yor . Èdè Yorùbá ) is a language spoken in West Africa . The number of speakers of Yoruba is estimated between 30 and 40 million , primarily by the ethnic Yoruba people . It is a pluricentric language spoken principally in Nigeria and Benin , with communities in Sierra Leone , Liberia , other parts of Africa , the Americas , and Europe . The non-vernacular remains of the language in the Caribbean , Lucumi , is the liturgical language of the Santería religion of the region . Many Yoruba words are used in the Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candomblé . Yoruba language remants are also used in many other Afro-American religions in the Americas and the Caribbean . Yoruba is most closely related to the Itsekiri language ( spoken in the Niger Delta ) and to Igala ( spoken in central Nigeria ) .
Zulu ( /zuːluː/ ) or isiZulu ( Zulu : isiZulu ) is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa . It is the language of the Zulu people , with about 12 million native speakers , who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal of South Africa . Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa ( 24% of the population ) , and it is understood by over 50% of its population . It became one of South Africa 's 11 official languages in 1994 . According to Ethnologue , it is the second most widely spoken of the Bantu languages , after Swahili . [ a ] Like many other Bantu languages , it is written with the Latin alphabet . In South African English , the language is often referred to in its native form , isiZulu .
Turkish ( Türkçe ( help·info ) ) , also referred to as Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) , and sometimes known as Turkey Turkish ( Türkiye Türkçesi ) , is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages , with around ten to fifteen million native speakers in Southeast Europe ( mostly in East and Western Thrace ) and sixty to sixty-five million native speakers in Western Asia ( mostly in Anatolia ) . Outside Turkey , significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany , Austria , Bulgaria , North Macedonia , Northern Cyprus , Greece , the Caucasus , and other parts of Europe and Central Asia . Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official language , even though Turkey is not a member state . To the west , the influence of Ottoman Turkish - the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire - spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded . In 1928 , as one of Atatürk 's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey , the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet . The distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish is subject-object-verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has a strong T-V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness , social distance , age , courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee . The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect .
Somali /səˈmɑːli , soʊ-/ ( Af-Soomaali [ æ̀f sɔ̀ːmɑ́ːlì ] ) is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch . It is spoken as a mother tongue by Somalis in Greater Somalia and the Somali diaspora . Somali is an official language of Somalia , a national language in Djibouti , and a working language in the Somali Region of Ethiopia and also in North Eastern Kenya . It is used as an adoptive language by a few neighboring ethnic minority groups and individuals . The Somali language is written officially with the Latin alphabet .
Albanian ( /ælˈbeɪniən/ ; shqip [ ʃc͡çip ] or gjuha shqipe [ ɟ͡ʝuha ˈʃc͡çipɛ ] ) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and the Albanian diaspora in the Americas , Europe and Oceania . With about 7.5 million speakers , it comprises an independent branch within the Indo-European languages and is not closely related to any other language . First attested in the 15th century , it is the last Indo-European branch to appear in written records . This is one of the reasons why its still-unknown origin has long been a matter of dispute among linguists and historians . Albanian is considered to be the descendant of one of the Paleo-Balkan languages of antiquity . For more historical and geographical reasons than specifically linguistic ones , there are various modern historians and linguists who believe that the Albanian language may have descended from a southern Illyrian dialect spoken in much the same region in classical times . Alternative hypotheses hold that Albanian may have descended from Thracian or Daco-Moesian , other ancient languages spoken farther east than Illyrian . Not enough is known of these languages to completely prove or disprove the various hypotheses . The two main Albanian dialects , Gheg and Tosk which are primarily distinguished by phonological differences , are mutually intelligible , with Gheg spoken in the north and Tosk spoken in the south of the Shkumbin river . Their characteristics in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages , have led to the conclusion that the dialectal split occurred after Christianisation of the region ( 4th century AD ) and at the time of the Slavic migration to the Balkans , with the historic boundary between Gheg and Tosk being the Shkumbin which straddled the Jireček line . Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on the Tosk dialect . It is the official language of Albania and Kosovo [ a ] and a co-official language in North Macedonia as well as a minority language of Italy , Montenegro , Romania and Serbia .
Vietnamese ( Tiếng Việt ) is an Austroasiatic language that originated in Vietnam , where it is the national and official language . Spoken natively by an estimated 76 million people ( as of 2009 ) , it is the native language of the Vietnamese ( Kinh ) people , as well as a first or second language for the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam . As a result of Vietnamese emigration and cultural influence , Vietnamese speakers are found throughout the world , notably in East and Southeast Asia , North America , Australia and Western Europe . Vietnamese has also been officially recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic . Vietnamese is the Austroasiatic language with by far the most speakers , several times as many as the rest of the family combined . Its vocabulary has borrowings from Chinese , and it formerly used a modified set of Chinese characters called Chữ Nôm , which were given vernacular pronunciation . The Vietnamese alphabet ( chữ quốc ngữ ) in use today is a Latin alphabet with additional diacritics for tones and certain letters .
Hungarian ( magyar nyelv ( help·info ) ) is a Uralic language spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighbouring countries . It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . Outside Hungary it is also spoken by communities of Hungarians in the countries that today make up Slovakia , western Ukraine ( Subcarpathia ) , central and western Romania ( Transylvania ) , northern Serbia ( Vojvodina ) , northern Croatia and northern Slovenia ( Mur region ) . It is also spoken by Hungarian diaspora communities worldwide , especially in North America ( particularly the United States and Canada ) and Israel . With 13 million speakers , it is the Uralic family 's largest member by number of speakers .
Maltese ( Maltese : Malti ) is a Semitic language spoken by the Maltese people of Malta . It is a standardised and Latinised variety of Arabic . It is the national language of the country and also serves as an official language of the European Union , the only Semitic language so distinguished . Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic , which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect during the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091 . As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-christianisation of the island , Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of Latinisation . It is therefore exceptional as a variety of Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic . Maltese morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages , namely Italian and Sicilian . The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary , especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words , but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian ; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary . However , rural dialects of Maltese show more similarities to the original Siculo-Arabic ancestor as compared to Standard Maltese . A 2016 study shows that , in terms of basic everyday language , speakers of Maltese are able to understand less than a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic , which is a Maghrebi Arabic dialect with a significant Latin substratum , whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese . This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic . Maltese has always been written in the Latin script , the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages .
The Finnic ( Fennic ) or Balto-Finnic ( Balto-Fennic , Baltic Finnic , Baltic Fennic ) [ a ] languages are a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by Finnic peoples . There are around 7 million speakers who live mainly in Finland and Estonia . Traditionally , eight Finnic languages have been recognized . The major modern representatives of the family are Finnish and Estonian , the official languages of their respective nation states . The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are Ingrian and Votic , spoken in Ingria by the Gulf of Finland ; and Livonian , once spoken around the Gulf of Riga . Spoken farther northeast are Karelian , Ludic and Veps , in the region of Lakes Onega and Ladoga . In addition , since the 1990s , several Finnic-speaking minority groups have emerged to seek recognition for their languages as distinct from the ones they have been considered dialects of in the past . Some of there groups have established their own orthographies and standardised languages . Võro and Seto , which are spoken in southeastern Estonia and in some parts of Russia , have been considered dialects of Estonian in the past but modern day linguistics consider them their own languages . Meänkieli and Kven are spoken in northern Sweden and Norway respectively and have the legal status of independent minority languages . They were earlier considered dialects of Finnish and are somewhat mutually intelligible with it , depending on the dialect . Additionally the Karelian language was n't officially recognised as its own language in Finland until 2009 despite there being no linguistic confusion about its status .
The Estonian language ( eesti keel [ ˈeːsti ˈkeːl ] ( listen ) ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch spoken in Estonia . It is the official language of Estonia , spoken natively by about 1.1 million people ; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 outside Estonia . It is a Southern Finnic language and is the second-most-spoken language among all the Finnic languages .
Finnish ( suomi [ ˈsuo̯mi ] ( listen ) or suomen kieli [ ˈsuo̯meŋ ˈkie̯li ] ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside Finland . Finnish , along with Swedish , is an official language of Finland ; Finnish is also an official minority language in Sweden . In Sweden , both Standard Finnish and Meänkieli , its own language or a dialect of Finnish , are spoken . The Kven language , a dialect of Finnish or even a distinct language , is spoken in Northern Norway by a minority group of Finnish descent . The status of Kven and Meänkieli is debated . Finnish is a member of the Finnic language family and is typologically between fusional and agglutinative languages . It modifies and inflects nouns , adjectives , pronouns , numerals and verbs , depending on their roles in the sentence . Sentences are normally formed following the subject-verb-object syntax , although the extensive use of inflection allows them to be ordered otherwise . Words are written using a Latin-script alphabet derived from the Swedish alphabet , and are meant to be spelled exactly as they are pronounced , with each letter representing one phoneme . Vowel length and geminated consonants are distinguished , and its phonology includes a range of diphthongs , although vowel harmony limits which diphthongs are possible .
Sámi languages ( /ˈsɑːmi/ ) , in English also rendered as Sami , are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe ( in parts of northern Finland , Norway , Sweden and extreme north-western Russia ) . There are , depending on the nature and terms of division , ten or more Sami languages . Several spellings have been used for the Sámi languages , including Sámi , Sami , Saami , Saame , Sámic , Samic and Saamic , as well as the exonyms Lappish and Lappic . The last two , along with the term Lapp , are now often considered pejorative .
Chinese characters ( simplified Chinese : 汉字 ; traditional Chinese : 漢字 ; pinyin : hànzì ; literally : 'Han characters ' ) are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese . They have been adapted to write a number of other Asian languages . They remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as kanji . Chinese characters constitute the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world . By virtue of their widespread current use in East Asia , and historic use throughout the Sinosphere , Chinese characters are among the most widely adopted writing systems in the world by number of users . Chinese characters number in the tens of thousands , though most of them are minor graphic variants encountered only in historical texts . Unlike an alphabet , a character-based writing system associates each logogram with an entire sound and thus may be compared in some aspects to a syllabary . Functional literacy in written Chinese requires a knowledge of between three and four thousand characters . In Japan , 2,136 are taught through secondary school ( the Jōyō kanji ) ; hundreds more are in everyday use . Due to post-WWII simplifications of characters in Japan as well as in China , the Chinese characters used in Japan today are distinct from those used in China in several respects . There are various national standard lists of characters , forms , and pronunciations . Simplified forms of certain characters are used in mainland China , Singapore , and Malaysia ; the corresponding traditional characters are used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , Macau , and to a limited extent in South Korea .
In a written language , a logogram or logograph is a written character that represents a word or phrase . Chinese characters ( including Chinese hanzi , Japanese kanji and Korean hanja ) are logograms ; some Egyptian hieroglyphs and some graphemes in cuneiform script are also logograms . The use of logograms in writing is called logography , and a writing system that is based on logograms is called a logographic system . In the alphabets and syllabaries , individual written characters represent sounds only , rather than entire concepts . These characters are called phonograms in linguistics . Unlike logograms , phonograms do not have word or phrase meanings singularly until the phonograms are combined with additional phonograms thus creating words and phrases that have meaning . Writing language in this way , is called phonetic writing as well as orthographical writing .
Mandarin ( /ˈmændərɪn/ ( listen ) ; simplified Chinese : 官话 ; traditional Chinese : 官話 ; pinyin : Guānhuà ; literally : 'speech of officials ' ) is a group of related Sinitic languages spoken across most of northern and southwestern China . The group includes the Beijing dialect , the basis of Standard Chinese or Standard Mandarin . Because Mandarin originated in North China and most Mandarin dialects are found in the north , the group is sometimes referred to as the Northern dialects ( 北方话 ; běifānghuà ) . Many local Mandarin varieties are not mutually intelligible . Nevertheless , Mandarin is often placed first in lists of languages by number of native speakers ( with nearly a billion ) . Mandarin is by far the largest of the seven or ten Chinese dialect groups , spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area , stretching from Yunnan in the southwest to Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang in the northeast . This is generally attributed to the greater ease of travel and communication in the North China Plain compared to the more mountainous south , combined with the relatively recent spread of Mandarin to frontier areas . Most Mandarin varieties have four tones . The final stops of Middle Chinese have disappeared in most of these varieties , but some have merged them as a final glottal stop . Many Mandarin varieties , including the Beijing dialect , retain retroflex initial consonants , which have been lost in southern varieties of Chinese . The capital has been within the Mandarin area for most of the last millennium , making these dialects very influential . Some form of Mandarin has served as a national lingua franca since the 14th century .
Cantonese is a variety of Chinese originating from the city of Guangzhou ( also known as Canton ) and its surrounding area in Southeastern China . It is the traditional prestige variety of the Yue Chinese dialect group , which has about 68 million native speakers . While the term Cantonese specifically refers to the prestige variety , it is often used to refer to the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese , including related but largely mutually unintelligible languages and dialects such as Taishanese . Cantonese is viewed as a vital and inseparable part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swaths of Southeastern China , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in overseas communities . In mainland China , it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong ( being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta ) and neighbouring areas such as Guangxi . It is the dominant and regional language of Hong Kong and Macau . Cantonese is also widely spoken amongst Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia ( most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia , as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent ) and throughout the Western world . Although Cantonese shares much vocabulary with Mandarin , the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation , grammar , and lexicon . Sentence structure , in particular the placement of verbs , sometimes differs between the two varieties . A notable difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is how the spoken word is written ; both can be recorded verbatim , but very few Cantonese speakers are knowledgeable in the full Cantonese written vocabulary , so a non-verbatim formalized written form is adopted , which is more akin to the Mandarin written form . This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar but are pronounced differently .
Wu is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages spoken primarily in Shanghai , Zhejiang province , the southern half of Jiangsu province and bordering areas . Major Wu varieties include those of Shanghai , Suzhou , Wuxi , Changzhou , Ningbo , Hangzhou , Shaoxing , Wenzhou , Jinhua and Yongkang . Wu speakers , such as Chiang Kai-shek , Lu Xun and Cai Yuanpei , occupied positions of great importance in modern Chinese culture and politics . Wu can also be found being used in Pingtan , Yue opera , and Shanghai opera , the former which is second only in national popularity to Peking opera ; as well as in the performances of the popular entertainer and comedian Zhou Libo . Wu is also spoken in a large number of diaspora communities , with significant centers of immigration originating from Shanghai , Ningbo , Qingtian and Wenzhou . Suzhou has traditionally been the linguistic center of Wu and was likely the first place the distinct variety of Sinitic known as Wu developed . Suzhou dialect is widely considered to be the most linguistically representative of the family . It was mostly the basis of the Wu lingua franca that developed in Shanghai leading to the formation of standard Shanghainese , which as a center of economic power and possessing the largest population of Wu speakers , has attracted the most attention . Due to the influence of Shanghainese , Wu as a whole is incorrectly labelled in English as simply , Shanghainese , when introducing the language family to non-specialists . Wu is the more accurate terminology for the greater grouping that the Shanghainese variety is part of ; other less precise terms include Jiangnan speech ( 江南話 ) , Jiangzhe ( Jiangsu-Zhejiang ) speech ( 江浙話 ) , and less commonly Wuyue speech ( 吳越語 ) . The Wu group ( Southern Wu in particular ) is well known among linguists and sinologists as being one of the most internally diverse among the Sinitic groups , with very little mutual intelligibility between varieties across subgroups . Among speakers of other Sinitic languages , Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft , light , and flowing .
Gan or Gann is a group of Sinitic languages spoken natively by many people in the Jiangxi province of China , as well as significant populations in surrounding regions such as Hunan , Hubei , Anhui , and Fujian . Gan is a member of the Sinitic languages of the Sino-Tibetan language family , and Hakka is the closest Chinese variety to Gan in terms of phonetics . Different dialects of Gan exist ; the Nanchang dialect is usually taken as representative .
Min ( simplified Chinese : 闽语 ; traditional Chinese : 閩語 ; pinyin : Mǐn yǔ ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Bân gú ; BUC : Mìng ngṳ̄ ) is a broad group of Sinitic languages spoken by about 30 million people in Fujian province as well as by the descendants of Min speaking colonists on Leizhou peninsula and Hainan , or assimilated natives of Chaoshan , parts of Zhongshan , three counties in southern Wenzhou , Zhoushan archipelago , and Taiwan . The name is derived from the Min River in Fujian , which is also the abbreviated name of Fujian Province . Min varieties are not mutually intelligible with each other or with any other variety of Chinese . There are many Min speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia . The most widely spoken variety of Min outside Fujian is Southern Min ( Min Nan ) , also known as Hokkien-Taiwanese ( which includes Taiwanese and Amoy ) . Many Min languages have retained notable features of the Old Chinese language , and there is linguistic evidence that not all Min varieties are directly descended from Middle Chinese of the Sui-Tang dynasties . Min languages are believed to have a significant linguistic substrate from the languages of the inhabitants of the region prior to its sinicization .
Hakka is a language group of varieties of Chinese , spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout southern China , Taiwan , Hong Kong , Macau and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia , Southeast Asia , and in overseas Chinese communities around the world . Due to its primary usage in scattered isolated regions where communication is limited to the local area , Hakka has developed numerous varieties or dialects , spoken in different provinces , such as Guangdong , Guangxi , Hainan , Fujian , Sichuan , Hunan , Jiangxi and Guizhou , as well as in Hong Kong , Taiwan , Singapore , Malaysia and Indonesia . Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue , Wu , Southern Min , Mandarin or other branches of Chinese , and itself contains a few mutually unintelligible varieties . It is most closely related to Gan and is sometimes classified as a variety of Gan , with a few northern Hakka varieties even being partially mutually intelligible with southern Gan . There is also a possibility that the similarities are just a result of shared areal features . Taiwan ( where Hakka is the native language of a significant minority of the island 's residents ) is a center for the study and preservation of the language . Pronunciation differences exist between the Taiwanese Hakka dialects and Mainland China 's Hakka dialects ; even in Taiwan , two major local varieties of Hakka exist . The Meixian dialect ( Moiyen ) of northeast Guangdong in China has been taken as the standard dialect by the People 's Republic of China . The Guangdong Provincial Education Department created an official romanization of Moiyen in 1960 , one of four languages receiving this status in Guangdong .
Xiang or Hsiang ( Chinese : 湘 ; pinyin : xiāng ; Mandarin pronunciation : [ ɕi̯ɑ́ŋ ] ) , also known as Hunanese ( English : /ˌhuːnɑːˈniːz/ ) , is a group of linguistically similar and historically related Sinitic languages , spoken mainly in Hunan province but also in northern Guangxi and parts of neighboring Guizhou and Hubei provinces . Scholars divided Xiang into five subgroups , Chang-Yi , Lou-Shao , Hengzhou , Chen-Xu and Yong-Quan . Among those , Lou-shao , also known as Old Xiang , still exhibits the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents , preserving the voiced stops , fricatives , and affricates . Xiang has also been heavily influenced by Mandarin , which adjoins three of the four sides of the Xiang speaking territory , and Gan in Jiangxi Province , from where a large population immigrated to Hunan during the Ming Dynasty . Xiang-speaking Hunanese people have played an important role in Modern Chinese history , especially in those reformatory and revolutionary movements such as the Self-Strengthening Movement , Hundred Days ' Reform , Xinhai Revolution and Chinese Communist Revolution . Some examples of Xiang speakers are Mao Zedong , Zuo Zongtang , Huang Xing and Ma Ying-jeou .
Jin ( simplified Chinese : 晋语 ; traditional Chinese : 晉語 ; pinyin : jìnyǔ ) is a group of Chinese dialects or languages spoken by roughly 63 million people in northern China . Its geographical distribution covers most of Shanxi province except for the lower Fen River valley , much of central Inner Mongolia and adjoining areas in Hebei , Henan , and Shaanxi provinces . The status of Jin is disputed among linguists ; some prefer to classify it as a dialect of Mandarin , but others set it apart as a closely related , but separate sister-language to Mandarin .
Pinghua ( simplified Chinese : 平话 ; traditional Chinese : 平話 ; pinyin : Pínghuà ; Yale : Pìhng Wá ; sometimes disambiguated as Chinese : 廣西平話/广西平话 ) is a pair of Sinitic languages spoken mainly in parts of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region , with some speakers in Hunan province . Pinghua is a trade language in some areas of Guangxi , where it is spoken as a second language by speakers of Zhuang languages . Some speakers of Pinghua are officially classified as Zhuang , and many are genetically distinct from most other Han Chinese . The northern subgroup of Pinghua is centered on Guilin and the southern subgroup around Nanning . Southern Pinghua has several notable features such as having four distinct checked tones , and using various loanwords from the Zhuang languages , such as the final particle wei for imperative sentences .
Huizhou ( simplified Chinese : 徽州话 ; traditional Chinese : 徽州話 ; pinyin : Huīzhōu-huà ) or Hui ( simplified Chinese : 徽语 ; traditional Chinese : 徽語 ; pinyin : Huīyǔ ) , is a group of closely related Sinitic languages spoken over a small area in and around the historical region of Huizhou ( for which it is named ) , in about ten or so mountainous counties in southern Anhui , plus a few more in neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangxi . Although the Hui area is small compared with other Chinese dialect groups , it displays a very high degree of internal variation . Nearly every county has its own distinct dialect unintelligible to a speaker from a few counties away . For this reason , bilingualism and multilingualism are common among speakers of Hui . It is estimated that there are around 4.6 million speakers of Huizhou varieties .
Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo [ ɲihoŋɡo ] ( listen ) ) is an East Asian language spoken by about 128 million people , primarily in Japan , where it is the national language . It is a member of the Japonic ( or Japanese-Ryukyuan ) language family , and its relation to other languages , such as Korean , is debated . Japanese has been grouped with language families such as Ainu , Austroasiatic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance . Little is known of the language 's prehistory , or when it first appeared in Japan . Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words , but substantial texts did not appear until the 8th century . During the Heian period ( 794-1185 ) , Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese . Late Middle Japanese ( 1185-1600 ) included changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language , and the first appearance of European loanwords . The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo ( modern Tokyo ) region in the Early Modern Japanese period ( early 17th century-mid-19th century ) . Following the end of Japan 's self-imposed isolation in 1853 , the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly . English loanwords , in particular , have become frequent , and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated . Japanese is an agglutinative , mora-timed language with simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system , phonemic vowel and consonant length , and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject-object-verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words , and sentence structure is topic-comment .
Kanji ( 漢字 , pronounced [ kaɲdʑi ] ( listen ) ) are the adopted logographic Chinese characters that are used in the Japanese writing system . They are used alongside the Japanese syllabic scripts hiragana and katakana . The Japanese term kanji for the Chinese characters literally means Han characters . It is written with the same characters as in Traditional Chinese to refer to the character writing system , hanzi ( 漢字 ) .
The Korean language ( South Korean : 한국어/韓國語 hanguk-eo ; North Korean : 조선말/朝鮮말 chosŏn-mal ) is an East Asian language spoken by about 77 million people . It is a member of the Koreanic language family and is the official and national language of both Koreas : North Korea and South Korea , with different standardized official forms used in each country . It is a recognised minority language in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County of Jilin province , China . It is also spoken in parts of Sakhalin , Russia , and Central Asia . Historical and modern linguists classify Korean as a language isolate ; however , it does have a few extinct relatives , which together with Korean itself and the Jeju language ( spoken in the Jeju Province and considered somewhat distinct ) form the Koreanic language family . The linguistic homeland of Korean is suggested to be somewhere in Manchuria .
Hanja ( Korean : 한자 ; Hanja : 漢字 ; Korean pronunciation : [ ha ( ː ) nt͈ɕa ] ) [ citation needed ] is the Korean name for Chinese characters ( Chinese : 漢字 ; pinyin : hànzì ) . More specifically , it refers to the Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation . Hanja-mal or Hanja-eo ( the latter is used more often ) refers to words that can be written with Hanja , and hanmun , or anyone who wishes to read scholarly texts in the humanities . Learning a certain number of Hanja is very helpful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words , and for enlarging one 's Korean vocabulary . Today , Hanja are not used to write native Korean words , which are always rendered in Hangul , and even words of Chinese origin - Hanja-eo ( 한자어 , 漢字語 ) - are written with the Hangul alphabet most of the time , with the corresponding Chinese character often written next to it to prevent confusion with other characters or words with the same phonetics . [ citation needed ]
Chữ Nôm ( 𡨸喃 , IPA : [ cɨ̌ˀ nom ] , literally 'Southern characters ' ) , in earlier times also called Chữ Nam ( 𡨸南 ) or Quốc Âm ( 國音 , National sound ) , is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language . It used the standard set of classical Chinese characters to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words , while new characters were created on the Chinese model to represent other words . Although formal writing in Vietnam was done in classical Chinese , until the early 20th century ( except for two brief interludes ) , chữ Nôm was widely used between the 15th and 19th centuries by Vietnam 's cultured elite , including women , for popular works , many in verse . One of the best-known pieces of Vietnamese literature , The Tale of Kiều , was composed in chữ Nôm . In the 1920s , the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet created by Jesuit missionaries displaced chữ Nôm as the preferred way to record Vietnamese . While Han characters are still used for decorative , historic and ceremonial value and as symbols of good luck , Nôm characters have fallen into disuse in any other function in modern Vietnam in favour of the alphabet . The task of preservation and study of Vietnamese texts written in Nôm ( but also classical Chinese texts from Vietnam ) is conducted by the Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies in Hanoi .
The Zhuang languages ( autonym : Vahcuengh , pre-1982 : Vaƅcueŋƅ , Sawndip : 話僮 , from vah , 'language ' and Cuengh , 'Zhuang ' ; simplified Chinese : 壮语 ; traditional Chinese : 壯語 ; pinyin : Zhuàngyǔ ) are any of more than a dozen Tai languages spoken by the Zhuang people of Southern China in the province of Guangxi and adjacent parts of Yunnan and Guangdong . The Zhuang languages do not form a monophyletic linguistic unit , as northern and southern Zhuang languages are more closely related to other Tai languages than to each other . Northern Zhuang languages form a dialect continuum with Northern Tai varieties across the provincial border in Guizhou , which are designated as Bouyei , whereas Southern Zhuang languages form another dialect continuum with Central Tai varieties such as Nung , Tay and Caolan in Vietnam . Standard Zhuang is based on the Northern Zhuang dialect of Wuming . The Tai languages are believed to have been originally spoken in what is now southern China , with speakers of the Southwestern Tai languages ( which include Thai , Lao and Shan ) having emigrated in the face of Chinese expansion . Noting that both the Zhuang and Thai peoples have the same exonym for the Vietnamese , kɛɛuA1 , from the Chinese commandery of Jiaozhi in northern Vietnam , Jerold A. Edmondson posited that the split between Zhuang and the Southwestern Tai languages happened no earlier than the founding of Jiaozhi in 112 BC . He also argues that the departure of the Thai from southern China must predate the 5th century AD , when the Tai who remained in China began to take family names .
Zhuang characters or Sawndip ( [ θaɯ˨˦ɗip˥ ] ) , are logograms derived from Chinese characters and used by the Zhuang people of Guangxi and Yunnan , China to write the Zhuang languages for more than one thousand years . The script is not only used by the Zhuang but also by the closely related Bouyei in Guizhou , China and Tay in Vietnam and Nùng , in Yunnan , China and Vietnam . Sawndip ( Sawndip : 𭨡𮄫 ) [ a ] is a Zhuang word that means immature characters . The Zhuang word for Chinese characters used in the Chinese language is sawgun ( Sawndip : 𭨡倱 ; characters of the Han ) ; gun is the Zhuang term for the Han Chinese . Even now , in traditional and less formal domains , Sawndip is more often used than alphabetical scripts .
The Okinawan language ( 沖縄口/ウチナーグチ , Uchināguchi , [ ʔut͡ɕinaːɡut͡ɕi ] ) or Central Okinawan , is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa , as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama , Kumejima , Tonaki , Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands . Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa , which is classified independently as the Kunigami language . Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered . Though Okinawan encompasses a number of local dialects , the Shuri-Naha variant is generally recognized as the de facto standard , as it had been used as the official language of the Ryūkyū Kingdom since the reign of King Shō Shin ( 1477-1526 ) . Moreover , as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace , the language used by the royal court became the regional and literary standard , which thus flourished in songs and poems written during that era . Today , most Okinawans speak Okinawan Japanese , although there is a small number who still speaks the Okinawan language , most often the elderly . Within Japan , Okinawan is often not seen as a language unto itself but is referred to as the Okinawan dialect ( 沖縄方言 , Okinawa hōgen ) or more specifically the Central and Southern Okinawan dialects ( 沖縄中南部諸方言 , Okinawa Chūnanbu Sho hōgen ) . Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese , since language use in Okinawa today is far from stable . Okinawans are assimilating and accenting standard Japanese due to the similarity of the two languages , standardized and centralized education system , the media , business and social contact with mainlanders and previous attempts from Japan to suppress the native languages . Okinawan is still kept alive in popular music , tourist shows and in theaters featuring a local drama called Uchinā shibai , which depict local customs and manners .
Okinawan language , spoken in Okinawa Island , was once the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom . At the time , documents were written in kanji and hiragana , derived from Japan . Nowadays , most Japanese , as well as most Okinawans , tend to think of Okinawan as merely a dialect of Standard Japanese , even though the language is not mutually intelligible to Japanese speakers . As a dialect , modern Okinawan is not written frequently . When it is , the Japanese writing system is generally used in an ad hoc manner . There is no standard orthography for the modern language . Nonetheless , there are a few systems used by scholars and laypeople alike . None of them are widely used by native speakers , but represent the language with less ambiguity than the ad hoc conventions . The Roman alphabet in some form or another is used in some publications , especially those of an academic nature .
The Mulam language Chinese : 仫佬 ; pinyin : Mùlǎo is a Kam-Sui language spoken mainly in Luocheng County , Hechi , northern Guangxi by the Mulao people . The greatest concentrations are in Dongmen and Siba communes . Their autonym is mu6 lam1 . The Mulam also call themselves kjam1 , which is probably cognate with lam1 and the Dong people 's autonym Kam ( Wang & Zheng 1980 ) . The Mulam language , like Dong , does not have voiced stop , but does have a phonemic distinction between unvoiced and voiced nasals and laterals . It has a system of eleven distinct vowels . It is a tonal language with ten tones , and 65% of its vocabulary is shared with the Zhuang and Dong languages . [ citation needed ] The majority of the Mulam also speak Chinese as well as the Zhuang and Dong languages . [ citation needed ] The language of Mulam leads to a comparison between two languages as Graham Thurgood states , For 'headlouse ' , the KS forms are highly irregular : Kam , Mulam… ( Oceanic Linguistics , Vol . 33 , No 2 ) . This relates to the way in which one language can be interpreted through another language , which displays a level of diversity as they may derive different meanings from the translations . Within Mulam Phonology , there is a display of the syllables for Mulam that seems very difficult to decipher without having much knowledge of how they communicate with the dialect .
China ( Chinese : 中国 ; pinyin : Zhōngguó ) , officially the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) , is a country in East Asia and is the world 's most populous country , with a population of around 1.428 billion in 2017 . Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers ( 3,700,000 sq mi ) , it is the third largest country by area . [ j ] Governed by the Communist Party of China , the state exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , [ k ] five autonomous regions , four direct-controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai , and Chongqing ) , and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau . China emerged as one of the world 's first civilizations , in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain . For millennia , China 's political system was based on hereditary monarchies , or dynasties , beginning with the semi-mythical Xia dynasty in 21st century BCE . Since then , China has expanded , fractured , and re-unified numerous times . In the 3rd century BCE , the Qin reunited core China and established the first Chinese empire . The succeeding Han dynasty , which ruled from 206 BCE until 220 CE , saw some of the most advanced technology at that time , including papermaking and the compass , along with agricultural and medical improvements . The invention of gunpowder and movable type in the Tang dynasty ( 618-907 ) and Northern Song ( 960-1127 ) completed the Four Great Inventions . Tang culture spread widely in Asia , as the new Silk Route brought traders to as far as Mesopotamia and the Horn of Africa . Dynastic rule ended in 1912 with the Xinhai Revolution , when the Republic of China ( ROC ) replaced the Qing dynasty . China , as a whole , was ravaged by feudal warlordism and Japan during World War II .
Taiwan ( Chinese : 臺灣 ; pinyin : Táiwān ) , [ II ] officially the Republic of China ( ROC ) , [ I ] is a state in East Asia . Neighbouring states include the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) to the north-west , Japan to the north-east , and the Philippines to the south . The island of Taiwan has an area of 35,808 square kilometres ( 13,826 sq mi ) , with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third , where its highly urbanised population is concentrated . Taipei is the capital and largest metropolitan area . Other major cities include Kaohsiung , Taichung , Tainan and Taoyuan . With 23.7 million inhabitants , Taiwan is among the most densely populated states , and is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations ( UN ) . Taiwanese indigenous peoples settled the island of Taiwan around 6,000 years ago . In the 17th century , Dutch rule opened the island to mass Han immigration . After the brief Kingdom of Tungning in parts of the southern and western areas of the island , the island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of China , and ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895 . Following the surrender of Japan in 1945 , the Republic of China , which had overthrown and succeeded the Qing in 1911 , took control of Taiwan on behalf of the World War II Allies . The resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the loss of the mainland to the Communist Party of China and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949 . Although the ROC government continued to claim to be the legitimate representative of China , since 1950 its effective jurisdiction has been limited to Taiwan and numerous smaller islands .
Singapore ( /ˈsɪŋ ( ɡ ) əpɔːr/ ( listen ) ) , officially the Republic of Singapore , is a sovereign city-state and island country in Southeast Asia . Singapore is located about one degree ( 137 kilometres or 85 miles ) north of the equator , and is situated off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula , and by extension , the southernmost extremity of continental Asia . The island country shares its southern maritime border with Indonesia 's Riau Islands , its northern , western , and eastern maritime borders with the Johor state of Peninsular Malaysia , and is in the vicinity of Sumatra to its west and Borneo to its east . It is enveloped by the littoral waters of the Johore Strait to its north and the Singapore Strait to its south , and is geographically positioned within the confluence of the Indian and Pacific Oceans , being bounded by the Malacca Strait to its west and the South China Sea to its east . The country 's territory is composed of one main island and 58 smaller islets , the combined area of which has increased by almost 25% since the country 's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects . Although Singapore has been a constituent part of several Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empires and Islamic sultanates throughout its millennia-long history , modern Singapore , then part of the erstwhile Johor Sultanate , was founded in 1819 when Stamford Raffles , a British colonial officer , established a trading post of the East India Company on the island . In 1824 , the island and its satellite islets were fully ceded by the Johor Sultanate , and in 1826 , Singapore was incorporated into the Straits Settlements , a group of East India Company territories in the Malay peninsula . From 1830 to 1858 , the Straits Settlements were administered as a Malayan subdivision of the East India Company 's Bengal Presidency ; following the Indian Rebellion of 1857 , the Presidency and its constituent Settlements were reorganised into the British Raj . In 1867 , Britain 's colonial holdings in the Malay archipelago were separated from British India , and the administration of the Straits Settlements was transferred from Calcutta to London , bringing the Straits Settlements under the direct control of the British Crown as a crown colony . From 1867 to the 1940s , Singapore grew into a successful entrepôt that attracted settlers and sojourners from the region and beyond . During the Second World War , Imperial Japan successfully invaded Singapore , resulting in an interregnum of British rule corresponding with a brief Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945 . Following Japan 's surrender in 1945 , the Straits Settlements were dissolved , with Singapore being returned to British control as a standalone crown colony in 1946 .
Malaysia ( /məˈleɪziə , -ʒə/ ( listen ) mə-LAY-zee-ə , -⁠zhə ; Malay : [ məlejsiə ] ) is a country in Southeast Asia . The federal constitutional monarchy consists of 13 states and three federal territories , separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions , Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia ( Malaysian Borneo ) . Peninsular Malaysia shares a land and maritime border with Thailand and maritime borders with Singapore , Vietnam , and Indonesia . East Malaysia shares land and maritime borders with Brunei and Indonesia and a maritime border with the Philippines and Vietnam . Kuala Lumpur is the national capital and largest city while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government . With a population of over 30 million , Malaysia is the world 's 44th most populous country . The southernmost point of continental Eurasia , Tanjung Piai , is in Malaysia . In the tropics , Malaysia is one of 17 megadiverse countries , home to large numbers of endemic species . Malaysia has its origins in the Malay kingdoms which , from the 18th century , became subject to the British Empire , along with the British Straits Settlements protectorate . Peninsular Malaysia was unified as the Malayan Union in 1946 . Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948 and achieved independence on 31 August 1957 . Malaya united with North Borneo , Sarawak , and Singapore on 16 September 1963 to become Malaysia .
Malaysian Chinese people or Chinese Malaysians ( Chinese : 马来西亚华人 ) is a local ethnic group in Malaysia . The group is defined as local Malaysians of ethnic Chinese ( Han Chinese ) ancestry . Today , they form the second largest ethnic group after the Malay majority . Most are descendants of Southern Chinese immigrants who arrived in Malaysia between the early 19th century and the mid-20th century . The sub-ethnic groups of Malaysian Chinese includes Hokkien , Cantonese , Hakka , Teochew , Hainan , Foochow and Kwongsai . Malaysian Chinese also form the second largest community of Overseas Chinese in the world , after Thai Chinese . Within Malaysia , they represent the third largest group , constituting 23% of the Malaysian population . Malaysian Chinese are traditionally dominant in the business sector of the Malaysian economy . Different towns and cities in Malaysia are placed by different Chinese dialects among Chinese speakers ; for example Cantonese in Kuala Lumpur , Hokkien in George Town and Kuching , Hakka in Kota Kinabalu , Teochew in Johor Bahru , Foochow in Sibu while Hainanese in Kuala Terengganu . But , Mandarin is now widely used as a working language or lingua franca among the different Chinese ethnicities and younger generations . Culturally , most Malaysian Chinese have maintained their Chinese heritage , including their various dialects , although the descendants of the earliest Chinese migrants who arrived from the 13th to 17th centuries have assimilated aspects of the Malay or indigenous cultures , where they form a distinct sub-ethnic group known as the Peranakans in Kelantan and Terengganu , Baba-Nyonya in Malacca and Penang as well the Sino-Natives in Sabah . Malaysian Chinese are usually referred to simply as Chinese in Malaysia , Orang Cina in Malay , Sina or Kina among Borneo indigenous , Cīṉar ( சீனர் ) in Tamil and Huaren ( 華人 , Chinese people ) or Huaqiao ( 華僑 , Overseas Chinese ) by local Chinese themselves .
Japan ( Japanese : 日本 , Nippon [ ɲippoꜜɴ ] ( listen ) or Nihon [ ɲihoꜜɴ ] ( listen ) ) is an island country located in East Asia . It is bordered by the Sea of Japan to the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east , and spans more than 3,000 kilometers ( 1,900 mi ) along the coast of the continent from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Philippine Sea in the south . Part of the Pacific Ring of Fire , Japan encompasses a stratovolcanic archipelago of about 6,852 islands , with five main islands ( Hokkaido , Honshu , Kyushu , Shikoku , and Okinawa ) comprising 97% of the country 's total area of 377,975 square kilometers ( 145,937 sq mi ) . Japan is officially divided into 47 prefectures and traditionally into eight regions . Approximately two-thirds of the country 's terrain is mountainous and heavily forested , and less than one-eighth of land is suitable for agriculture . Consequently , Japan is among the most densely populated and urbanized countries in the world , with over 90% of its population living in urban areas . The largest of these is the metropolitan area centered on the capital city of Tokyo , which is the most populous in the world and home to more than 38 million people . Japan itself is the world 's eleventh most populous country with a population of 126.2 million , of which 97.8% are ethnically Japanese . The kanji ( or Chinese characters ) that make up the name of Japan in the Japanese language mean sun origin ; in the Western world , the country is often known by the sobriquet Land of the Rising Sun . Periods of influence from other regions , primarily China , followed by periods of isolation , particularly from Western Europe , have characterized the history of Japan . While archaeological evidence indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period , the first written mention of the archipelago appears in Chinese texts from the first century AD . Between the fourth and ninth centuries , the kingdoms of Japan became gradually unified under an Emperor and imperial court based in Heian-kyō ( modern Kyoto ) .
South Korea ( Korean : 한국/韓國 ; RR : Hanguk or literally 남한/南韓 ; RR : Namhan ) , officially the Republic of Korea ( Korean : 대한민국/大韓民國 ; RR : Daehan Minguk ) is a country in East Asia , constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea . The name Korea is derived from Goguryeo , which was one of the great powers in East Asia during its time , ruling most of the Korean Peninsula , Manchuria , parts of the Russian Far East and Inner Mongolia under Gwanggaeto the Great . Its capital , Seoul , is a major global city and half of South Korea 's over 51 million people live in the Seoul Capital Area , the fourth largest metropolitan economy in the world . The Korean Peninsula was inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period . Its first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BC . Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century , Korea was ruled by the Goryeo dynasty ( 918-1392 ) and the Joseon dynasty ( 1392-1897 ) . The succeeding Korean Empire was annexed into the Empire of Japan in 1910 . After World War II , Korea was divided into Soviet and U.S.-administered zones , with the latter becoming the Republic of Korea in August 1948 . In 1950 , a North Korean invasion began the Korean War and after its end in 1953 , the country 's economy began to soar , recording the fastest rise in average GDP per capita in the world between 1980 and 1990 . Authoritarian rule ended in 1987 and the country is now the most advanced democracy with the highest level of press freedom in Asia . South Korea is a member of the OECD 's Development Assistance Committee , the G20 and the Paris Club . South Korea is a highly developed country and the world 's 12th-largest economy by nominal GDP .
Indonesia ( /ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ ( listen ) IN-də-NEE-zhə ) , officially the Republic of Indonesia ( Indonesian : Republik Indonesia [ reˈpublik ɪndoˈnesia ] ( listen ) ) , [ a ] is a country in Southeast Asia , between the Indian and Pacific oceans . It is the world 's largest island country , with more than seventeen thousand islands , and at 1,904,569 square kilometres ( 735,358 square miles ) , the 14th largest by land area and 7th in the combined sea and land area . With over 267 million people , it is the world 's 4th most populous country as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country . Java , the world 's most populous island , is home to more than half of the country 's population . The country 's capital , Jakarta , is the second-most populous urban area in the world . The sovereign state is a presidential , constitutional republic with an elected legislature . It has 34 provinces , of which five have special status . The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea , East Timor , and the eastern part of Malaysia . Other neighbouring countries include Singapore , Vietnam , the Philippines , Australia , Palau , and India 's Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Despite its large population and densely populated regions , Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support a high level of biodiversity . The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas , coal , tin , copper , gold , and nickel , while agriculture mainly produces rice , palm oil , tea , coffee , cacao , medicinal plants , spices , and rubber . China , the United States , Japan , Singapore , and India are Indonesia 's major trading partners .
Chinese Indonesians ( Indonesian : Orang Indonesia keturunan Tionghoa ) or ( in Indonesia ) simply Orang Tionghoa ( simplified Chinese : 中华 ; traditional Chinese : 中華 ; pinyin : Zhōnghuá ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī : Tiong-hôa ) , are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries . Most Chinese Indonesians are descended from Southern Chinese immigrants . Chinese people have lived in the Indonesian archipelago since at least the 13th century . Many came initially as sojourners ( temporary residents ) , intending to return home in their old age . Some , however , stayed in the region as economic migrants . Their population grew rapidly during the colonial period when workers were contracted from their home provinces in southern China . Discrimination against Chinese Indonesians has occurred since the start of Dutch colonialism in the region , although government policies implemented since 1998 have attempted to redress this . Resentment of ethnic Chinese economic aptitude grew in the 1950s as Native Indonesian merchants felt they could not remain competitive . In some cases , government action propagated the stereotype that ethnic Chinese-owned conglomerates were corrupt . Although the 1997 Asian financial crisis severely disrupted their business activities , reform of government policy and legislation removed a number of political and social restrictions on Chinese Indonesians . The development of local Chinese society and culture is based upon three pillars : clan associations , ethnic media and Chinese language schools . These flourished during the period of Chinese nationalism in the final years of China 's Qing dynasty and through the Second Sino-Japanese War ; however , differences in the objective of nationalist sentiments brought about a split in the population .
Hong Kong ( /ˌhɒŋˈkɒŋ/ ( listen ) ; Chinese : 香港 , Cantonese : [ hœ́ːŋ.kɔ̌ːŋ ] ( listen ) ) , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People 's Republic of China ( HKSAR ) , is a city and special administrative region on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary in southern China . With over 7.4 million people of various nationalities [ d ] in a 1,104-square-kilometre ( 426 sq mi ) territory , Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world . Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842 . The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War , and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898 . The territory was returned to China in 1997 . As a special administrative region , Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of one country , two systems . Originally a sparsely populated area of farming and fishing villages , the territory has become one of the world 's most significant financial centres and commercial ports . It is the world 's tenth-largest exporter and ninth-largest importer . As one of the world 's leading international financial centres , Hong Kong has a major capitalist service economy characterised by low taxation and free trade , and the currency , Hong Kong dollar , is the eighth most traded currency in the world . Hong Kong hosts the largest concentration of ultra high-net-worth individuals of any city in the world . Although the city has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world , there is severe income inequality among its residents . Hong Kong is a highly developed territory and ranks fourth on the UN Human Development Index .
Devanagari ( /ˌdeɪvəˈnɑːɡəri/ DAY-və-NAH-gər-ee ; देवनागरी , IAST : Devanāgarī , Sanskrit pronunciation : [ deːʋɐˈnaːɡɐɽiː ] ) , also called Nagari ( Nāgarī , नागरी ) , is a left-to-right abugida ( alphasyllabary ) , based on the ancient Brāhmī script , used in the Indian subcontinent . It was developed in ancient India from the 1st to the 4th century CE and was in regular use by the 7th century CE . The Devanagari script , composed of 47 primary characters including 14 vowels and 33 consonants , is one of the most adopted writing systems in the world , being used for over 120 languages . The ancient Nagari script for Sanskrit had two additional consonantal characters . The orthography of this script reflects the pronunciation of the language . Unlike the Latin alphabet , the script has no concept of letter case . It is written from left to right , has a strong preference for symmetrical rounded shapes within squared outlines and is recognisable by a horizontal line that runs along the top of full letters . In a cursory look , the Devanagari script appears different from other Indic scripts such as Bengali , Odia or Gurmukhi , but a closer examination reveals they are very similar except for angles and structural emphasis . Among the languages using it - as either their only script or one of their scripts - are Pāḷi , Sanskrit , Hindi , Nepali , Sherpa , Prakrit , Apabhramsha , Awadhi , Bhojpuri , Braj Bhasha , Chhattisgarhi , Haryanvi , Magahi , Nagpuri , Rajasthani , Bhili , Dogri , Marathi , Maithili , Kashmiri , Konkani , Sindhi , Bodo , Nepalbhasa , Mundari and Santali . The Devanagari script is closely related to the Nandinagari script commonly found in numerous ancient manuscripts of South India , and it is distantly related to a number of southeast Asian scripts .
An abugida /ɑːbʊˈɡiːdə/ ( listen ) ( from Ge'ez : አቡጊዳ abugida ) , or alphasyllabary , is a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as a unit ; each unit is based on a consonant letter , and vowel notation is secondary . This contrasts with a full alphabet , in which vowels have status equal to consonants , and with an abjad , in which vowel marking is absent , partial , or optional ( although in less formal contexts , all three types of script may be termed alphabets ) . The terms also contrast them with a syllabary , in which the symbols can not be split into separate consonants and vowels . Abugidas include the extensive Brahmic family of scripts of Tibet , South and Southeast Asia , Semitic Ethiopic scripts , and Canadian Aboriginal syllabics ( which are themselves based in part on Brahmic scripts ) . As is the case for syllabaries , the units of the writing system may consist of the representations both of syllables and of consonants . For scripts of the Brahmic family , the term akshara is used for the units . Äbugida is an Ethiopian name for the Geez script , taken from four letters of that script , ' ä bu gi da , in much the same way that abecedary is derived from Latin a be ce de , abjad is derived from the Arabic a b j d , and alphabet is derived from the names of the two first letters in the Greek alphabet , alpha and beta . Abugida as a term in linguistics was proposed by Peter T. Daniels in his 1990 typology of writing systems . As Daniels used the word , an abugida is in contrast with a syllabary , where letters with shared consonants or vowels show no particular resemblance to one another , and also with an alphabet proper , where independent letters are used to denote both consonants and vowels . The term alphasyllabary was suggested for the Indic scripts in 1997 by William Bright , following South Asian linguistic usage , to convey the idea that they share features of both alphabet and syllabary . Abugidas were long considered to be syllabaries , or intermediate between syllabaries and alphabets , and the term syllabics is retained in the name of Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics . Other terms that have been used include neosyllabary ( Février 1959 ) , pseudo-alphabet ( Householder 1959 ) , semisyllabary ( Diringer 1968 ; a word that has other uses ) and syllabic alphabet ( Coulmas 1996 ; this term is also a synonym for syllabary ) .
Angika ( अंगिका ) or Chhika-Chhiki is a language spoken primarily in the Anga region of Bihar and Jharkhand states of India . In addition to India , it is also spoken in some parts of the Terai region of Nepal.It belongs to the Eastern Indo-Aryan language family . It is closely related to languages such as Bengali , Assamese , Oriya , Maithili and Magahi . Angika is not listed in the 8th schedule of the constitution of India . Nevertheless , Angika language movements have advocated its inclusion , and a submitted request is currently pending with the Government . Angika is written in the Devanagari script ; although the Anga Lipi and Kaithi scripts were used historically . [ citation needed ] Angika shows a regular contrast for animates .
Awadhi ( IPA : [ əʋ.d̪ʱiː ] ; अवधी ; 𑂃𑂫𑂡𑂲 ) is an Eastern Hindi language of the Indo-Aryan branch spoken in northern India . It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh , India . The name Awadh is connected to Ayodhya , the ancient town , which is regarded as the homeland of Śrī Rāma . It was , along with Braj Bhasha , used widely as a literary vehicle before being displaced by Hindustani in the 19th century . Linguistically , Awadhi is a language at par with Hindi-Urdu . However , it is regarded by the state to be a dialect of Hindi , and the area where Awadhi is spoken to be a part of the Hindi language area owing to their cultural proximity . As a result , Modern Standard Hindi , rather than Awadhi , is used for school instructions as well as administrative and official purposes ; and its literature is subsumed under Hindi literature . Alternative names of Awadhi include Baiswāri ( after the subregion of Baiswara ) , as well as the sometimes ambiguous Pūrbī , literally meaning eastern , and Kōsalī ( named after the ancient Kosala Kingdom ) .
Bhili ( Bhili : भीली ) is a Western Indo-Aryan language spoken in west-central India , in the states of Rajasthan , Gujarat , Maharashtra , and Madhya Pradesh . Other names for the language include Bhagoria and Bhilboli ; several varieties are called Garasia . Bhili is a member of the Bhil languages , which are related to Gujarati and Rajasthani . The language is written using the Devanagari script .
Bhojpuri ( /ˌboʊdʒˈpʊəri/ ; भोजपुरी ( help·info ) ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern-eastern India and the Terai region of Nepal . It is chiefly spoken in western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh . Sociolinguistically , Bhojpuri is considered one of several Hindi dialects . The language is an official language of Nepal [ citation needed ] and a minority language in Guyana , Trinidad and Tobago , Suriname , South Africa , and Mauritius . Fiji Hindi , an official language of Fiji , is a variant of Awadhi and Bhojpuri . Caribbean Hindustani , another variant of Awadhi and Bhojpuri , is spoken by the Indo-Caribbean people . It has experienced lexical influence from Caribbean English in Trinidad and Tobago and in Guyana . In Suriname , languages that have lexically influenced it include Sranan Tongo Creole , Surinamese Dutch , and English . Another dialect is spoken in Mauritius ; its use is declining , and As of 2000 [ update ] it is spoken by about 5% of the country 's population .
Bodo ( बर'/बड़ [ bɔɽo ] ) , Boro or Mech , is the Sino-Tibetan language spoken primarily by the Bodo people of Northeast India , Nepal and Bengal . It is official language of the Bodoland Autonomous region and co-official language of the state of Assam in India It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages that is given a special constitutional status in India . Since 1963 , the language has been written using the Devanagari script . It was formerly written using Latin and Assamese script . Some scholars have suggested that the language used to have its own now lost script known as Deodhai .
Chhattisgarhi ( Devanagari : छत्तीसगढ़ी ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by 18 million people in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh . It is an Eastern Hindi language and is closely related to Awadhi and Bagheli . Chhattisgarhi has been known by the name Khaltahi to surrounding hill-people and by the name Loriya to speakers in neighboring regions of Odisha to Chhattisgarh . [ citation needed ] The speakers are concentrated in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh and in adjacent areas of Madhya Pradesh , Odisha , and Jharkhand . Some linguists also treat this language and Nagpuri/Sadri languages as dialects of Odia . Chhattisgarhi cultural and political movements , with origins from the 1920s , affirmed Chhattisgarhi linguistic and cultural identity and sought greater autonomy within India . It was 1 November , 2000 when 16 districts in the state of Madhya Pradesh became the new state of Chhattisgarh .
Dogri ( डोगरी or ڈوگری ) , is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about five million people in India and Pakistan , chiefly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh , but also in northern Punjab , other parts of Jammu and Kashmir , and elsewhere . Dogri speakers are called Dogras , and the Dogri-speaking region is called Duggar . Although formerly treated as a Punjabi dialect , Dogri is now considered to be a member of the Western Pahari group of languages . Unusually for an Indo-European language , Dogri is tonal , a trait it shares with other Western Pahari languages and Punjabi . Dogri has several varieties , all with greater than 80% lexical similarity ( within Jammu and Kashmir ) .
Haryanvi ( हरियाणवी hariyāṇvī or हरयाणवी harayāṇvī ) is a dialect of the Western Hindi group and it is written in Devanagari script . Haryanvi is native to the region of Haryana in India .
Hindi ( Devanagari : हिन्दी , IAST/ISO 15919 : Hindī ) or Modern Standard Hindi ( Devanagari : मानक हिन्दी , IAST/ISO 15919 : Mānak Hindī ) , is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in India and across the Indian subcontinent . Modern Hindi is the standardised and Sanskritised register of the Hindustani language , which itself is based primarily on the Khariboli dialect of Delhi and other nearby areas of Northern India . Hindi , written in the Devanagari script , is one of the two official languages of the Government of India , along with the English language . It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of the Republic of India . Hindi is the lingua franca of the Hindi belt and to a lesser extent other parts of India ( usually in a simplified or pidginised variety such as Bazaar Hindustani or Haflong Hindi ) . Outside India , several other languages are recognised officially as Hindi but do not refer to the Standard Hindi language described here and instead descend from other dialects , such as Awadhi and Bhojpuri . Such languages include Fiji Hindi , which is official in Fiji , and Caribbean Hindustani , which is spoken in Trinidad and Tobago , Guyana , and Suriname . Apart from the script and formal vocabulary , spoken Hindi is mutually intelligible with standard Urdu , another recognised register of Hindustani as both share a common colloquial base . As a linguistic variety , Hindi is the fourth most-spoken first language in the world , after Mandarin , Spanish and English . Hindi alongside Urdu as Hindustani is the third most-spoken language in the world , after Mandarin and English .
Kashmiri ( English : /kæʃˈmɪəri/ ) or Koshur ( English : /kɜːʃur/ ; कॉशुर , كٲشُر ) , is a language from the Dardic subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages , spoken by around 7 million Kashmiris , primarily in the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir . There are also speakers in parts of the neighbouring Pakistani territory of Azad Kashmir . Although the official language of Jammu and Kashmir is Urdu , Kashmiri is recognised as a regional language in the state and is also among the 22 scheduled languages of India . Kashmiri has split ergativity and the unusual verb-second word order .
Konkani [ note 4 ] ( Kōṅkaṇī ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Konkani people ( Maharashtra & Goa ) along the western coast of India . It is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th schedule of the Indian Constitution and the official language of the Indian state of Goa . The first Konkani inscription is dated 1187 A.D . It is a minority language in Karnataka , Maharashtra , Kerala , Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu . Konkani is a member of the southern Indo-Aryan language group . It retains elements of Vedic structures and shows similarities with both western and eastern Indo-Aryan languages . There are many fractured Konkani dialects , most of which are not mutually intelligible with one another .
The Magahi language , also known as Magadhi , is a language spoken in Bihar , Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India . Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magadhi , from which the latter 's name derives . It has a very rich and old tradition of folk songs and stories . It is spoken in seven districts of Bihar ( Gaya , Patna , Jehanabad , Aurangabad , Nalanda , Sheikhpura , Nawada , Lakhisarai , Arwal ) , seven districts of Jharkhand ( Hazaribag , Chatra , Koderma , Jamtara , Bokaro , Dhanbad , Giridih ) and in West Bengal 's Malda district . There are around 20,700,000 speakers of Magahi language including Khortha which is considered dialect of Magahi . Magahi or Magadhi language derived from the ancient Magadhi Prakrit , which was created in the ancient kingdom of Magadha , the core of which was the area south of the Ganges and east of Son River . It is believed to be the language spoken by Gautama Buddha . It was the official language of the Mauryan court , in which the edicts of Ashoka were composed . The name Magahi is directly derived from the name Magadhi Prakrit , and educated speakers of Magahi prefer to call it Magadhi rather than Magahi . Though the number of speakers in Magahi is large , it has not been constitutionally recognised in India . In Bihar Hindi is the language used for educational and official matters . Magadhi was legally absorbed under Hindi in the 1961 Census .
Maithili ( /ˈmaɪtɪli/ ; Maithilī ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian subcontinent , mainly spoken in India and Nepal . In India , it is spoken in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand and is one of the 22 recognised Indian languages . In Nepal , it is spoken in the eastern Terai and is the second most prevalent language of Nepal . It is also one of the 122 recognized Nepalese languages . Tirhuta was formerly the primary script for written Maithili . Less commonly , it was also written in the local variant of Kaithi . Today it is written in the Devanagari script .
Marathi ( English : /məˈrɑːti/ ; मराठी Marāṭhī ; Marathi : [ məˈɾaʈʰi ] ( listen ) ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly by around 83.1 million Marathi people of Maharashtra , India . It is the official language and co-official language in the Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India , respectively , and is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India . With 83.1 million speakers in 2019 , Marathi ranks 10th in the list of most spoken languages in the world . Marathi has the third largest number of native speakers in India , after Hindi and Bengali . The language has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indian languages , dating back to around 600 AD . The major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect . Koli and Malvani Konkani have been heavily influenced by Marathi varieties . Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of 'we ' and possesses a three-way gender system that features the neuter in addition to the masculine and the feminine . In its phonology , it contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates and alveolar with retroflex laterals ( [ l ] and [ ɭ ] ( Marathi letters ल and ळ respectively ) .
Mundari ( Muɳɖa ) is a Munda language of the Austroasiatic language family spoken by the Munda people in eastern Indian state of Jharkhand , Odisha and West Bengal . It is closely related to Santali . Mundari Bani , a script specifically to write Mundari , was invented by Rohidas Singh Nag . It has also been written in the Devanagari , Odia , Bengali , and Latin writing systems .
Nepali ( Devanagari : नेपाली Nepali pronunciation : [ /nɛˈpɑːli/ ] ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the sub-branch of Eastern Pahari . It is the official language of Nepal and one of the 22 scheduled languages of India . Also known by the endonym Khas kura ( Devanagari : खस कुरा ) , the language is also called Gorkhali or Parbatiya in some contexts . It is spoken mainly in Nepal and by about a quarter of the population in Bhutan . In India , Nepali has official status in the state of Sikkim , and significant number of speakers in the states of Arunachal Pradesh , Assam , Himachal Pradesh , Manipur , Mizoram , Uttarakhand and West Bengal 's Darjeeling district and Kalimpong . It is also spoken in Myanmar and by the Nepali diaspora worldwide . Nepali developed in proximity to a number of Indo-Aryan languages , most notably the other Pahari languages and Maithili , and shows Sanskrit influence . However , owing to Nepal 's location , it has also been influenced by Tibeto-Burman languages . Nepali is mainly differentiated from Central Pahari , both in grammar and vocabulary , by Tibeto-Burman idioms owing to close contact with this language group . Historically , the language was called Khas Speech ( Khas Kurā ) , spoken by the Khas people of Karnali Region and Gorkhali ( language of the Gorkha Kingdom ) before the term Nepali was adopted . The origin of modern Nepali language is believed to be from Sinja valley of Jumla . Therefore , the Nepali dialect Khas Bhasa is still spoken among the people of the region .
Newar ( English : /niːˈwɑːr/ ) or Newari , known officially in Nepal as Nepal Bhasa , is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by the Newar people , the indigenous inhabitants of Nepal Mandala , which consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding regions in Nepal . Although Nepal Bhasa literally means Nepalese language , the language is not the same as Nepali ( Devanāgarī : नेपाली ) , the country 's current official language . The two languages belong to different language families ( Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European , respectively ) , but centuries of contact have resulted in a significant body of shared vocabulary . Both languages have official status in Kathmandu Metropolitan City . Newar was Nepals administrative language from the 14th to the late 18th century . From the early 20th century until democratisation , Newar suffered from official suppression . From 1952 to 1991 , the percentage of Newar speakers in the Kathmandu Valley dropped from 75% to 44% , and today Newar culture and language are under threat . The language has been listed as being definitely endangered by UNESCO .
Pali ( /ˈpɑːli/ ; Pāḷi ; Sinhala : ඵලි ; Burmese : ပါဠိ ) or Magadhan [ a ] is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent . It is widely studied because it is the language of the Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka and is the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism . The earliest archaeological evidence of the existence of canonical Pali comes from Pyu city-states inscriptions found in Burma dated to the mid 5th to mid 6th century CE .
Rajasthani ( Devanagari : राजस्थानी ) refers to a group of Indo-Aryan languages and dialects spoken primarily in the state of Rajasthan and adjacent areas of Haryana , Punjab , Gujarat , and Madhya Pradesh in India . There are also Rajasthani-speakers in the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab . The Rajasthani language is distinct from neighbouring related Hindi languages as it is a western Indo-Aryan language .
Sanskrit ( English : /ˈsænskrɪt/ ; Sanskrit : संस्कृत , romanized : saṃskṛta , IPA : [ ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐ ] ( listen ) ) is a language of ancient India with a 3,500-year history . It is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and the predominant language of most works of Hindu philosophy as well as some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism . Sanskrit , in its variants and numerous dialects , was the lingua franca of ancient and medieval India . In the early 1st millennium CE , along with Buddhism and Hinduism , Sanskrit migrated to Southeast Asia , parts of East Asia and Central Asia , emerging as a language of high culture and of local ruling elites in these regions . Sanskrit is an Old Indo-Aryan language . As one of the oldest documented members of the Indo-European family of languages , [ note 1 ] [ note 2 ] Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies . It is related to Greek and Latin , as well as Hittite , Luwian , Old Avestan and many other living and extinct languages with historical significance to Europe , West Asia , Central Asia and South Asia . It traces its linguistic ancestry to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language , Proto-Indo-Iranian and the Proto-Indo-European languages . Sanskrit is traceable to the 2nd millennium BCE in a form known as Vedic Sanskrit , with the Rigveda as the earliest-known composition . A more refined and standardized grammatical form called Classical Sanskrit emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE with the Aṣṭādhyāyī treatise of Pāṇini . Sanskrit , though not necessarily Classical Sanskrit , is the root language of many Prakrit languages . Examples include numerous , modern , North Indian , subcontinental daughter languages such as Hindi , Marathi , Bengali , Punjabi , Gujarati , Sindhi , Kashmiri , Kumaoni , Garhwali , Urdu , Dogri , Maithili , Konkani , Assamese , Odia , and Nepali .
Santali ( Ol Chiki : ᱥᱟᱱᱛᱟᱲᱤ ) , also known as Santhali , is the most widely spoken language of the Munda subfamily of the Austroasiatic languages , related to Ho and Mundari , spoken mainly in the Indian states of Assam , Bihar , Jharkhand , Mizoram , Odisha , Tripura and West Bengal . It is a recognised regional language of India per the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution . It is spoken by around 7.6 million people in India , Bangladesh , Bhutan and Nepal , making it the third most-spoken Austroasiatic language after Vietnamese and Khmer . Santali was a mainly oral language until the development of Ol Chiki by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925 . Ol Chiki is alphabetic , sharing none of the syllabic properties of the other Indic scripts , and is now widely used to write Santali in India .
Sindhi ( /ˈsɪndi/ ; سنڌي , सिन्धी , , ਸਿੰਧੀ ) is an Indo-Aryan language of the historical Sindh region in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent , spoken by the Sindhi people . It is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh . In India , Sindhi is one of the scheduled languages officially recognized by the central government , though Sindhi is not an official language of any of the states in India .
India ( Hindi : Bhārat ) , officially the Republic of India ( Hindi : Bhārat Gaṇarājya ) , is a country in South Asia . It is the seventh-largest country by area , the second-most populous country , and the most populous democracy in the world . Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south , the Arabian Sea on the southwest , and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast , it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west ; [ e ] China , Nepal , and Bhutan to the north ; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east . In the Indian Ocean , India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives ; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia . Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago . Their long occupation , initially in varying forms of isolation as hunter-gatherers , has made the region highly diverse , second only to Africa in human genetic diversity . Settled life emerged on the subcontinent in the western margins of the Indus river basin 9,000 years ago , evolving gradually into the Indus Valley Civilisation of the third millennium BCE . By 1200 BCE , an archaic form of Sanskrit , an Indo-European language , had diffused into India from the northwest , unfolding as the language of the Rigveda , and recording the dawning of Hinduism in India . The Dravidian languages of India were supplanted in the northern regions . By 400 BCE , stratification and exclusion by caste had emerged within Hinduism , and Buddhism and Jainism had arisen , proclaiming social orders unlinked to heredity . Early political consolidations gave rise to the loose-knit Maurya and Gupta Empires based in the Ganges Basin . Their collective era was suffused with wide-ranging creativity , but also marked by the declining status of women , and the incorporation of untouchability into an organised system of belief .
The Hindi Belt or Hindi Heartland or Hindi Patti , is a linguistic region encompassing parts of northern , central , eastern and western India where Hindi ( and the various languages/dialects grouped under it ) is widely spoken . Hindi belt is sometimes also used to refer to nine Indian states whose official language is Hindi and have a Hindi-speaking majority , namely Bihar , Chhattisgarh , Haryana , Himachal Pradesh , Jharkhand , Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan , Uttarakhand , Uttar Pradesh and National Capital Territory of Delhi . It is also referred as Hindi-Urdu belt by some Muslim writers .
Goa ( /ˈɡoʊə/ ( listen ) ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the region known as the Konkan , and geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats . It is surrounded by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the east and south , with the Arabian Sea forming its western coast . It is India 's smallest state by area and the fourth-smallest by population . Goa has the highest GDP per capita among all Indian states , two and a half times that of the country . It was ranked the best-placed state by the Eleventh Finance Commission for its infrastructure and ranked on top for the best quality of life in India by the National Commission on Population based on the 12 Indicators . Panaji is the state 's capital , while Vasco da Gama is its largest city . The historic city of Margao still exhibits the cultural influence of the Portuguese , who first landed in the early 16th century as merchants and conquered it soon thereafter . Goa was a former state of the Portuguese Empire . The Portuguese overseas territory of Portuguese India existed for about 450 years until it was annexed by India in 1961 . Goa is visited by large numbers of international and domestic tourists each year for its white sand beaches , nightlife , places of worship and World Heritage-listed architecture . It has rich flora and fauna , owing to its location on the Western Ghats range , a biodiversity hotspot .
Maharashtra ( /mɑːhəˈrɑːʃtrə/ ; Marathi : [ məharaːʂʈrə ] ( listen ) , abbr . MH ) is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau . It is the second-most populous state and third-largest state by area . Spread over 307,713 km2 ( 118,809 sq mi ) , it is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west , the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south , Telangana to the southeast and Chhattisgarh to the east , Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to the north , and the Indian union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu to the north west . It is also the world 's third-most populous subnational entity . Maharashtra was formed by merging the western and south-western parts of the Bombay State , Berar and Vidarbha , and the north-western parts of the Hyderabad State and splitting Saurashtra ( in present-day Gujarat ) by the States Reorganisation Act . It has over 112 million inhabitants and its capital , Mumbai , has a population around 18 million making it the most populous urban area in India . Nagpur hosts the winter session of the state legislature . Pune is known as the 'Oxford of the East ' due to the presence of several well-known educational institutions . Nashik is known as the 'Wine Capital of India ' as it has the largest number of wineries and vineyards in the country . The Godavari and the Krishna are the two major rivers in the state . The Narmada and Tapi Rivers flow near the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat .
Nepal ( Nepali : नेपाल [ neˈpal ] ) , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal , is a landlocked country in South Asia . It is located mainly in the Himalayas , but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain . With an estimated population of 26.4 million , it is 48th largest country by population and 93rd largest country by area . It borders China in the north and India in the south , east and west while Bangladesh is located within only 27 km ( 17 mi ) of its southeastern tip and Bhutan is separated from it by the Indian state of Sikkim . Nepal has a diverse geography , including fertile plains , subalpine forested hills , and eight of the world 's ten tallest mountains , including Mount Everest , the highest point on Earth . Kathmandu is the capital and the largest city . Nepal is a multiethnic country with Nepali as the official language . The name Nepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent , the era in ancient India when Hinduism was founded , the predominant religion of the country . In the middle of the first millennium BCE , Gautama Buddha , the founder of Buddhism , was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal . Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet . The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans , and was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala . The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley 's traders .
The Arabic script is a writing system used for writing Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa , such as Persian , Kurdish , Azerbaijani , Sindhi , Balochi , Pashto , Lurish , Urdu and Mandinka . Until the 16th century , it was also used to write some texts in Spanish . Additionally , prior to the language reform in 1928 , it was the writing system of Turkish . It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by the number of countries using it and the third by the number of users , after Latin and Chinese characters . The Arabic script is written from right to left in a cursive style . In most cases , the letters transcribe consonants or consonants and a few vowels , so most Arabic alphabets are abjads . The script was first used to write texts in Arabic , most notably the Qurʼān , the holy book of Islam . With the spread of Islam , it came to be used as the primary script for many language families , leading to the addition of new letters and other symbols , with some versions , such as Kurdish , Uyghur and old Bosnian being abugidas or true alphabets . It is also the basis for the tradition of Arabic calligraphy .
An abjad ( pronounced /ˈɑːbdʒɑːd/ or /ˈæbdʒæd/ ) is a type of writing system in which each symbol or glyph stands for a consonant , leaving the reader to supply the appropriate vowel . So-called impure abjads do represent vowels , either with optional diacritics , a limited number of distinct vowel glyphs , or both . The name abjad is based on the Arabic alphabet 's ( in the original order ) first four letters - a , b , j , d - to replace the common terms consonantary or consonantal alphabet to refer to the family of scripts called West Semitic .
Arabic ( Arabic : اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , al-ʿarabiyyah , [ al ʕaraˈbijːa ] ( listen ) or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , [ ˈʕarabiː ] ( listen ) or [ ʕaraˈbij ] ) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE . It is now the lingua franca of the Arab world . It is named after the Arabs , a term initially used to describe peoples living in the area bounded by Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west , in Northwestern Arabia and in the Sinai Peninsula . The ISO assigns language codes to thirty varieties of Arabic , including its standard form , Modern Standard Arabic , also referred to as Literary Arabic , which is modernized Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists ; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic , but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ , the purest Arabic ) or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ) . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities and is used to varying degrees in workplaces , government and the media . Arabic , in its standard form , is the official language of 26 states , as well as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam , since the Quran and Hadith were written in Arabic . During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe , especially in science , mathematics and philosophy . As a result , many European languages have also borrowed many words from it . Arabic influence , mainly in vocabulary , is seen in European languages - mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese and Catalan - owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and almost 800 years of Arabic culture and language presence in the Iberian Peninsula , referred to in Arabic as al-Andalus . Sicilian has about 500 Arabic words , many of which relate to agriculture and related activities , [ full citation needed ] as a legacy of the Emirate of Sicily from the mid-9th to mid-10th centuries , while Maltese language is a Semitic language developed from a dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages , including Greek and Bulgarian , have also acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish .
Persian ( /ˈpɜːrʒən , -ʃən/ ) , also known by its endonym Farsi ( فارسی , fārsi , [ fɒːɾˈsiː ] ( listen ) ) , is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages . It is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and used officially within Iran , Afghanistan and Tajikistan in three mutually intelligible standard varieties , namely Iranian Persian , Dari Persian ( officially named Dari since 1958 ) and Tajiki Persian ( officially named Tajik since the Soviet era ) . It is also spoken natively in the Tajik variety by a significant population within Uzbekistan , as well as within other regions with a Persianate history in the cultural sphere of Greater Iran . It is written officially within Iran and Afghanistan in the Persian alphabet , a derivation of the Arabic script , and within Tajikistan in the Tajik alphabet , a derivation of Cyrillic . The Persian language is a continuation of Middle Persian , the official religious and literary language of the Sasanian Empire ( 224-651 CE ) , itself a continuation of Old Persian , which was used in the Achaemenid Empire ( 550-330 BC ) . It originated in the region of Fars ( Persia ) in southwestern Iran . Its grammar is similar to that of many European languages . Throughout history , Persian has been a prestigious cultural language used by various empires in Western Asia , Central Asia , and South Asia . Old Persian written works are attested in Old Persian cuneiform on several inscriptions from between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC , and Middle Persian literature is attested in Aramaic-derived scripts ( Pahlavi and Manichaean ) on inscriptions from the time of the Parthian Empire and in books centered in Zoroastrian and Manichaean scriptures from between the 3rd to the 10th century AD . New Persian literature began to flourish after the Arab conquest of Iran with its earliest records from the 9th century , since then adopting the Arabic script . Persian was the first language to break through the monopoly of Arabic on writing in the Muslim world , with the writing of Persian poetry developed as a court tradition in many eastern courts . Some of the famous works of medieval Persian literature are the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi , the works of Rumi , the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , the Panj Ganj of Nizami Ganjavi , the Divān of Hafez , The Conference of the Birds by Attar of Nishapur , and the miscellanea of Gulistan and Bustan by Saadi Shirazi .
Urdu ( /ˈʊərduː/ ; Urdu : اُردُو , ALA-LC : Urdū , [ ˈʊrduː ] ( listen ) ) - also known as Lashkari ( لشکری , Laškarī , [ ləʃkəri : ] ) - or Modern Standard Urdu is a Persianised standard register of the Hindustani language . Urdu is the official national language , and lingua franca , of Pakistan . In India , it is one of 22 constitutionally recognised official languages , having official status in the five states of Telangana , Uttar Pradesh , Bihar , Jharkhand and West Bengal , as well as the national capital territory of Delhi . As both registers are composed of the same Indo-Aryan vocabulary base , colloquial Urdu is largely mutually intelligible with colloquial Hindi , with the two registers being grouped together as Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu . With respect to literary vocabulary , however , formal Urdu draws heavily from Persian vocabulary and requires knowledge of some simple Persian grammatical structures , while formal Hindi heavily draws from Sanskrit for its formal and technical vocabulary . Later , Urdu became the official language of government in northern and northwest British India , along with English , from 1837 onwards in place of Persian , which had been used by various Indo-Islamic empires as their language of government . Religious , social , and political factors arose during the colonial period that advocated for a distinction between Urdu and Hindi , leading to the Hindi-Urdu controversy . According to Nationalencyklopedin 's 2010 estimates , Urdu is the 21st most spoken first language in the world , with approximately 66 million who speak it as their native language . According to Ethnologue 's 2018 estimates , Urdu , is the 11th most widely spoken language in the world , with 170 million total speakers , including those who speak it as a second language . If grouped along with Hindi , Hindustani would be the 3rd most spoken language in the world , with approximately 329.1 million native speakers , and 697.4 million total speakers of both Urdu and Hindi .
Punjabi ( English : /pʌnˈdʒɑːbi/ ; Punjabi : [ pənˈdʒaːbːi ] , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ , پن٘جابی ) is an Indo-Aryan language with more than 125 million native speakers in the Indian subcontinent and around the world . It is the native language of the Punjabi people , an ethnolinguistic group of the cultural region of Punjab , which encompasses northwest India and eastern Pakistan . Punjabi is the most widely spoken language in Pakistan , the 11th most widely spoken language in India and the third most-spoken native language in the Indian subcontinent . It is also the fifth most-spoken native language in Canada after English , French , Mandarin and Cantonese . Punjabi is unusual among Indo-European languages in its use of lexical tone ; see § Tone below for examples . Gurmukhi is the official script for the language in Punjab , India while Shahmukhi is used in Punjab , Pakistan ; other national and local scripts have also been in use historically and currently , as discussed in § Writing systems .
Pashto ( /ˈpʌʃtoʊ/ , rarely /ˈpæʃtoʊ/ ; [ Note 1 ] پښتو / Pax̌tō , [ ˈpəʂtoː ] ) , sometimes spelled Pukhto , [ Note 2 ] is a language in the Eastern Iranian group of the Indo-European family . It is known in Persian literature as Afghani ( افغانی , Afghāni ) , and in Hindustani literature as Paṭhānī . Speakers of the language are called Pashtuns or Pathans ( historically known as ethnic Afghans ) . Pashto and Dari ( Persian ) are the two official languages of Afghanistan . Pashto is also the second-largest regional language of Pakistan , mainly spoken in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern districts of Balochistan province in south-west . Pashto is the primary language of the Pashtun diaspora around the world . The total number of Pashto-speakers is at least 40 million , although some estimates place it as high as 60 million . Pashto belongs to the Northeastern Iranian group of the Indo-Iranian branch , but Ethnologue lists it as Southeastern Iranian . Pashto has two main dialect groups , soft and hard , the latter locally known as Pakhto or Paxto .
Balochi ( بلۏچی , Balòci ) is a Northwestern Iranian language spoken primarily in the Balochistan region divided between Pakistan , Iran , and Afghanistan .
The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family . The most prominent member is Standard Malay , which is the national language of Brunei , Singapore and Malaysia , and which also serves as basis for Indonesian , the national language of Indonesia . The Malayic branch also includes the local languages spoken by ethnic Malays ( e.g . Kutai Malay , Kedah Malay ) , further several languages spoken by various other ethnic groups of Sumatra ( e.g . Minangkabau ) and Borneo ( e.g . Iban ) . The most probable candidate for the homeland of the Malayic languages is western Borneo .
Jawi is an Arabic script for writing Malay , Acehnese , Banjarese , Minangkabau , Tausūg and several other languages in Southeast Asia . Jawi is one of the two official scripts in Brunei and is used as an alternative script in Malaysia and Malay-dominated areas in Indonesia . It used to be the standard script for the Malay language but has since been replaced by a Latin alphabet , called Rumi ( literal meaning : Roman ) . In most areas , Jawi has since been relegated to a script used for religious , cultural and certain administrative purposes . Jawi can be typed with the Jawi keyboard . Its day-to-day usage is maintained in the more-conservative Malay-populated areas such as Kelantan , Terengganu and Pahang in Malaysia and Pattani .
The Acehnese language ( Jawi : بهسا اچيه ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by Acehnese people natively in Aceh , Sumatra , Indonesia . This language is also spoken by Acehnese descendants in some parts of Malaysia like Yan , in Kedah .
The Uyghur or Uighur language ( /ˈwiːɡər/ ; ئۇيغۇر تىلى , Уйғур тили , Uyghur tili , Uyƣur tili or ئۇيغۇرچە , Уйғурчә , Uyghurche , Uyƣurqə ; formerly known as Eastern Turki ) , is a Turkic language with 10 to 15 million speakers , spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China . Significant communities of Uyghur speakers are located in Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and various other countries have Uyghur-speaking expatriate communities . Uyghur is an official language of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is widely used in both social and official spheres , as well as in print , television and radio and is used as a common language by other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang . Uyghur belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic language family , which also includes languages such as Uzbek . Like many other Turkic languages , Uyghur displays vowel harmony and agglutination , lacks noun classes or grammatical gender and is a left-branching language with subject-object-verb word order . More distinctly Uyghur processes include , especially in northern dialects , vowel reduction and umlauting . In addition to influence of other Turkic languages , Uyghur has historically been influenced strongly by Arabic and Persian and more recently by Russian and Mandarin Chinese . The modified Arabic-derived writing system is the most common and the only standard in China , although other writing systems are used for auxiliary and historical purposes . Unlike most Arabic-derived scripts , the Uyghur Arabic alphabet has mandatory marking of all vowels due to modifications to the original Perso-Arabic script made in the 20th century . Two Latin and one Cyrillic alphabet are also used , though to a much lesser extent . The Arabic and Latin alphabets both have 32 characters .
Kazakh or Kazak ( Latin : qazaqsha or qazaq tili , Cyrillic : қазақша or қазақ тілі , Arabic : قازاقشا or قازاق تىلى , pronounced [ qɑzɑqˈɕɑ ] , [ qɑˈzɑq tɪˈlɪ ] ) , is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch spoken in Central Asia . It is closely related to Nogai , Kyrgyz and Karakalpak . Kazakh is the official language of Kazakhstan and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang , China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of Mongolia . Kazakh is also spoken by many ethnic Kazakhs through the former Soviet Union ( approximately 472,000 in Russia according to the 2010 Russian Census ) , Germany , Iran , Turkey and Afghanistan . Like other Turkic languages , Kazakh is an agglutinative language and it employs vowel harmony . In October 2017 , Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed that the government would transition from using Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet by 2025 . President Nazarbayev signed on February 19 , 2018 an amendment to the decree of October 26 , 2017 No . 569 On translating the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic alphabet to the Latin script . The amended alphabet uses ⟨sh⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ for the Kazakh sounds /ɕ/ and /tɕ/ , respectively and eliminates the use of apostrophes .
The Kurdish languages ( Kurdish : کوردی , Kurdî ; IPA : [ ˈkuɾdiː ] ) constitute a dialect continuum spoken by Kurds in Kurdistan and the diaspora . The three Kurdish languages are Kurmanji ( Northern Kurdish ) , Sorani ( Central Kurdish ) , and Southern Kurdish ( Palewani or Xwarig/Xwarîn ) . A separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages , the Zaza-Gorani languages , are also spoken by several million ethnic Kurds . Studies as of 2009 estimate between 8 and 20 million native Kurdish speakers in Turkey . The majority of the Kurds speak Kurmanji ( Northern Kurdish ) . The classification of Laki as a sub-dialect of Southern Kurdish or as a fourth dialect of Kurdish is unsettled , but the differences between Laki and other Southern Kurdish dialects are minimal . The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century , when more general literature became developed . Today , the two principal written Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji and Sorani . Sorani is , along with Arabic , one of the two official languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as Kurdish .
Azerbaijani ( /ˌæzərbaɪˈdʒɑːni , ˌɑː- , -ˈʒɑːni/ ) or Azeri ( /æˈzɛəri , ɑː- , ə-/ ) , sometimes also Azeri Turkic , or Azeri Turkish , is a Turkic language spoken primarily by the Azerbaijanis , who live mainly in the Republic of Azerbaijan where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken , and in Iranian Azerbaijan where the South Azerbaijani variety is spoken . Although there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between both forms of Azerbaijani , there are some significant differences in phonology , lexicon , morphology , syntax , and sources of loanwords . North Azerbaijani has official status in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Dagestan ( a federal subject of Russia ) but South Azerbaijani does not have official status in Iran , where the majority of Azerbaijanis live . It is also spoken to lesser varying degrees in Azerbaijani communities of Georgia and Turkey and by diaspora communities , primarily in Europe and North America . Both Azerbaijani varieties are members of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages . The standardized form of North Azerbaijani ( spoken in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Russia ) is based on the Shirvani dialect , while Iranian Azerbaijani uses the Tabrizi dialect as its prestige variety . Azerbaijani is closely related to Gagauz , Qashqai , Crimean Tatar , Turkish and Turkmen , sharing varying degrees of mutual intelligibility with each of those languages . According to linguistic comparative studies , the closest relative of Azerbaijani is the Turkmen language .
Iran ( Persian : ایران Irān [ ʔiːˈɾɒːn ] ( listen ) ) , also called Persia , and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran ( Persian : جمهوری اسلامی ایران Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān ( listen ) [ dʒomhuːˌɾije eslɒːˌmije ʔiːˈɾɒn ] ) , is a country in Western Asia . With 82 million inhabitants , Iran is the world 's 18th most populous country . Its territory spans 1,648,195 km2 ( 636,372 sq mi ) , making it the second largest country in the Middle East and the 17th largest in the world . Iran is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and the Republic of Azerbaijan , [ a ] to the north by the Caspian Sea , to the northeast by Turkmenistan , to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan , to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman , and to the west by Turkey and Iraq . Its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia , and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz , give it geostrategic importance . Tehran is the political and economic center of Iran , and the largest and most populous city in Western Asia with more than 8.8 million residents in the city and 15 million in the larger metropolitan area . Iran is home to one of the world 's oldest civilizations , beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BCE . It was first unified by the Iranian Medes in the seventh century BCE , and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BCE under Cyrus the Great , whose Achaemenid Empire stretched from Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley , one of the largest empires in history . The empire fell to Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE and was divided into several Hellenistic states . An Iranian rebellion established the Parthian Empire in the third century BCE , which was succeeded in the third century CE by the Sasanian Empire , a leading world power for the next four centuries . Arab Muslims conquered the empire in the seventh century CE , and the subsequent Islamization of Iran led to the decline of the once dominant Zoroastrian religion . Iran 's major contributions to art , philosophy , and science spread throughout the Muslim world and beyond during the Islamic Golden Age .
Javanese ( /dʒɑːvəˈniːz/ ; ꦧꦱꦗꦮ , basa Jawa ; Javanese pronunciation : [ bɔsɔ d͡ʒɔwɔ ] ; colloquially known as ꦕꦫꦗꦮ , cara Jawa ; Javanese pronunciation : [ t͡ʃɔrɔ d͡ʒɔwɔ ] ) 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 on 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 . There are speakers of Javanese in Malaysia ( concentrated in the states of Selangor and Johor ) and Singapore . Javanese is also spoken by traditional immigrant communities of Javanese descent in Suriname ( the Dutch colony of Surinam until 1975 ) and in New Caledonia .
Pegon is an Arabic script used to write the Javanese and Sundanese languages , as an alternative to the Latin script or the Javanese script and the old Sundanese script . In particular , it was used for religious ( Islamic ) writing and poetry from the fifteenth century , particularly in writing commentaries of the Qur'an . Pegon includes symbols for sounds that are not present in Modern Standard Arabic . Pegon has been studied far less than its Jawi counterpart for Malay , Acehnese , and Minangkabau .
Sundanese ( /sʌndəˈniːz/ ; Basa Sunda , /basa sʊnda/ , in Sundanese script : ᮘᮞ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Sundanese . It has approximately 39 million native speakers in the western third of Java ; they represent about 15% of Indonesia 's total population .
MENA , also known as MENAP , is an English-language acronym referring to the Middle East , North Africa , Afghanistan , and Pakistan , which corresponds to the Greater Middle East . Another name for the region ( excluding Afghanistan and Pakistan ) is WANA ( Western Asia and North Africa ) . MENA covers an extensive region stretching from the Maghreb in the west to Pakistan in the east . The MENA acronym is often used in academia , military planning , disaster relief , media planning as a broadcast region , and business writing . VoMENA ( Voices of the Middle East and North Africa ) is a weekly program originating at Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM in Berkeley , California which deals with the history , politics , culture and social issues of countries in the MENA region .
Pakistan , [ b ] officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan , [ c ] is a country in South Asia . It is the world 's sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 207.8 million . In area , it is the 33rd-largest country , spanning 881,913 square kilometres ( 340,509 square miles ) . Pakistan has a 1,046-kilometre ( 650-mile ) coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east , Afghanistan to the west , Iran to the southwest , and China in the northeast . It is separated narrowly from Tajikistan by Afghanistan 's Wakhan Corridor in the northwest , and also shares a maritime border with Oman . The territory that now constitutes Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures and intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent . The ancient history involves the Neolithic site of Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation , and was later home to kingdoms ruled by people of different faiths and cultures , including Hindus , Indo-Greeks , Muslims , Turco-Mongols , Afghans and Sikhs . The area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties , including the Persian Achaemenid Empire , Alexander III of Macedon , the Seleucid Empire , the Indian Maurya Empire , the Gupta Empire , the Arab Umayyad Caliphate , the Delhi Sultanate , the Mongol Empire , the Mughal Empire , the Afghan Durrani Empire , the Sikh Empire ( partially ) and , most recently , the British Indian Empire . Pakistan is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam . It is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country , with similarly diverse geography and wildlife . Initially a dominion , Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956 , becoming an Islamic republic . An ethnic civil war and Indian military intervention in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh .
Xinjiang ( Uyghur : شىنجاڭ , SASM/GNC : Xinjang ; Chinese : 新疆 ; pinyin : Xīnjiāng ; alternately romanized as Sinkiang ) , officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region ( XUAR ) , is an autonomous region of the People 's Republic of China , located in the far northwest of the country . Being the largest province-level division of China and the 8th largest country subdivision in the world , Xinjiang spans over 1.6 million km2 ( 640,000 square miles ) . The Aksai Chin region , administered by China mostly as part of Xinjiang 's Hotan Prefecture , is claimed by India . Xinjiang borders the countries of Mongolia ( Bayan-Ölgii , Khovd and Govi-Altai Provinces ) , Russia ( Altai Republic ) , Kazakhstan ( East Kazakhstan and Almaty Provinces ) , Kyrgyzstan ( Issyk Kul , Naryn and Osh Regions ) , Tajikistan ( Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region ) , Afghanistan ( Badakhshan Province ) , Pakistan ( Gilgit Baltistan ) and India ( Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir ) . The rugged Karakoram , Kunlun and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiang 's borders , as well as its western and southern regions . Xinjiang also borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai . The most well-known route of the historical Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border . In recent decades , abundant oil and mineral reserves have been found in Xinjiang and it is currently China 's largest natural-gas-producing region . It is home to a number of ethnic groups , including the Uyghur , Han , Kazakhs , Tibetans , Hui , Tajiks , Kyrgyz , Mongols , Russians and Xibe . More than a dozen autonomous prefectures and counties for minorities are in Xinjiang . Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan . Xinjiang is divided into the Dzungarian Basin in the north and the Tarim Basin in the south by a mountain range .
Brunei ( /bruːˈnaɪ/ ( listen ) broo-NY ) , officially the Nation of Brunei , the Abode of Peace ( Malay : Negara Brunei Darussalam , Jawi : نڬارا بروني دارالسلام ) , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia . Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea , the country is completely surrounded by the insular Malaysian state of Sarawak . It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang . Brunei is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo ; the remainder of the island 's territory is divided between the nations of Malaysia and Indonesia . Brunei 's population was 428,963 in 2018 . At the peak of the Bruneian Empire , Sultan Bolkiah ( reigned 1485-1528 ) is alleged to have had control over most regions of Borneo , including modern-day Sarawak and Sabah , as well as the Sulu Archipelago off the northeast tip of Borneo , Seludong ( modern-day Manila ) , and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo . The maritime state was visited by Spain 's Magellan Expedition in 1521 and fought against Spain in the 1578 Castilian War . During the 19th century , the Bruneian Empire began to decline . The Sultanate ceded Sarawak ( Kuching ) to James Brooke and installed him as the White Rajah , and it ceded Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company . In 1888 , Brunei became a British protectorate and was assigned a British resident as colonial manager in 1906 . After the Japanese occupation during World War II , in 1959 a new constitution was written . In 1962 , a small armed rebellion against the monarchy was ended with the help of the British .
The Bengali-Assamese script ( also Eastern Nagari script ) is the fifth most widely used writing system in the world . [ citation needed ] It is the basis of the Bengali , Assamese and Tirhuta as well as the alphabets for Bishnupriya Manipuri , Kokborok ( Tripuri ) and Meitei ( Manipuri ) , Chakma , Santhali etc . [ failed verification ] Other languages , such as Angika , Bodo , Karbi , Maithili and Mising were once written in this script . Modern Sylheti is often written using this script as well . It was originally used to write Sanskrit , and the use of this script for Sanskrit continues in Eastern India .
Bengali ( /bɛŋˈɡɔːli/ ) , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা [ ˈbaŋla ] ) , is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Bengalis in South Asia , specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent , presently divided between Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura , Assam 's Barak Valley . It is the official and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and second most widely spoken of the 22 scheduled languages of India , behind Hindi . With approximately 228 million native speakers and another 37 million as second language speakers , Bengali is the fifth most-spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by total number of speakers in the world . The official and de facto national language of Bangladesh is Modern Standard Bengali ( Literary Bengali ) . It serves as the lingua franca of the nation , with 98% of Bangladeshis being fluent in Bengali as their first language . Within India , Bengali is the official language of the states of West Bengal , Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including in Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Jharkhand , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland and Uttarakhand . Bengali is also spoken by the significant global Bengali diaspora ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis ) communities in Pakistan , the United Kingdom , the United States , and the Middle East . Bengali has developed over the course of more than 1,300 years . Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history , has extensively developed since the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia . The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding Bengali to be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 . In 1999 , UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement .
Assamese ( /ˌæsəˈmiːz/ ) , also Asamiya ( /ɔxomia/ অসমীয়া ) , is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Assam , where it is an official language . It is the easternmost Indo-European language , spoken by over 15 million speakers , and serves as a lingua franca in the region . Nefamese is an Assamese-based pidgin used in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagamese , an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in Nagaland . The Kamtapuri language of Rangpur division of Bangladesh and Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of India are linguistically closer to Assamese , though the speakers identify with the Bengali culture and the literary language . In the past , it was the court language of the Ahom kingdom from the 17th century . Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages , Assamese evolved at least before 7th century CE from the middle Indo-Aryan Magadhi Prakrit , which developed from dialects similar to , but in some ways more archaic than Vedic Sanskrit . Its sister languages include Angika , Bengali , Bishnupriya Manipuri , Chakma , Chittagonian , Hajong , Rajbangsi , Maithili , Rohingya and Sylheti . It is written in the Assamese alphabet , an abugida system , from left to right , with many typographic ligatures .
Kokborok is the Sino-Tibetan native language of the Borok ( Tripura ) people of the Indian state of Tripura and neighbouring areas of Bangladesh . The name comes from kok meaning verbal and borok meaning human . Kokborok is closely related to the Bodo , Dimasa and Kachari languages of the neighbouring state of Assam .
The Manipuri Bishnupriya or Bishnupriya Manipuri ( BPM ) ( বিষ্ণুপ্রিয়া মণিপুরী ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Indian states of Assam , Tripura and others , as well as in the Sylhet region of Bangladesh , Burma , and other countries . It uses the Bengali script alphabet as its writing system .
Khasi ( Ka Ktien Khasi ) is an Austroasiatic language spoken primarily in Meghalaya state in India by the Khasi people . It is also spoken by a sizeable population in Assam and Bangladesh . Khasi is part of the Austroasiatic language family , and is related to Khmer , Vietnamese and Mon languages of Southeast Asia , and the Munda and Nicobarese branches of that family , which are spoken in east-central India and in the Nicobar Islands , respectively . Although most of the 1.6 million Khasi speakers are found in Meghalaya , the language is also spoken by a number of people in the hill districts of Assam bordering with Meghalaya and by a sizeable population of people living in Bangladesh , close to the Indian border . Khasi has been an associate official language of some districts within Meghalaya since 2005 , and as of May 2012 , was no longer considered endangered by UNESCO . There are demands to include this language to the Eighth schedule to the constitution of India . Khasi is rich in folklore and folktale , and behind most of the names of hills , mountains , rivers , waterfalls , birds , flowers , and animals there is a story . [ citation needed ]
Meitei , or Meetei ( also Manipuri /mənɪˈpʊri/ ; Meitheilon , Meeteilon , Meeʁteilon , from Meithei + -lon 'language ' ; Kathe ) is a Sino-Tibetan language and the predominant language and lingua franca in the southeastern Himalayan state of Manipur , in northeastern India . It is the one of the official languages of the Government of India . Meitei is the most spoken Sino-Tibetan language of India and the most spoken language in Northeast India after Bengali and Assamese . In the 2011 census of India , there were 1.8 million native speakers of Meitei . However , there are around 200,000 native speakers of Meitei abroad . Meiteilon is also spoken in the Northeast Indian states of Assam and Tripura and in Bangladesh and Burma ( now Myanmar ) . It is currently classified as a vulnerable language by UNESCO . Meiteilon is a tonal language whose exact classification within Sino-Tibetan remains unclear . It has lexical resemblances to Kuki and Tangkhul Naga . It has been recognised ( under the name Manipuri ) by the Indian Union and has been included in the list of scheduled languages ( included in the 8th schedule by the 71st amendment of the constitution in 1992 ) . Meiteilon is taught as a subject up to the post-graduate level ( Ph.D. ) in some universities of India , apart from being a medium of instruction up to the undergraduate level in Manipur . Education in government schools is provided in Meiteilon through the eighth standard .
Hajong , originally a Tibeto-Burman language , is now considered an Indo-Aryan language with Tibeto-Burman roots . [ citation needed ] It is spoken by more than 175,000 ethnic Hajongs across the Indian subcontinent , specifically in the Indian states of Assam , Meghalaya , Arunachal Pradesh , and West Bengal in present-day India and the Mymensingh District in present-day Bangladesh . It is written in the Bengali-Assamese and the Latin scripts . It has many Sanskrit loanwords . The Hajongs originally spoke a Tibeto-Burman language , but it was largely mixed with Assamese and other eastern Bengali-Assamese languages .
Chakma language ( /ˈtʃɑːkmə/ ; autonym : 𑄌𑄋𑄴𑄟𑄳𑄦 𑄞𑄌𑄴 , Changmha Bhach ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Chakma and Daingnet people . Its better-known closest relatives are Assamese , Hajong , Bengali , Chittagonian , and Bishnupriya Manipuri of Manipur , Tanchangya , and Sylheti . It is spoken by nearly 310,000 people in southeast Bangladesh in Chittagong Hill Tracts , and another 300,000 in India in Assam and Tripura and 40,265 in Mizoram . It is written using the Chakma script , which is also called Ajhā pāṭh , sometimes romanised Ojhopath . Literacy in Chakma script is low . It is officially recognised by neither the Bangladesh government nor the Indian government , the only two countries where local Chakma people live . Although there were no Chakma language radio or television stations as of 2011 , the language has a presence in social media and on YouTube . The Hill Education Chakma Script website provides tutorials , videos , e-books , and Chakma language forums . In 2012 , the Government of Tripura announced it would introduce Chakma language in Chakma script in primary schools of Tripura . Imparting of education up to elementary stage in mother tongue is a national policy . To begin with Chakma language subjects in its own scripts will be introduced in 58 primary schools in Chakma concentrated areas . In preparation for the January 2014 education season , the national curriculum and textbook board has already started printing books in six languages .
Angika ( अंगिका ) or Chhika-Chhiki is a language spoken primarily in the Anga region of Bihar and Jharkhand states of India . In addition to India , it is also spoken in some parts of the Terai region of Nepal.It belongs to the Eastern Indo-Aryan language family . It is closely related to languages such as Bengali , Assamese , Oriya , Maithili and Magahi . Angika is not listed in the 8th schedule of the constitution of India . Nevertheless , Angika language movements have advocated its inclusion , and a submitted request is currently pending with the Government . Angika is written in the Devanagari script ; although the Anga Lipi and Kaithi scripts were used historically . [ citation needed ] Angika shows a regular contrast for animates .
Sylheti ( Sylheti Nagri : ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ Silôṭi , Bengali : সিলেটি , romanized : Sileti ) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and Barak Valley of the Indian state of Assam . There is also a substantial number of Sylheti speakers in the Indian states of Meghalaya , Tripura , Manipur , and Nagaland . It also has a large diaspora in the United Kingdom , the United States and the Middle East .
Bangladesh ( Bengali : বাংলাদেশ ) pronounced /ˌbɑːŋlɑːˈdɛʃ/ ( bung-lah-desh ) or [ ˈbaŋladeʃ ] ( listen ) ; literally meaning The country of Bengal ; and officially called the People 's Republic of Bangladesh ( গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh ) , is a country in South Asia . It is the world 's 8th-most populous country with nearly 163 million people , and is the 92nd-largest country in land area , spanning 147,570 square kilometres ( 56,980 sq mi ) , making it one of the most densely-populated countries in the world . Bangladesh shares land borders with India to the west , north , and east , Myanmar to the southeast , and the Bay of Bengal to the south . It is narrowly separated from Nepal and Bhutan by India 's Siliguri Corridor in the north and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim in the northeast . Dhaka , the capital and largest city , is the nation 's economic , political and cultural hub . Chittagong , the largest sea port , is the second largest city . The dominant geographic feature is the Ganges delta , which empties into the Bay of Bengal the combined waters of several river systems , including the Brahmaputra and the Ganges , with numerous criss-crossing rivers and inland waterways . Highlands with evergreen forests cover the northeastern and southeastern regions . The seacoast features the longest natural sea beach and most of the world 's largest mangrove forest . The country 's biodiversity includes a vast array of plants and wildlife , including the endangered Bengal tiger , the national animal . Bangladesh forms the largest and eastern part of the Bengal region . According to the ancient Indian epics , Ramayana and Mahabharata , the Vanga Kingdom , one of the namesakes of the Bengal region , was a strong naval ally of the legendary Ayodhya .
West Bengal ( /bɛnˈɡɔːl/ ; Bengali : Paschim Banga ) is a state in the eastern region of India along the Bay of Bengal . With over 91 million inhabitants ( as of 2011 ) , it is India 's fourth-most populous state . West Bengal is the thirteenth-largest Indian state , with an area of 88,752 km2 ( 34,267 sq mi ) . Part of the ethno-linguistic Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent , it borders Bangladesh in the east , and Nepal and Bhutan in the north . It also borders the Indian states of Odisha , Jharkhand , Bihar , Sikkim , and Assam . The state capital is Kolkata ( Calcutta ) the seventh-largest city in India , and center of the third-largest metropolitan area in the country . West Bengal includes the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region , the Ganges delta , the Rarh region , and the coastal Sundarbans . The main ethnic group is the Bengalis , with Bengali Hindus forming the demographic majority . The area 's early history featured a succession of Indian empires , internal squabbling , and a tussle between Hinduism and Buddhism for dominance . Ancient Bengal was the site of several major Janapadas ( kingdoms ) , while the earliest cities date back to the Vedic period . The region was part of several ancient pan−Indian empires , including the Mauryans and Guptas . It was also a bastion of regional kingdoms .
Mizoram ( English : /mɪˈzɔːrəm/ ( listen ) ) is a state in northeastern India , with Aizawl as its capital city . The name is derived from Mizo , the name of the native inhabitants , and Ram , which means land , and thus Mizoram means land of the Mizos . Within the northeast region , it is the southernmost landlocked state , sharing borders with three of the Seven Sister States , namely Tripura , Assam and Manipur . The state also shares a 722-kilometre border with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar . Like several other northeastern states of India , Mizoram was previously part of Assam until 1972 , when it was carved out as a Union Territory . It became the 23rd state of India , a step above Union Territory , on 20 February 1987 , with the Fifty-Third Amendment of the Indian Constitution , 1986 . Mizoram 's population was 1,091,014 , according to a 2011 census . It is the 2nd least populous state in the country . Mizoram covers an area of approximately 21,087 square kilometres . About 91% of the state is forested . About 95% of the current population is of diverse tribal origins who settled in the state , mostly from Southeast Asia , over waves of migration starting about the 16th century but mainly in the 18th century . This is the highest concentration of tribal people among all states of India , and they are currently protected under Indian constitution as a Scheduled Tribe .
Jharkhand ( lit . Bushland or The land of forest ) is a state in eastern India . The state shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north , Uttar Pradesh to the northwest , Chhattisgarh to the west , Odisha to the south and West Bengal to the east . It has an area of 79,710 km2 ( 30,778 sq mi ) . It is the 15th largest state by area , and the 14th largest by population . Hindi is the official language of the state . The city of Ranchi is its capital and Dumka its sub capital . The state is known for its waterfalls , hills and holy places ; Baidyanath Dham , Parasnath and Rajrappa are major religious sites . The region has been inhabited since the Mesolithic-Chalcolithic period , as shown by several ancient cave paintings . Even evidence of use of iron started in this region as early as 1400 BCE . The region was under the rule of many sovereign and autonomous ruling dynasties including Maurya , Gupta , Gauda , Pala , Nagvanshi , Khayaravala , Ramgarh Raj , Raksel , Chero and Kharagdiha Zamindari estates . In the 16th century Mughal influence reached the region , and it finally came under the East India Company in the 18th century .
Tripura ( /ˈtrɪpʊrə , -ərə/ ) is a state in northeastern India . The third-smallest state in the country , it covers 10,491 km2 ( 4,051 sq mi ) and is bordered by Bangladesh to the north , south , and west , and the Indian states of Assam and Mizoram to the east . In 2011 the state had 3,671,032 residents , constituting 0.3% of the country 's population . The area of modern Tripura - ruled for several centuries by the Manikya dynasty - was part of an independent princely state under the protectorate of the British Empire . The independent Tripuri Kingdom ( also known as Hill Tippera ) joined the newly independent India in 1949 . Tripura lies in a geographically disadvantageous location in India , as only one major highway , the National Highway 8 , connects it with the rest of the country . Five mountain ranges - Boromura , Atharamura , Longtharai , Shakhan and Jampui Hills - run north to south , with intervening valleys ; Agartala , the capital , is located on a plain to the west . The state has a tropical savanna climate , and receives seasonal heavy rains from the south west monsoon . Forests cover more than half of the area , in which bamboo and cane tracts are common . Tripura has the highest number of primate species found in any Indian state . Due to its geographical isolation , economic progress in the state is hindered . Poverty and unemployment continue to plague Tripura , which has a limited infrastructure .
Assam ( /ˈæsæm/ , Assamese : [ ɔxɔm ] ( listen ) ) is a state in northeastern India , situated south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys . Assam covers an area of 78,438 km2 ( 30,285 sq mi ) . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north ; Nagaland and Manipur to the east ; Meghalaya , Tripura , Mizoram and Bangladesh to the south ; and West Bengal to the west via the Siliguri Corridor , a 22 kilometres ( 14 mi ) strip of land that connects the state to the rest of India . Assam is known for Assam tea and Assam silk . The state was the first site for oil drilling in Asia . Assam is home to the one-horned Indian rhinoceros , along with the wild water buffalo , pygmy hog , tiger and various species of Asiatic birds , and provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant . The Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism to Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park , which are World Heritage Sites . Sal tree forests are found in the state which , as a result of abundant rainfall , look green all year round . Assam receives more rainfall than most parts of India ; this rain feeds the Brahmaputra River , whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a hydro-geomorphic environment .
Manipur ( /ˈmʌnɪpʊər/ ( listen ) ) is a state in northeastern India , with the city of Imphal as its capital . It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north , Mizoram to the south , and Assam to the west ; Myanmar ( Sagaing Region and Chin State ) lies to its east . The state covers an area of 22,327 square kilometres ( 8,621 sq mi ) and has a population of almost 3 million , including the Meitei , who are the majority group in the state , the Pangals or the Pangans ( Manipuri Muslims ) , Naga tribes , Kuki/Zo tribes and other communities , who speak a variety of Sino-Tibetan languages . Manipur has been at the crossroads of Asian economic and cultural exchange for more than 2,500 years . It has long connected the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia to Southeast Asia , China ( or East Asia ) , Siberia ( Russia ) , Micronesia and Polynesia , enabling migration of people , cultures , and religions . During the days of the British Indian Empire , the Kingdom of Manipur was one of the princely states . Between 1917 and 1939 , some people of Manipur pressed the princely rulers for democracy . By the late 1930s , the princely state of Manipur negotiated with the British administration its preference to continue to be part of the Indian Empire , rather than part of Burma , which was being separated from India . These negotiations were cut short with the outbreak of World War II in 1939 . On 11 August 1947 , Maharaja Budhachandra signed an Instrument of Accession , joining India . Later , on 21 September 1949 , he signed a Merger Agreement , merging the kingdom into India , which led to its becoming a Part C State . This merger was later disputed by groups in Manipur , as having been completed without consensus and under duress .
Meghalaya ( UK : /meɪˈɡɑːləjə/ , US : /ˌmeɪɡəˈleɪə/ ) is a hilly state in northeastern India . The name means the abode of clouds in Sanskrit . The population of Meghalaya as of 2016 is estimated to be 3,211,474 . Meghalaya covers an area of approximately 22,430 square kilometres , with a length to breadth ratio of about 3:1 . The state is bounded to the south by the Bangladeshi divisions of Mymensingh and Sylhet , to the west by the Bangladeshi division of Rangpur , and to the north and east by India 's State of Assam . The capital of Meghalaya is Shillong . During the British rule of India , the British imperial authorities nicknamed it the Scotland of the East . Meghalaya was previously part of Assam , but on 21 January 1972 , the districts of Khasi , Garo and Jaintia hills became the new state of Meghalaya . English is the official language of Meghalaya . Unlike many Indian states , Meghalaya has historically followed a matrilineal system where the lineage and inheritance are traced through women ; the youngest daughter inherits all wealth and she also takes care of her parents . The state is the wettest region of India , recording an average of 12,000 mm ( 470 in ) of rain a year . About 70% of the state is forested .
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands , a Union territory of India comprising 572 islands of which 37 are inhabited , are a group of islands at the juncture of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea . The territory is about 150 km ( 93 mi ) north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated from Thailand and Myanmar by the Andaman Sea . It comprises two island groups , the Andaman Islands ( partly ) and the Nicobar Islands , separated by the 150 km wide Ten Degree Channel ( on the 10°N parallel ) , with the Andamans to the north of this latitude , and the Nicobars to the south ( or by 179 km ) . The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west . The territory 's capital is the city of Port Blair . The total land area of the islands is approximately 8,249 km2 ( 3,185 sq mi ) . The islands host the Andaman and Nicobar Command , the only tri-service geographical command of the Indian Armed Forces . The territory is divided into three districts : Nicobar District with Car Nicobar as capital , South Andaman district with Port Blair as capital and North and Middle Andaman district with Mayabunder as capital . The Andaman Islands are home to the Sentinelese people , an uncontacted people . The Sentinelese are the only people currently known to not have reached further than a Paleolithic level of technology .
The Cyrillic script ( /sɪˈrɪlɪk/ ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia and is used as the national script in various Slavic- , Turkic- and Persian-speaking countries in Eastern Europe , the Caucasus , Central Asia , and Northern Asia . In the 9th century AD the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I the Great , following the cultural and political course of his father Boris I , commissioned a new script , the Early Cyrillic alphabet , to be made at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire , which would replace the Glagolitic script , produced earlier by Saints Cyril and Methodius and the same disciples that created the new Slavic script in Bulgaria . The usage of the Cyrillic script in Bulgaria was made official in 893 . The new script became the basis of alphabets used in various languages , especially those of Orthodox Slavic origin , and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian . As of 2019 [ update ] , around 250 million people in Eurasia use it as the official alphabet for their national languages , with Russia accounting for about half of them . With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007 , Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union , following Latin and Greek . Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script , augmented by letters from the older Glagolitic alphabet , including some ligatures . These additional letters were used for Old Church Slavonic sounds not found in Greek . The script is named in honor of the two Byzantine brothers , Saints Cyril and Methodius , who created the Glagolitic alphabet earlier on . Modern scholars believe that Cyrillic was developed and formalized by the early disciples of Cyril and Methodius , particularly by Clement of Ohrid . In the early 18th century , the Cyrillic script used in Russia was heavily reformed by Peter the Great , who had recently returned from his Grand Embassy in western Europe . The new letterforms became closer to those of the Latin alphabet ; several archaic letters were removed and several letters were personally designed by Peter the Great .
Bulgarian ( /bʌlˈɡɛəriən/ ( listen ) , /bʊlˈ-/ bu ( u ) l-GAIR-ee-ən ; български , bălgarski , pronounced [ ˈbɤɫɡɐrski ] ( listen ) ) is a South Slavic language spoken in Southeastern Europe , primarily in Bulgaria . It is the language of Bulgarians . Along with the closely related Macedonian language ( collectively forming the East South Slavic languages ) , it is a member of the Balkan sprachbund . The two languages have several characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages : changes include the elimination of case declension , the development of a suffixed definite article and the lack of a verb infinitive , but it retains and has further developed the Proto-Slavic verb system . One such major development is the innovation of evidential verb forms to encode for the source of information : witnessed , inferred , or reported . It is the official language of Bulgaria , and since 2007 has been among the official languages of the European Union . It is also spoken by minorities in several other countries .
Russian ( русский язык , tr . rússky yazýk ) is an East Slavic language , which is an official language in Russia , Belarus , Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan , as well as being widely used throughout Eastern Europe , the Baltic states , the Caucasus and Central Asia . It was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 25 December 1991 . Although nearly three decades have passed since the breakup of the Soviet Union , Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states , as well as in Israel and Mongolia . Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages , one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages , and part of the larger Balto-Slavic branch . Written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century onward . Russian is the largest native language in Europe and the most geographically widespread language in Eurasia . It is the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages , with 144 million speakers in Russia , Ukraine and Belarus . Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers and the seventh by total number of speakers . The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet , after English . Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without , the so-called soft and hard sounds .
Serbian ( српски / srpski , pronounced [ sr̩̂pskiː ] ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs . It is the official language of Serbia , co-official in the territory of Kosovo , and one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina . In addition , it is a recognized minority language in Montenegro , where it is spoken by the relative majority of the population , as well as in Croatia , North Macedonia , Romania , Hungary , Slovakia , and the Czech Republic . Standard Serbian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian , Shtokavian ( more specifically on the dialects of Šumadija-Vojvodina and Eastern Herzegovina ) , which is also the basis of standard Croatian , Bosnian , and Montenegrin varieties and therefore the Declaration on the Common Language of Croats , Bosniaks , Serbs and Montenegrins was issued in 2017 . The other dialect spoken by Serbs is Torlakian in southeastern Serbia , which is transitional to Macedonian and Bulgarian . Serbian is practically the only European standard language whose speakers are fully functionally digraphic , using both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets . The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was devised in 1814 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić , who created it based on phonemic principles . The Serbian Latin alphabet was designed by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj in 1830 .
Ukrainian ( /juːˈkreɪniən/ ( listen ) yoo-KRAY-nee-ən ; українська мова ukrayins'ka mova [ ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔwɐ ] ) is an East Slavic language . It is the official state language of Ukraine and one of the three official languages in the unrecognized state of Transnistria , the other two being Moldovan and Russian . Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script ( see Ukrainian alphabet ) . Historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus ' . After the fall of the Kievan Rus ' as well as the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia , the language developed into a form called the Ruthenian language . The Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century , associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate . From 1804 until the Russian Revolution , the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire , of which the biggest part of Ukraine ( Central , Eastern and Southern ) was a part at the time . It has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine , where the language was never banned , in its folk songs , itinerant musicians , and prominent authors . The standard Ukrainian language is regulated by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine ( NANU ) , particularly by its Institute for the Ukrainian Language , Ukrainian language-information fund , and Potebnya Institute of Language Studies . The Ukrainian language retains a degree of mutual intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian .
Macedonian ( /ˌmæsɪˈdoʊniən/ ; македонски јазик , translit . makedonski jazik , pronounced [ maˈkɛdɔnski ˈjazik ] ( listen ) ) is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by around two million people , principally in North Macedonia and its diaspora , with a smaller number of speakers throughout the transnational region of Macedonia . It is the official language of North Macedonia and a recognized minority language in parts of Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Romania , and Serbia . Standard Macedonian was implemented as the official language of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1945 and has since developed a modern literature . Most of the codification was formalized during the same period . All South Slavic languages , including Macedonian , form a dialect continuum .
Belarusian ( /bɛləˈruːsiən , -ʒən , -ʃən/ ; беларуская мова biełaruskaja mova [ bʲelaˈruskaja ˈmova ] ) is an East Slavic language spoken by Belarusians . It is the official language of Belarus , along with the Russian language . It is additionally spoken in parts of Russia ( where it is known as Western Russian [ citation needed ] ) , Poland , and Ukraine by Belarusian minorities in those countries . Before Belarus gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 , the language was only known in English as Byelorussian or Belorussian , transliterating the Russian name , белорусский язык belorusskiy yazyk , or alternatively as White Ruthenian ( /ruːˈθiːniən/ ) or White Russian . Following independence , it has acquired the additional name Belarusian . As one of the East Slavic languages , Belarusian shares many grammatical and lexical features with other members of the group . To some extent , Russian , Rusyn , Ukrainian , and Belarusian are all mutually intelligible , effectively forming a dialect continuum . Its predecessor stage is known as Ruthenian ( 14th to 17th centuries ) , in turn descended from Old East Slavic ( 10th to 13th centuries ) . In the first Belarus Census of 1999 , the Belarusian language was declared as a language spoken at home by about 3,686,000 Belarusian citizens ( 36.7% of the population ) . About 6,984,000 ( 85.6% ) of Belarusians declared it their mother tongue . Other sources , such as Ethnologue , put the figure at approximately 2.5 million active speakers . According to a study done by the Belarusian government in 2009 , 72% of Belarusians speak Russian at home , while Belarusian is actively used by only 11.9% of Belarusians .
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of the European continent . There is no consistent definition of the precise area it covers , partly because the term has a wide range of geopolitical , geographical , cultural , and socioeconomic connotations . There are almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region . A related United Nations paper adds that every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct . One definition describes Eastern Europe as a cultural entity : the region lying in Europe with the main characteristics consisting of Greek , Byzantine , Eastern Orthodox , Russian , and some Ottoman cultural influences . Another definition was created during the Cold War and used more or less synonymously with the term Eastern Bloc . A similar definition names the formerly communist European states outside the Soviet Union as Eastern Europe . Most historians and social scientists view such definitions as outdated or relegated , but they are still sometimes used for statistical purposes .
Central Asia is a region which stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east , and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north . The region consists of the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . It is also colloquially referred to as the stans as the countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix -stan , meaning land of . In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times , Central Asia was predominantly Iranian , populated by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians , Sogdians , Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae . After expansion by Turkic peoples , Central Asia also became the homeland for the Kazakhs , Uzbeks , Tatars , Turkmen , Kyrgyz , and Uyghurs ; Turkic languages largely replaced the Iranian languages spoken in the area . Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road . It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people , goods , and ideas between Europe , Western Asia , South Asia , and East Asia . The Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe , India , and China . This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization . From the mid-19th century until almost the end of the 20th century , most of Central Asia was part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union , both Slavic-majority countries , and the five former Soviet -stans are still home to about 7 million ethnic Russians and 500,000 Ukrainians . Central Asia ( 2019 ) has a population of about 72 million , consisting of five republics : Kazakhstan ( pop . 18 million ) , Kyrgyzstan ( 6 million ) , Tajikistan ( 9 million ) , Turkmenistan ( 6 million ) , and Uzbekistan ( 33 million ) .
Mongolia [ a ] is a landlocked country in East Asia . Its area is roughly equivalent with the historical territory of Outer Mongolia , and that term is sometimes used to refer to the current state . It is sandwiched between Russia to the north and China to the south , where it neighbours the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region . Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan , although only 37 kilometres ( 23 mi ) separate them . At 1,564,116 square kilometres ( 603,909 sq mi ) , Mongolia is the 18th-largest and the most sparsely populated sovereign state in the world , with a population of around three million people . It is also the world 's second-largest landlocked country behind Kazakhstan and the largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea . The country contains very little arable land , as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe , with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south . Ulaanbaatar , the capital and largest city , is home to about 45% of the country 's population . Ulaanbaatar also shares the rank of the world 's coldest capital city with Moscow , Ottawa , and Nur-Sultan . Approximately 30% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic ; horse culture is still integral . The majority of its population are Buddhists . The non-religious population is the second-largest group .
The Russian Far East ( Russian : Дальний Восток России , tr . Dal'niy Vostok Rossii , IPA : [ ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ ] , literally The distant East of Russia ) is a region in North Asia which includes the Russian part of the Far East , the easternmost territory of Russia , between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean . The Far Eastern Federal District shares land borders with Mongolia , the People 's Republic of China and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea to its south , and shares maritime borders with Japan to its southeast and with the United States to its northeast . Although occasionally considered part of Siberia , the Russian Far East is categorized separately from the Siberian Federal District to its west in Russian geographical schemes .
Kana ( 仮名 , Japanese pronunciation : [ kana ] ) are the syllabaries that form parts of the Japanese writing system , contrasted with the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji ( 漢字 ) . The modern Japanese writing system makes use of two syllabaries : cursive hiragana ( ひらがな ) and angular katakana ( カタカナ ) . Also classified as kana is the ancient syllabic use of kanji known as man'yōgana ( 万葉仮名 ) , which was ancestral to both hiragana and katakana . Hentaigana ( 変体仮名 , variant kana ) are historical variants of modern standard hiragana . In modern Japanese , hiragana and katakana have directly corresponding sets of characters representing the same series of sounds . Katakana , with a few additions , are also used to write Ainu . Taiwanese kana were used in Taiwanese Hokkien as glosses ( furigana ) for Chinese characters in Taiwan under Japanese rule . Each kana character ( syllabogram ) corresponds to one sound in the Japanese language . Apart from the five vowels , this is always CV ( consonant onset with vowel nucleus ) , such as ka , ki , etc. , or V ( vowel ) , such as a , i , etc. , with the sole exception of the C grapheme for nasal codas usually romanised as n. This structure has led some scholars to label the system moraic instead of syllabic , because it requires the combination of two syllabograms to represent a CVC syllable with coda ( i.e . CVn , CVm , CVng ) , a CVV syllable with complex nucleus ( i.e . multiple or expressively long vowels ) , or a CCV syllable with complex onset ( i.e . including a glide , CyV , CwV ) .
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent the syllables or ( more frequently ) moras which make up words . A symbol in a syllabary , called a syllabogram , typically represents an ( optional ) consonant sound ( simple onset ) followed by a vowel sound ( nucleus ) - that is , a CV or V syllable - but other phonographic mappings such as CVC , CV- tone , and C ( normally nasals at the end of syllables ) are also found in syllabaries .
The Ainu language ( occasionally also Ainuic ; /ˈaɪnuː/ ; Ainu : アィヌ・イタㇰ , Aynu=itak ; Japanese : アイヌ語 , Ainu-go ) is a language isolate or language family spoken by the Ainu people of Northern Japan . The varieties of Ainu are alternately considered a group of closely related languages or divergent dialects of a single language isolate . The only surviving variety is the Hokkaido Ainu , which UNESCO lists as critically endangered . Varieties from Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are now extinct . Placename evidence suggests Ainu was also spoken in Northern Honshu in the past . No genealogical relationship between Ainu and any other language family has been demonstrated , despite numerous attempts . Because of the history of colonization policy employed by the modern Japanese government in the Hokkaido area , the number of Ainu language speakers has gradually decreased and very few people can speak the language fluently in daily life .
Palauan ( a tekoi er a Belau ) is a Malayo-Polynesian language native to the Republic of Palau , where it is one of the two official languages , alongside English . It is widely used in day-to-day life in the country . Palauan is not closely related to other Malayo-Polynesian languages and its exact classification within the Austronesian languages is unclear .
The Javanese script , natively known as Aksara Jawa ꦏ꧀ꦱ ( ksa ) ꦫ ( ra ) ꦗ ( ja ) ꦮ ( wa ) ) and Hanacaraka ( ꦲ ( ha ) ꦤ ( na ) ꦕ ( ca ) ꦫ ( ra ) ꦏ ( ka ) ) , formally known as Déntawyanjana ( ꦢꦺ ( dé ) ꦤ꧀ꦠ ( nta ) ꦮꦾ ( wya ) ꦚ꧀ꦗ ( nyja ) ꦤ ( na ) ) and Carakan ( ꦕ ( ca ) ꦫ ( ra ) ꦏ ( ka ) ꦤ꧀ ( n ) ) , is an abugida developed by the Javanese people to write several Austronesian languages spoken in Indonesia , primarily the Javanese language and an early form of Javanese called Kawi , as well as Sanskrit , an Indo-Aryan language used as a sacred language throughout Asia . The Javanese script is a descendant of the Brahmi script and therefore has many similarities with the modern scripts of South India and Southeast Asia . The Javanese script , along with the Balinese script , is considered the most elaborate and ornate among Brahmic scripts of Southeast Asia . The script was widely used by the court scribes of Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands . Numerous efforts to standardize the script were made in the late 19th to early 20th-century , with the invention of the script 's first metal type and the development of concise orthographic guidelines . However , further development was halted abruptly following World War II and especially during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies , in which its use was prohibited , and the script 's use has since declined . Today , everyday use of the Javanese script has been largely supplanted by the Javanese Latin alphabet .
The Cirebonese or Cirebonese people are an Austronesian ethnic group and nation native on the city of Cirebon and its immediate surrounding area , located in the northern part of the island of Java in Indonesia . Numbering approximately 1.9 million , the Cirebonese are mostly Muslim . Their language , Cirebonese , is a mixture of Javanese and Sundanese , with a heavier influence from Javanese , and as such is variably classified as either a dialect of both of those languages or as an independent language .
Madurese is a language of the Madurese people of Madura Island and eastern Java , Indonesia ; it is also spoken on the neighbouring small Kangean Islands and Sapudi Islands , as well as by migrants to other parts of Indonesia , namely the eastern salient of Java ( comprising Pasuruan , Surabaya , Malang to Banyuwangi ) , the Masalembu Islands , and even some on Kalimantan . The Kangean dialect may be a separate language . 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 8-13 million , making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the country . A variant of Madurese that is Bawean is also spoken by Baweanese ( or Boyan ) descendants in Malaysia and Singapore . 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 right next door . Links between Bali-Sasak languages and Madurese are more evident with the low form ( common form ) . There are some common words between Madurese and Filipino languages as well as between Madurese and Banjar ( a Malayic language ) .
Central Java ( Indonesian : Jawa Tengah ) is a province of Indonesia , located in the middle of the island of Java . Its administrative capital is Semarang . It is bordered by West Java in the west , the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogyakarta in the south , East Java in the east , and the Java Sea in the north . It has a total area of 32,548 km² , with a population of 34,552,500 million in mid 2019 , making it the third-most populous province in both Java and Indonesia after West Java and East Java . The province also includes the island of Nusakambangan in the south ( close to the border of West Java ) , and the Karimun Jawa Islands in the Java Sea . Central Java is also a cultural concept that includes the Special Region and city of Yogyakarta . However , administratively the city and its surrounding regencies have formed a separate special region ( equivalent to a province ) since the country 's independence , and is administrated separately . Although known as the heart of Javanese culture , there are several other non-Javanese ethnic groups , such as the Sundanese on the border with West Java . Chinese Indonesians , Arab Indonesians , and Indian Indonesians are also scattered throughout the province . The province has been inhabited by humans since the prehistoric-era . Remains of a Homo erectus , known as Java Man , were found along the banks of the Bengawan Solo River , and date back to 1.7 million years ago . What is present-day Central Java was once under the control of several Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms , Islamic sultanates , and the Dutch East Indies colonial government .
East Java ( Indonesian : Jawa Timur ) is a province of Indonesia . It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west ; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern and southern coasts , respectively , while the narrow Bali Strait to the east separates Java from Bali . Located in eastern Java , it also includes the island of Madura , which is connected to Java by the longest bridge in Indonesia , the Suramadu Bridge , as well as the Kangean and Masalembu archipelagos located further east and north , respectively . Its capital is Surabaya , the second largest city in Indonesia and a major industrial center . Banyuwangi is the largest regency in East Java and the largest on the island of Java . The province covers an area of 47,800 km2 , According to the 2010 Census , there were 37,476,757 people residing in the East Java , making it Indonesia 's second-most-populous province ; the latest official estimate ( for mid 2019 ) is 39,744,800 . East Java is inhabited by many different ethnic groups , such as the Javanese , Madurese and Chinese . Most of the people in East Java adheres to Islam , forming around 96% of the total population . Other religions are also worshipped , such as Christianity , which are mostly worshipped by Chinese Indonesians and immigrants from Eastern Indonesia and North Sumatra , and also Hinduism which are mostly worshipped by the Tenggerese people in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park and the Balinese people inhabiting the easternmost part of the province bordering Bali . The Indonesian language is the official language of the province as well as the whole nation , but Javanese and Madurese are the most frequently used language . Indonesian is only used for inter-ethnic communication and official purposes . East Java is one of the provinces in Indonesia that offers different types of tourist attractions .
The Special Region of Yogyakarta ( Indonesian : Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta , pronounced /ˌjɒɡjəˈkɑːrtə/ ) is a provincial-level autonomous region of Indonesia in the southern Java . It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south , as well as sharing all the land borders to the province of Central Java . Ruled by the Yogyakarta Sultanate , the region is the only officially recognised monarchy within the government of Indonesia . The city of Yogyakarta is the capital and the economic center of the region . The Yogyakarta Sultanate has been established since 1755 and provided an unwavering support for Indonesia 's independence during the Indonesian National Revolution ( 1945-1949 ) . As a first-level division in Indonesia , Yogyakarta is governed by Sultan Hamengkubuwono as the governor and Prince Paku Alam as the vice governor . With a land area of 3,185.8 km² , it is the second-smallest province of Indonesia after Jakarta .
Cirebon ( formerly rendered Cheribon or Chirebon in English ) is a port city on the north coast of the Indonesian island of Java . It is located in the province of West Java near the provincial border with Central Java , approximately 297 km ( 185 mi ) east of Jakarta , at 6°43′S 108°34′E / 6.717°S 108.567°E / -6.717 ; 108.567 . The administrative area of Cirebon city proper and its dense metropolitan sprawl into the surrounding regency ; the official metropolitan area encompasses this regency as well as the city , and covers an area of 1,021.88 km2 ( 394.55 sq mi ) , with a 2010 Census population of 2,366,340 . The seat of a former Sultanate , the city 's West and Central Java border location have seen its history influenced by both Sundanese and Javanese culture as well as Arab and Chinese .
Cirebon Regency is a regency ( kabupaten ) of West Java , Indonesia . Sumber is its capital . The area and population excludes those of Cirebon City , which is an independent administration , although totally surrounded by the regency on its landward side . The Cirebon region is renowned for the production of various types of mangoes . There are plans to support the expansion of mango production in the region both for export as well as for the domestic market . Mango production is currently concentrated in just a few parts of the regency . Local farmers and officials believe there is considerable potential to expand production to other nearby parts of the locality .
Indramayu Regency is a regency ( kabupaten ) of West Java province of Indonesia . It covers an area of 2,040.11 km2 , and had a population of 1,663,737 at the 2010 Census ; the latest official estimate ( as at 2015 ) was 1,789,204 . The town of Indramayu is its capital . This regency is located on the northeastern corner of West Java . The borders of the regency include : North : Java Sea East : Java Sea South : Cirebon Regency and Majalengka Regency West : Subang Regency Southwest : Sumedang Regency .
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The Korean alphabet , known as Hangul ( Hangeul ) [ note 1 ] in South Korea or Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea , has been used to write the Korean language since its creation in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great . It is the official writing system of Korea , both South Korea and North Korea . It is a co-official writing system in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture and Changbai Korean Autonomous County in Jilin Province , China . It is also sometimes used to write the Cia-Cia language spoken near the town of Baubau , Indonesia . A Taiwanese linguist Xu Caode ( 1987 ) developed and used a modified Hangul alphabet to represent spoken Taiwanese Hokkien , and was later supported by Ang Ui-jin ( see Taiwanese Hangul ) . The Hangul alphabet originally consisted of 28 letters with 17 consonant letters and 11 vowel letters when it was created . As four became obsolete , modern Hangul consists of a total of 24 letters with 14 consonant letters and 10 vowel letters . In North Korea the total is counted 40 . It consists of 19 consonant letters and 21 vowel letters as it additionally includes 5 tense consonants ( ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅉ ㅆ ) and 6 compound and complex vowel letters as well as ㅐ and ㅔ . The Korean letters are written in syllabic blocks with the alphabetic letters arranged in two dimensions . For example , the Korean word for honeybee ( kkulbeol ) is written 꿀벌 , not ㄲㅜㄹㅂㅓㄹ . As it combines the features of alphabetic and syllabic writing systems , it has been described as an alphabetic syllabary by some linguists .
In a featural writing system , the shapes of the symbols ( such as letters ) are not arbitrary but encode phonological features of the phonemes that they represent . The term featural was introduced by Geoffrey Sampson to describe the Korean alphabet:120 and Pitman shorthand . :40 Joe Martin introduced the term featural notation to describe writing systems that include symbols to represent individual features rather than phonemes . He asserts that alphabets have no symbols for anything smaller than a phoneme . :5 A featural script represents finer detail than an alphabet . Here symbols do not represent whole phonemes , but rather the elements ( features ) that make up the phonemes , such as voicing or its place of articulation . Theoretically , each feature could be written with a separate letter ; and abjads or abugidas , or indeed syllabaries , could be featural , but the only prominent system of this sort is the Korean alphabet , also known as hangul . In the Korean alphabet , the featural symbols are combined into alphabetic letters , and these letters are in turn joined into syllabic blocks , so that the system combines three levels of phonological representation . Many scholars , e.g . John DeFrancis , reject this class or at least labeling the Korean alphabet as such . [ citation needed ] The Korean script is called by Daniels a sophisticated grammatogeny . [ citation needed ] Others include stenographies and constructed scripts of hobbyists and fiction writers ( such as Tengwar ) , many of which feature advanced graphic designs corresponding to phonologic properties .
Cia-Cia ( Bahasa Ciacia ) , also known as Buton or Butonese , is an Austronesian language spoken principally around the city of Baubau on the southern tip of Buton Island off the southeast coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia . In 2009 , the language gained international media attention as the city of Baubau was teaching children to read and write Cia-Cia in Hangul , the Korean alphabet , and the mayor consulted the Indonesian government on the possibility of making the writing system official . However , the project encountered difficulties between the city of Baubau , the Hunminjeongeum Society , and the Seoul Metropolitan Government in 2011 , and was abandoned in 2012 . As of 2017 it remains in use in schools and on local signs .
Jeju ( also called Cheju or Jejueo ) is a Koreanic language spoken at Jeju Island , which forms the Jeju Province of South Korea . It differs greatly from the Korean dialects of the mainland . Standard Korean is the most common form of communication in Korea , whereas the Jeju dialect is considered a very local language . The Jeju language is mainly understood and spoken by the older generation . As of October 2014 , the Jeju National University Foreign Language Institute has made efforts to save the fading language . Currently , only a relatively small group , consisting of around , or even fewer than , ten thousand individuals actively speak the language . According to the UNESCO Atlas of the World 's Endangered Languages , the Jeju language is listed as critically endangered , the highest vulnerability level . Only 5,000-10,000 people speak the Jeju language , all of whom are above 70-75 years of age . Without a province-wide teaching mechanism of the Jeju language for the youth , the language may be extinct within 2-4 decades , making it a language in grave peril unless a teaching-mechanism is established by either the government or an educational institution in Jeju-do .
North Korea ( Korean : 조선 ; MR : Chosŏn or literally 북조선 ; MR : Pukchosŏn ) , officially the Democratic People 's Republic of Korea ( DPRK or DPR Korea ; Korean : 조선민주주의인민공화국 , Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk ) , is a country in East Asia constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula , with Pyongyang as its capital and the largest city in the country . To the north and northwest , the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok ( known as the Yalu in Chinese ) and Tumen rivers , and to the south , it is bordered by South Korea , with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone ( DMZ ) separating the two . Nevertheless , North Korea , like its southern counterpart , claims to be the legitimate government of the entire peninsula and adjacent islands . In 1910 , Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan . At the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945 , Korea was divided into two zones , with the north occupied by the Soviet Union and the south occupied by the United States . Negotiations on reunification failed , and in 1948 , separate governments were formed : the socialist Democratic People 's Republic of Korea in the north , and the capitalist Republic of Korea in the south . An invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War ( 1950-1953 ) . The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire , but no peace treaty was signed . North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state , and formally holds elections , though they have been described by outside observers as sham elections . Outside observers also generally view North Korea as a Stalinist dictatorship , particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around the Kim dynasty . The Workers ' Party of Korea ( WPK ) , led by a member of the ruling family , holds absolute power in the state and leads the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland of which all political officers are required to be members . Juche , an ideology of national self-reliance , was introduced into the constitution in 1972 .
Yanbian ( Chinese : 延边 ; Chosŏn'gŭl : 연변 , Yŏnbyŏn ) is an autonomous prefecture in the east of Jilin Province , China . Yanbian is bordered to the north by Heilongjiang , on the west by Baishan and Jilin City , on the south by North Korea 's North Hamgyong Province , and on the east by Primorsky Krai in Russia . Yanbian is designated as a Korean autonomous prefecture due to the large number of ethnic Koreans living in the region . The prefectural capital is Yanji , and the total area is 42,700 square kilometres ( 16,500 sq mi ) . The prefecture has an important Balhae archaeological site : the Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain , which includes the Mausoleum of Princess Jeonghyo .
Baubau is a city in Southeast Sulawesi province , Indonesia . The city located on Buton island . Baubau attained city status on 21 June 2001 , based on Indonesian Law Number 13 , for the year 2001 . The port of Murhum serves the city 's sea transportation , with a ferry terminal operated by the Indonesian state-owned sealiner , Pelni .
Telugu script ( Telugu : తెలుగు లిపి , romanized : Telugu lipi ) , an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts , is used to write the Telugu language , a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well as several other neighbouring states . The Telugu script is also widely used for writing Sanskrit texts and to some extent the Gondi language . It gained prominence during the Eastern Chalukyas also known as Vengi Chalukya era . It shares extensive similarities with the Kannada script , as it has evolved from Kadamba and Bhattiprolu scripts of the Brahmi family . Both Adikavi Pampa of Kannada and Adikavi Nannayya of Telugu hail from families native to the Vengi region . In 2008 , Telugu language is given the status of Classical Languages of India , this status owes to its rich history and heritage .
Telugu ( English : /ˈtɛlʊɡuː/ ; తెలుగు [ teluɡu ] ) is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the Union Territory of Puducherry ( Yanam ) by the Telugu people . It stands alongside Hindi and English as one of the few languages with primary official language status in more than one Indian state . Telugu is also a linguistic minority in the states of Orissa , Karnataka , Tamil Nadu , Kerala , Chattisgarh , Jarkandh and Maharashtra . It is one of six languages designated a classical language of India by the country 's government . Telugu ranks 4th among the languages with the highest number of native speakers in India , with 6.7 percent at the 2011 census , and fifteenth in the Ethnologue list of most widely-spoken languages worldwide . It is the most widely spoken member of the Dravidian language family , and one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India . It is also the fastest growing language in the United States , where there is a large Telugu-speaking community . Roughly 10,000 pre-colonial inscriptions exist in the Telugu language .
Gondi ( Gōndi ) is a South-Central Dravidian language , spoken by about two million Gondi people , chiefly in the states of Madhya Pradesh , Gujarat , Telangana , Maharashtra , Chhattisgarh , Andhra Pradesh and in various adjoining areas of neighbouring states . Although it is the language of the Gond people , only one fifth of Gonds can speak the language , making it vulnerable to extinction . Gondi has a rich folk literature , examples of which are marriage songs and narrations .
Andhra Pradesh ( /ˌɑːndrə prəˈdɛʃ/ ) ( pronunciation ( help·info ) ) is one of the 28 states of India , situated in the south-eastern part of the country . It is the eight-largest state in India , covering an area of 162,975 km2 ( 62,925 sq mi ) . As per the 2011 census , it is the tenth-most populous state , with 49,386,799 inhabitants . The largest city in Andhra Pradesh is Visakhapatnam . Telugu , one of the classical languages of India , is the major and official language of Andhra Pradesh . The north-western portion of Andhra Pradesh was separated to form the new state of Telangana on 2 June 2014 , and Hyderabad , the longtime capital of Andhra Pradesh , was transferred to Telangana as part of the division . However , in accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act , 2014 , Hyderabad was to remain the acting capital of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states for a period of time not exceeding ten years . Andhra Pradesh has a coastline of 974 km ( 605 mi ) - the second-longest coastline among the states of India , after Gujarat - with jurisdiction over almost 15,000 km2 of territorial waters . The state is bordered by Telangana in the north-west , Chhattisgarh and Odisha in the north-east , Karnataka in the west , Tamil Nadu in the south , and to the east lies the Bay of Bengal . The small enclave of Yanam , a district of Puducherry , lies to the south of Kakinada in the Godavari delta on the eastern side of the state . The state is made up of the two major regions of Rayalaseema , in the inland southwestern part of the state , and Coastal Andhra to the east and northeast , bordering the Bay of Bengal . The state comprises thirteen districts in total , nine of which are located in Coastal Andhra and four in Rayalaseema .
Telangana ( /tɛlənˈɡɑːnə/ ( listen ) ) is a state in India situated on the centre-south stretch of the Indian peninsula on the high Deccan Plateau . It is the twelfth largest state and the twelfth-most populated state in India with a geographical area of 112,077 km2 ( 43,273 sq mi ) and 35,193,978 residents as per 2011 census . On 2 June 2014 , the area was separated from the northwestern part of Andhra Pradesh as the newly formed 29th state with Hyderabad as its historic permanent capital . Its other major cities include Warangal , Nizamabad , Khammam and Karimnagar . Telangana is bordered by the states of Maharashtra to the north , Chhattisgarh to the east , Karnataka to the west , and Andhra Pradesh to the east and south . The terrain of Telangana region consists mostly of hills , mountain ranges , and thick dense forests covering an area of 27,292 km2 ( 10,538 sq mi ) . As of 2019 , the state of Telangana is divided into 33 districts . Throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages , the region now known as Telangana was ruled by multiple major Indian powers such as the Cholas , Mauryans , Satavahanas , Chalukyas , Kakatiyas , Delhi Sultanate , Bahmani Sultanate , Golconda Sultanate . During the 16th and 17th centuries , the region was ruled by the Mughals . The region is known for its Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb . During the 18th century and the British Raj , Telangana was ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad . In 1823 , the Nizams lost control over Northern Circars ( Coastal Andhra ) and Ceded Districts ( Rayalseema ) , which were handed over to the East India Company .
Puducherry ( /pʊdʊˈtʃɛri/ ) , formerly known as Pondicherry ( /pɒndɪˈtʃɛri/ ) , is one of the 8 union territories of India . It was formed out of four territories of former French India , namely Pondichéry ( Pondicherry ; now Puducherry ) , Karikal ( Karaikal ) , Mahé and Yanaon ( Yanam ) , excluding Chandernagore . It is named after the largest district , Puducherry . Historically known as Pondicherry ( Pāṇṭiccēri ) , the territory changed its official name to Puducherry on 20 September 2006 . The Union Territory of Puducherry lies in the southern part of the Indian Peninsula . The areas of Puducherry district and Karaikal district are bound by the state of Tamil Nadu , while Yanam district and Mahé district are enclosed by the states of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala respectively . Puducherry is the 29th most populous and the third most densely populated of the states and union territories of India . It has a gross domestic product ( GDP ) of ₹210 billion ( US $ 2.9 billion ) and ranks 25th in India .
The Tamil script ( தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி ; Tamiḻ ariccuvaṭi ; [ t̪ɐmɨɻ ˈɐɾit͡ɕːuʋəɽi ] ; pronunciation ( help·info ) ) is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India , Sri Lanka , Malaysia , Singapore , Indonesia , and elsewhere to write the Tamil language , using consonants and diacritics not represented in the Tamil alphabet . Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra , Badaga , Irula , and Paniya are also written in the Tamil script .
Tamil ( /ˈtæmɪl/ ; தமிழ் Tamiḻ [ t̪amiɻ ] , pronunciation ( help·info ) ) is a Dravidian language predominantly spoken by the Tamil people of India and Sri Lanka , and by the Tamil diaspora , Sri Lankan Moors , Chindians , and Douglas . Tamil is an official language in three countries : India , Sri Lanka and Singapore . In India , it is the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry . Furthermore , Tamil is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English , Malay and Mandarin . Tamil is spoken by significant minorities in the four other South Indian states of Kerala , Karnataka , Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India . Tamil is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world . A. K. Ramanujan described it as the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past . The variety and quality of classical Tamil literature has led to it being described as one of the great classical traditions and literatures of the world . A recorded Tamil literature has been documented for over 2000 years . The earliest period of Tamil literature , Sangam literature , is dated from ca . 300 BC - AD 300 .
Kanikkaran is a Dravidian language spoken by about 19,000 Kanikkar tribals in southern India . They dwell in forests and hills of Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts of Kerala , and Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu . It is called malambhāsha , or hill-language .
Badaga is a southern Dravidian language spoken by approximately 135,000 people in the Nilgiri Hills of Kongu Nadu region of the state of Tamil Nadu.The word Badaga , meaning northerner , refers to the Badaga language as well as the Badaga people who speak it .
Irula is a Dravidian language spoken by the Irulas who inhabit the area of the Nilgiri mountains , in the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka , India . It is written in the Tamil script .
Paniya is one of the South Dravidian languages spoken in India . It is spoken by the Paniya people , a scheduled tribe with a majority of its speakers in the state of Kerala . The language is also known as Pania , Paniyan and Panyah . It belongs to the Dravidian family of languages . According to the 1981 Census , there were 63,827 speakers of Paniya which includes 56,952 in Kerala , 6,393 in Tamil Nadu , 482 in Karnataka . Most of its speakers are found in the Wayanad , Kozhikode , Kannur and Malappuram districts of Kerala , and to the west of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu .
Tamil Nadu ( Tamil : [ ˈt̪amiɻ ˈn̪aːɽɯ ] ( listen ) ) , is one of the 28 states of India . Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian subcontinent and is bordered by the union territory of Puducherry and the South Indian states of Kerala , Karnataka , and Andhra Pradesh . It is bounded by the Eastern Ghats on the north , by the Nilgiri Mountains , the Meghamalai Hills , and Kerala on the west , by the Bay of Bengal in the east , by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait on the southeast , and by the Indian Ocean on the south . The state shares a maritime border with the nation of Sri Lanka . The region was ruled by several empires , including the three great empires - Chera , Chola and Pandyan empires , which shape the region 's cuisine , culture , and architecture . The British Colonial rule during the modern period led to the emergence of Chennai , then known as Madras , as a world-class city . Modern-day Tamil Nadu was formed in 1956 after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines . The state is home to a number of historic buildings , multi-religious pilgrimage sites , hill stations and three World Heritage sites . Tamil Nadu is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population . The economy of Tamil Nadu is the second-largest state economy in India with ₹16.64 lakh crore ( US $ 230 billion ) in gross domestic product with a per capita GDP of ₹194,000 ( US $ 2,700 ) . Tamil Nadu has the sixth highest ranking among Indian states in human development index .
Sri Lanka ( UK : /sri ˈlæŋkə , ʃriː -/ , US : /- ˈlɑːŋkə/ ( listen ) ; Sinhala : ශ්‍රී ලංකා Śrī Laṃkā ; Tamil : இலங்கை Ilaṅkai ) , officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an island country in South Asia , located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea . The island is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait . The legislative capital , Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte , is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city , Colombo . Sri Lanka 's documented history spans 3,000 years , with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years . It has a rich cultural heritage , and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka , the Pāli Canon , date back to the Fourth Buddhist council in 29 BC . Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to the modern Maritime Silk Road . Sri Lanka was known in the west and from the beginning of British colonial rule as Ceylon ( /sɪˈlɒn/ , US also /seɪˈlɒn/ ) . A nationalist political movement arose in the country in the early 20th century to obtain political independence , which was granted in 1948 ; the country became a republic and adopted its current name in 1972 . Sri Lanka 's recent history has been marred by a 26-year civil war , which ended decisively when the Sri Lanka Armed Forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE ) in 2009 . The current constitution stipulates the political system as a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system . It has had a long history of international engagement , as a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation ( SAARC ) , and a member of the United Nations , the Commonwealth of Nations , the G77 , and the Non-Aligned Movement . Along with the Maldives , Sri Lanka is one of only two South Asian countries rated high on the Human Development Index ( HDI ) , with its HDI rating and per capita income the highest among South Asian nations .
Mauritius ( /məˈrɪʃ ( i ) əs , mɔːˈ-/ ( listen ) mə-RISH- ( ee- ) əs , maw- ; French : Maurice [ mɔʁis , moʁis ] ( listen ) ; Creole : Moris [ moʁis ] ) , officially the Republic of Mauritius ( French : République de Maurice ; Creole : Repiblik Moris ) , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres ( 1,200 mi ) off the southeast coast of the African continent . The country includes the islands of Mauritius , Rodrigues , Agaléga and St. Brandon . The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues form part of the Mascarene Islands , along with nearby Réunion , a French overseas department . The capital and largest city Port Louis is located on the main island of Mauritius . The area of the country is 2,040 square kilometres ( 790 sq mi ) , the nation 's Exclusive Economic Zone covers an area of 2.3 million square kilometres . In 1598 , the Dutch took possession of Mauritius . They abandoned Mauritius in 1710 and the French took control of the island in 1715 , renaming it Isle de France . France officially ceded Mauritius including all its dependencies to the United Kingdom ( UK ) through the Treaty of Paris , signed on 30 May 1814 and in which Réunion was returned to France . The British colony of Mauritius consisted of the main island of Mauritius along with Rodrigues , Agalega , St Brandon , Tromelin and the Chagos Archipelago , while the Seychelles became a separate colony in 1906 . The sovereignty of Tromelin is disputed between Mauritius and France as some of the islands such as St. Brandon , Chagos , Agalega and Tromelin were not specifically mentioned in the Treaty of Paris . In 1965 , three years prior to the independence of Mauritius , the UK split the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritian territory , and the islands of Aldabra , Farquhar and Desroches from the Seychelles , to form the British Indian Ocean Territory ( BIOT ) . The UK forcibly expelled the archipelago 's local population and leased its largest island , Diego Garcia , to the United States .
The Gujarati script ( ગુજરાતી લિપિ Gujǎrātī Lipi ) is an abugida used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages . It is a variant of the Devanagari script differentiated by the loss of the characteristic horizontal line running above the letters and by a number of modifications to some characters . Gujarati numerical digits are also different from their Devanagari counterparts .
Gujarati ( /ˌɡʊdʒəˈrɑːti/ ; ગુજરાતી gujarātī [ ɡudʒəˈɾɑtiː ] ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people . Gujarati is part of the greater Indo-European language family . Gujarati is descended from Old Gujarati ( circa 1100-1500 AD ) . In India , it is the official language in the state of Gujarat , as well as an official language in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu . As of 2011 , Gujarati is the 6th most widely spoken language in India by number of native speakers , spoken by 55.5 million speakers which amounts to about 4.5% of the total Indian population . It is the 26th most widely spoken language in the world by number of native speakers as of 2007 . The Gujarati language is more than 700 years old and is spoken by more than 55 million people worldwide . Outside of Gujarat , Gujarati is spoken in many other parts of South Asia by Gujarati migrants , especially in Mumbai and Pakistan ( mainly in Karachi ) . Gujarati is also widely spoken in many countries outside South Asia by the Gujarati diaspora . In North America , Gujarati is one of the fastest growing and most widely spoken Indian languages in the United States and Canada . In Europe , Gujaratis form the second largest of the British South Asian speech communities , and Gujarati is the fourth most commonly spoken language in the U.K. 's capital London . Gujarati is also spoken in Southeast Africa , particularly in Kenya , Uganda , Tanzania , Zambia , and South Africa .
Kutchi ( /ˈkʌtʃi/ ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Kutch region of India . The name of the language is also transliterated as Kutchhi , Kachchi , Kachchhi , Kachhi or Cutchi .
Avestan /əˈvɛstən/ , also known historically as Zend , comprises two languages : Old Avestan ( spoken in the 2nd millennium BCE ) and Younger Avestan ( spoken in the 1st millennium BCE ) . The languages are known only from their use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture ( the Avesta ) , from which they derive their name . Both are early Iranian languages , a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages within the Indo-European family . Its immediate ancestor was the Proto-Iranian language , a sister language to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language , with both having developed from the earlier Proto-Indo-Iranian . As such , Old Avestan is quite close in grammar and lexicon with Vedic Sanskrit , the oldest preserved Indo-Aryan language . The Avestan text corpus was composed in ancient Arachosia , Aria , Bactria , and Margiana , corresponding to the entirety of present-day Afghanistan , and parts of Tajikistan , Turkmenistan , and Uzbekistan . The Yaz culture of Bactria-Margiana has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of the early Eastern Iranian culture described in the Avesta .
Bhili ( Bhili : भीली ) is a Western Indo-Aryan language spoken in west-central India , in the states of Rajasthan , Gujarat , Maharashtra , and Madhya Pradesh . Other names for the language include Bhagoria and Bhilboli ; several varieties are called Garasia . Bhili is a member of the Bhil languages , which are related to Gujarati and Rajasthani . The language is written using the Devanagari script .
Bhilori is a Bhil language of India . There are 100,000 speakers of each of the two varieties , Dungra and Noiri , which are highly intelligible with each other . Noiri is one of the Scheduled Tribes of India .
Gamit is a language of India , spoken by the Gamit people of Tapi district of gujarat and by some people in surat , Bharuch , Dang and Valsad districts of southern Gujarat . It also spoken in Nandurbar and by some people in Dhule district in northern Maharashtra .
Chodri ( Chowdhary ) is a Bhil language of Gujarat and neighboring states .
Canarese Konkani is a minority language spoken by the Saraswat Konkani people of Karnataka and in some parts of Kerala . [ note 5 ]
Varli or Warli is an Indo-Aryan language , usually classified as Marathi , but sometimes as Konkani or Bhil .
Sri Vasavi Maatha is hailed with veneration for promoting peace and Ahimsa during the 11th century AD . She is credited with averting war and thereby saving many lives through logic and reason and overcoming brute force . She taught the world harming oneself or others is n't the way forward but bringing a change of heart is what matters in averting wars . She is elevated with heavenly stature as a goddess amongst some sections of the Komati community and for some of these sections has become the Kula Daivam or the caste goddess . She is the caste goddess for the Arya Vyshya , Kalinga Vaishya , Arava Vysyier , Marathi Vaishya , Beri Vysya and Trivarnika Vysya community as per the various versions of Vasavi Puranamulu written in Telugu during the 18th century AD . The many versions of Vasavi Puranas are n't restricted to Komatis alone but are also sung by various castes like Veera Mushtis , Jakkali-vandlu , Mailaris and other bards . Jaina Komatis venerate her as Shanti Matha Vasavi who promoted Ahimsa for the benefit of all mankind and averted warfare and loss of life through peace and reason . Her actions brought a change of heart in the King who repented and became a Jain Monk handing over his kingdom to his son .
The Kannada script ( IAST : Kannaḍa lipi ) is an abugida of the Brahmic family , used primarily to write the Kannada language , one of the Dravidian languages of South India especially in the state of Karnataka , Kannada script is widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Karnataka . Several minor languages , such as Tulu , Konkani , Kodava , Sanketi and Beary , also use alphabets based on the Kannada script . The Kannada and Telugu scripts share high mutual intellegibility with each other , and are often considered to be regional variants of single script . Other scripts similar to Kannada script are Sinhala script ( which included some elements from the Kadamba script ) , and Old Peguan script ( used in Burma ) . The Kannada script ( ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆ akṣaramāle or ವರ್ಣಮಾಲೆ varṇamāle ) is a phonemic abugida of forty-nine letters , and is written from left to right . The character set is almost identical to that of other Brahmic scripts . Consonantal letters imply an inherent vowel . Letters representing consonants are combined to form digraphs ( ಒತ್ತಕ್ಷರ ottakṣara ) when there is no intervening vowel . Otherwise , each letter corresponds to a syllable . The letters are classified into three categories : ಸ್ವರ svara ( vowels ) , ವ್ಯಂಜನ vyañjana ( consonants ) , and ಯೋಗವಾಹಕ yōgavāhaka ( semiconsonants ) . The Kannada words for a letter of the script are ಅಕ್ಷರ akshara , ಅಕ್ಕರ akkara , and ವರ್ಣ varṇa . Each letter has its own form ( ಆಕಾರ ākāra ) and sound ( ಶಬ್ದ śabda ) , providing the visible and audible representations , respectively .
Kannada ( /ˈkɑːnədə , ˈkæn-/ ; ಕನ್ನಡ , [ ˈkɐnnɐɖaː ] ) , also known as Kanarese , is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by people of Karnataka in southwestern India , and by significant linguistic minorities in the states of Maharashtra , Andhra Pradesh , Tamil Nadu , Telangana , Kerala and abroad . The language has roughly 44 million native speakers , who are called Kannadigas . Kannada is also spoken as a second and third language by over 12.9 million non-Kannada speakers in Karnataka , which adds up to 56 million speakers . It is one of the scheduled languages of India and the official and administrative language of the state of Karnataka . The Kannada language is written using the Kannada script , which evolved from the 5th-century Kadamba script . Kannada is attested epigraphically for about one and a half millennia , and literary Old Kannada flourished in the 6th-century Ganga dynasty and during the 9th-century Rashtrakuta Dynasty . Kannada has an unbroken literary history of over a thousand years . Kannada literature has been presented with 8 Jnanapith awards , the most for any Dravidian language and the second highest for any Indian language . Based on the recommendations of the Committee of Linguistic Experts , appointed by the ministry of culture , the government of India designated Kannada a classical language of India . In July 2011 , a center for the study of classical Kannada was established as part of the Central Institute of Indian Languages at Mysore to facilitate research related to the language .
Tulu ( Tulu : ತುಳು ಭಾಷೆ Tulu bāse [ ˈt̪ulu ˈbɒːsæ ] ) is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in 2 coastal districts of Karnataka in southwestern India , and in a part of the Kasaragod district of Kerala . The native speakers of Tulu are referred to as Tuluva or Tulu people and the geographical area is unofficially called as Tulu Nadu . The Indian census report of 2011 reported a total of 1,846,427 native Tulu speakers in India . The 2001 census had reported a total of 1,722,768 native speakers , According to one estimate reported in 2009 , Tulu is currently spoken by 3 to 5 million speakers in the world . There is some difficulty in counting Tulu speakers who have migrated from their native region as they often get counted as Kannada speakers in Indian Census reports Separated early from Proto-South Dravidian , Tulu has several features not found in Tamil-Kannada . For example , it has the pluperfect and the future perfect , like French or Spanish , but formed without an auxiliary verb . Robert Caldwell , in his pioneering work A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages , called this language peculiar and very interesting . According to him , Tulu is one of the most highly developed languages of the Dravidian family . It looks as if it had been cultivated for its own sake . Tulu is the primary spoken language in Tulu Nadu consisting of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi district of Karnataka and a part of Kasaragod district of Kerala . Significant number of native tulu speakers are found in Kalasa and Mudigere taluks of Chikkamagaluru district . Non-native speakers of Tulu include those who speak the Beary language , Havyaka and Gowda dialects of Kannada as also Konkani , Koraga resident in the Tulunadu region .
The Kodava ( Kannada script : ಕೊಡವ ತಕ್ಕ್ Kodava takk , meaning 'speech of Kodavas ' , in the Kodava language , alternate names : Kodagu , Coorgi ) is an endangered Dravidian language and the original language of the Kodagu district in southern Karnataka , India . The term Kodava has two related usages . Firstly , it is the name of the Kodava language and culture followed by a number of communities from Kodagu . Secondly , within the Kodava-speaking communities and region ( Kodagu ) , it is a demonym for the dominant Kodava people . Hence , the Kodava language is not only the primary language of the Kodavas but also of many other castes and tribes in Kodagu . The language has two dialects : Mendele ( spoken in Northern and Central Kodagu , i.e . outside Kodagu 's Kiggat naadu ) and Kiggat ( spoken in Kiggat naadu , in Southern Kodagu ) . Historically , it has been referred to as a dialect of Kannada . However it has been re-analysed as a language by early 20th century academics . It is traditionally written using the Kannada script which is an abugida , with less frequent usage of the Malayalam script . However , an abugida called the Coorgi-Cox alphabet has been developed on the request of community members . The 2011 Census of India reports 96,918 persons who returned Kodava as their mother tongue and 16,939 for Coorgi/Kodagu , for a total of 113,857 persons who identified one of these languages as their mother tongue .
Beary or Byari ( ಬ್ಯಾರಿ ಬಾಸೆ Byāri Bāse ) is an Indian language spoken by the Muslim communities mainly of Karnataka ( Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts ) and some parts of North Kerala ( Byaris ) . Bearys speak a language made of Malayalam idioms with Tulu phonology and grammar . This language is traditionally known as Mappila Bashe because of Bearys ' close contact with Mappila , the Malayali Muslims . Due to the intensive influence of Tulu for centuries , it is today considered close to both Tulu and Malayalam .
Sankethi ( sometimes spelled Sanketi ) is a South Dravidian language that is closely related to Tamil . It is sometimes considered a dialect of Kannada or Tamil , but there are considerable differences that make it unintelligible to speakers of both languages . It has strong lexical influences from Kannada ( particularly in the colloquial language ) , as well as Sanskrit , Tamil and Tulu . It is most commonly spoken in Karnataka , India by the Sankethi people , who migrated from Sengottai in Tamilnadu . The language is most often written in the Kannada script , though it could be written in Tamil as well . However , Sankethi ( especially in the spoken form ) has relatively higher frequencies of consonant clusters of more than two consonants and semivowels . This makes it difficult to write in the Kannada script , which would require multiple subscripted letters ( ಒತ್ತಕ್ಷರ - ottakṣara ) . As a result , Sankethi is rarely found in printed or any written form , and has no standardized form . Three main dialects exist of the Sankethi language : Kaushika , Bettadpura and Lingadahalli , each associated with the three primary Sankethi communities located in Karnataka .
Sanskrit ( English : /ˈsænskrɪt/ ; Sanskrit : संस्कृत , romanized : saṃskṛta , IPA : [ ˈsɐ̃skr̩tɐ ] ( listen ) ) is a language of ancient India with a 3,500-year history . It is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism and the predominant language of most works of Hindu philosophy as well as some of the principal texts of Buddhism and Jainism . Sanskrit , in its variants and numerous dialects , was the lingua franca of ancient and medieval India . In the early 1st millennium CE , along with Buddhism and Hinduism , Sanskrit migrated to Southeast Asia , parts of East Asia and Central Asia , emerging as a language of high culture and of local ruling elites in these regions . Sanskrit is an Old Indo-Aryan language . As one of the oldest documented members of the Indo-European family of languages , [ note 1 ] [ note 2 ] Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies . It is related to Greek and Latin , as well as Hittite , Luwian , Old Avestan and many other living and extinct languages with historical significance to Europe , West Asia , Central Asia and South Asia . It traces its linguistic ancestry to the Proto-Indo-Aryan language , Proto-Indo-Iranian and the Proto-Indo-European languages . Sanskrit is traceable to the 2nd millennium BCE in a form known as Vedic Sanskrit , with the Rigveda as the earliest-known composition . A more refined and standardized grammatical form called Classical Sanskrit emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE with the Aṣṭādhyāyī treatise of Pāṇini . Sanskrit , though not necessarily Classical Sanskrit , is the root language of many Prakrit languages . Examples include numerous , modern , North Indian , subcontinental daughter languages such as Hindi , Marathi , Bengali , Punjabi , Gujarati , Sindhi , Kashmiri , Kumaoni , Garhwali , Urdu , Dogri , Maithili , Konkani , Assamese , Odia , and Nepali .
Karnataka ( Karnāṭaka , Kannada pronunciation : [ kɐnaːʈɐka ] ) is a state in the south western region of India . It was formed on 1 November 1956 , with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act . Originally known as the State of Mysore , it was renamed Karnataka in 1973 . The state corresponds to the Carnatic region . The capital and largest city is Bangalore . Karnataka is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west , Goa to the northwest , Maharashtra to the north , Telangana to the northeast , Andhra Pradesh to the east , Tamil Nadu to the southeast , and Kerala to the south . The state covers an area of 191,976 square kilometres ( 74,122 sq mi ) , or 5.83 percent of the total geographical area of India . It is the sixth largest Indian state by area . With 61,130,704 inhabitants at the 2011 census , Karnataka is the eighth largest state by population , comprising 30 districts . Kannada , one of the classical languages of India , is the most widely spoken and official language of the state . Other languages spoken include Urdu , Konkani , Marathi , Tulu , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , Kodava and Beary . Karnataka also contains some of the only villages in India where Sanskrit is primarily spoken .
The Burmese script is the basis of the alphabets used for modern Burmese , Mon , Shan and Karen .
The Burmese language ( Burmese : မြန်မာဘာသာ , MLCTS : mranmabhasa , IPA : [ mjəmà bàðà ] ) is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar where it is an official language and the language of the Bamar people , the country 's principal ethnic group . Although the Constitution of Myanmar officially recognizes the English name of the language as the Myanmar language , most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese , after Burma , the older name for Myanmar . In 2007 , it was spoken as a first language by 33 million , primarily the Bamar ( Burman ) people and related ethnic groups , and as a second language by 10 million , particularly ethnic minorities in Myanmar and neighboring countries . Burmese is a tonal , pitch-register , and syllable-timed language , largely monosyllabic and analytic , with a subject-object-verb word order . It is a member of the Lolo-Burmese grouping of the Sino-Tibetan language family . The Burmese alphabet is ultimately descended from a Brahmic script , either Kadamba or Pallava .
Myanmar ( English pronunciation below ; Burmese : မြန်မာ , [ mjəmà ] ) [ nb 1 ] or Burma ( see §Etymology ) , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar [ nb 2 ] , is a country in Southeast Asia . Myanmar is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest , China to its northeast , Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast , and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest . With a size of 676,578 square kilometres ( 261,228 square miles ) , Myanmar is the largest of the Mainland Southeast Asian states by area . As of 2017 , the population is about 54 million . Its capital city is Naypyidaw , and its largest city is Yangon ( Rangoon ) . Myanmar has been a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) since 1997 . Early civilisations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Burma . In the 9th century , the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and , following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s , the Burmese language , culture and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country . The Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged . In the 16th century , reunified by the Taungoo dynasty , the country was for a brief period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia . The early 19th century Konbaung dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well . The British East India Company seized control of the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the country became a British colony .
Malayalam script ( Malayāḷalipi ; IPA : [ mələjɑːɭə lɪpɪ ] ( listen ) / Malayalam : മലയാളലിപി ) is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language , which is the principal language of Kerala , India , spoken by 35 million people in the world . Malayalam script is also widely used for writing Sanskrit texts in Kerala . Like many other Indic scripts , it is an alphasyllabary ( abugida ) , a writing system that is partially alphabetic and partially syllable-based . The modern Malayalam alphabet has 15 vowel letters , 42 consonant letters , and a few other symbols . The Malayalam script is a Vatteluttu alphabet extended with symbols from the Grantha alphabet to represent Indo-Aryan loanwords . The script is also used to write several minority languages such as Paniya , Betta Kurumba , and Ravula . The Malayalam language itself was historically written in several different scripts .
Malayalam ( /ˌmələˈjɑːləm/ ; Malayalam : മലയാളം , Malayāḷam ? [ mələjaːɭəm ] ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district ) by the Malayali people . It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India spoken by nearly 2.88% of Indians . Malayalam has official language status in the state of Kerala and in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé ) and is spoken by 37 million people worldwide . Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states ; with significant number of speakers in the Nilgiris , Kanyakumari , and Coimbatore districts of Tamil Nadu , and Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka . Due to Malayali expatriates in the Persian Gulf , the language is also widely spoken in Gulf countries . The origin of Malayalam remains a matter of dispute among scholars . One view holds that Malayalam and modern Tamil are offshoots of Middle Tamil and separated from it sometime after the c. 7th century AD . A second view argues for the development of the two languages out of Proto-Dravidian or Proto-Tamil-Malayalam in the prehistoric era . Designated a Classical Language in India in 2013 , it developed into the current form mainly by the influence of the poet Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan in the 16th century . The oldest documents written purely in Malayalam and still surviving are the Vazhappalli Copper plates from 832 AD and Tharisapalli Copper plates from 849 AD . The earliest script used to write Malayalam was the Vatteluttu alphabet , and later the Kolezhuttu , which derived from it .
The Betta Kurumba language ( Beṭṭa Kurumba ) is a Dravidian language closely related to Tamil , and is spoken by 32,000 people in the Nilgiri mountains and in adjoining areas in Tamil Nadu , Karnataka and Kerala . Beṭṭa ( ಬೆಟ್ಟ ) means hills in Kannada .
Ravula , known locally as Yerava or Adiyan , is a Dravidian language of Karnataka and Kerala spoken by the Ravula and Adiyan . Their language exhibits a number of peculiarities which marks it off from Malayalam as well as from other tribal speeches in the Wayanad district . It is spoken by 25,000 Ravulas ( locally called Yerava ) in Kodagu district of Karnataka and by 1,900 Ravulas ( locally called Adiyan ) in the adjacent Wayanad district of Kerala . The term 'Yerava ' is derived from the Kannada word Yeravalu meaning borrow .
Kerala ( /ˈkɛrələ/ ( listen ) ) is a state on the southwestern Malabar Coast of India . It was formed on 1 November 1956 , following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act , by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile states of Travancore-Cochin and Madras . Spread over 38,863 km2 ( 15,005 sq mi ) , Kerala is the twenty-third largest Indian state by area . It is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast , Tamil Nadu to the east and south , and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west . With 33,387,677 inhabitants as per the 2011 Census , Kerala is the thirteenth-largest Indian state by population . It is divided into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram . Malayalam is the most widely spoken language and is also the official language of the state . The Chera Dynasty was the first prominent kingdom based in Kerala . The Ay kingdom in the deep south and the Ezhimala kingdom in the north formed the other kingdoms in the early years of the Common Era ( CE or AD ) . The region had been a prominent spice exporter since 3000 BCE . The region 's prominence in trade was noted in the works of Pliny as well as the Periplus around 100 CE . In the 15th century , the spice trade attracted Portuguese traders to Kerala , and paved the way for European colonisation of India .
The Thai script ( Thai : อักษรไทย ; RTGS : akson thai ) is the abugida used to write Thai , Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand . The Thai alphabet itself ( as used to write Thai ) has 44 consonant symbols ( Thai : พยัญชนะ , phayanchana ) , 16 vowel symbols ( Thai : สระ , sara ) that combine into at least 32 vowel forms , and four tone diacritics ( Thai : วรรณยุกต์ or วรรณยุต , wannayuk or wannayut ) to create characters mostly representing syllables . Although commonly referred to as the Thai alphabet , the script is in fact not a true alphabet but an abugida , a writing system in which the full characters represent consonants with diacritical marks for vowels ; the absence of a vowel diacritic gives an implied ' a ' or ' o ' . Consonants are written horizontally from left to right , with vowels arranged above , below , to the left , or to the right of the corresponding consonant , or in a combination of positions . Thai has its own set of Thai numerals that are based on the Hindu-Arabic numeral system ( Thai : เลขไทย , lek thai ) , but the standard western Hindu-Arabic numerals ( Thai : เลขฮินดูอารบิก , lek hindu arabik ) are mainly used except for government documents and the license plates of military vehicles .
Thai , [ a ] Central Thai [ b ] ( historically Siamese ; [ c ] Thai : ภาษาไทย ) , is the sole official and national language of Thailand and the first language of the Central Thai people . [ d ] It is a member of the Tai group of the Kra-Dai language family . Over half of Thai vocabulary is derived from or borrowed from Pali , Sanskrit , Mon and Old Khmer . It is a tonal and analytic language , similar to Chinese and Vietnamese . Thai has a complex orthography and system of relational markers . Spoken Thai is mutually intelligible with Lao and Isan , fellow Southwestern Tai languages , to a significantly high degree where its speakers are able to effectively communicate each speaking their respective language . These languages are written with slightly different scripts but are linguistically similar and effectively form a dialect continuum .
Northern Thai ( Thai : ภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือ , ภาษาถิ่นพายัพ ) , Lanna ( Thai : ภาษาล้านนา ) , or Kam Mueang ( Northern Thai : , pronounced [ käm˧.mɯa̯ŋ˧ ] , ( listen ) ; Thai : คำเมือง , pronounced [ kʰām.mɯ̄a̯ŋ ] ) , is the language of the Northern Thai people of Lanna , Thailand . It is a Southwestern Tai language that is phonotactically closely related to Lao . Northern Thai has approximately six million speakers , most of whom live in the native Northern Thailand , with a smaller community of Lanna speakers in northwestern Laos . Speakers of this language generally consider the name Tai Yuan to be pejorative . They refer to themselves as khon mueang ( คนเมือง , [ xon˧.mɯa̯ŋ˧ ] - literally Mueang people ) , Lanna , or Northern Thai . The language is also sometimes referred to as phayap ( พายัพ , Thai pronunciation : [ pʰāː.jáp ] ) , Northwestern ( speech ) . The term Yuan is still sometimes used for Northern Thai 's distinctive Tai Tham alphabet , which is closely related to the old Tai Lue alphabet and the Lao religious alphabets . The use of the tua mueang , as the traditional alphabet is known , is now largely limited to Buddhist temples , where many old sermon manuscripts are still in active use . There is no active production of literature in the traditional alphabet . The modern spoken form is called Kam Muang . There is a resurgence of interest in writing it in the traditional way , but the modern pronunciation differs from that prescribed in spelling rules . From a purely genealogical standpoint , most linguists consider Northern Thai to be more closely related to Central Thai than to Lao or Isan , but the language has been heavily influenced by both Lao and Central Thai throughout history .
Southern Thai ( Southern Thai/Thai : ภาษาไทยถิ่นใต้ [ pʰaːsǎː tʰaj tʰìn tâːj ] ) , also known as Pak Thai ( Southern Thai : ภาษาปักษ์ใต้ ) or Dambro ( Thai : ภาษาตามโพร [ pʰaːsǎː taːmpʰroː ] ) , is a Southwestern Tai language spoken in the fourteen provinces of southern Thailand as well as by small communities in the northernmost Malaysian states . It is spoken by roughly five million people , and as a second language by the 1.5 million speakers of Pattani and other ethnic groups such as the local Thai Chinese communities , Negritos , and other tribal groups . Most speakers are also fluent or understand the Central Thai dialects .
Northern Khmer , also called Surin Khmer ( Khmer : ខ្មែរសុរិន្ទ - Khmer Soren ) , is the dialect of the Khmer language spoken by approximately 1.4 million Khmer native to the Thai provinces of Surin , Sisaket , Buriram and Roi Et as well as those that have migrated from this region into Cambodia . Northern Khmer differs from the standard language , based on a dialect of Central Khmer , in the number and variety of vowel phonemes , consonantal distribution , lexicon , grammar , and , most notably , pronunciation of syllable-final /r/ , giving Northern Khmer a distinct accent easily recognizable by speakers of other dialects . Some speakers of Northern Khmer may understand other varieties of Khmer but speakers of standard Khmer who have not been exposed to Northern Khmer often have trouble understanding Northern Khmer at first . The two varieties are 80-85% cognate on a basic 270-word list . These facts have led some linguists to advocate considering Northern Khmer a separate , but closely related language .
Isan or Northeastern Thai ( Thai : ภาษาอีสาน , ภาษาไทยถิ่นตะวันออกเฉียงเหนือ , ภาษาไทยถิ่นอีสาน , ภาษาไทยอีสาน , ภาษาลาวอีสาน ) is a group of Lao varieties spoken in the northern two-thirds of Isan in northeastern Thailand , as well as in adjacent portions of northern and eastern Thailand . It is the native language of the Isan people , spoken by 20 million or so people in Thailand , a third of the population of Thailand and 80 percent of all Lao speakers . The language remains the primary language in 88 percent of households in Isan . It is commonly used as a second , third , or fourth language by the region 's other linguistic minorities , such as Northern Khmer , Khorat Thai , Kuy , Nyah Kur , and other Tai or Austronesian-speaking peoples . The Isan language has unofficial status in Thailand and can be differentiated as a whole from the Lao language of Laos by the increasing use of Thai grammar , vocabulary , and neologisms . Code-switching is common , depending on the context or situation . Adoption of Thai neologisms has also further differentiated Isan from standard Lao .
Kelantan-Pattani Malay , often referred to in Thailand as Yawi ( in Thai ) or Jawi ( in Patani Malay ) , and in Kelantan as Baso Kelaté , is an Austronesian language of the Malayic subfamily spoken in the Malaysian state of Kelantan and the neighbouring southernmost provinces of Thailand . It is the primary spoken language of Thai Malays , but is also used as a lingua franca by ethnic Southern Thais in rural areas , Muslim and non-Muslim , and the samsam , a mostly Thai-speaking population of mixed Malay and Thai ancestry . Kelantan-Pattani Malay is a highly divergent from other Malay varieties because of its geographical isolation from the rest of the Malay world by high mountains , deep rainforest and the Gulf of Thailand . In Thailand , it is also influenced by Thai . Kelantanese-Pattani Malay is distinct enough that radio broadcasts in Standard Malay can not be understood easily by native speakers of Kelantanese-Pattani Malay who are not taught the standard language , for example , those in Thailand . Unlike Malaysia where Standard Malay is compulsory in the school curriculum , no one is required to learn Standard Malay in Thailand , and so there is potentially less language influence from standard Malay but potentially more from Thai . It is also distinct from Kedah Malay , Pahang Malay and Terengganuan Malay , but those languages still have a close relationship with the Kelantanese-Pattani Malay language .
Thailand , [ a ] officially the Kingdom of Thailand and formerly known as Siam , [ b ] is a country at the centre of the Southeast Asian Indochinese Peninsula composed of 76 provinces . At 513,120 km2 ( 198,120 sq mi ) and over 68 million people , Thailand is the world 's 50th-largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country . The capital and largest city is Bangkok , a special administrative area . Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos , to the east by Laos and Cambodia , to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia , and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar . Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast , and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest . It is a unitary state . Although nominally the country is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy , the most recent coup , in 2014 , established a de facto military dictatorship under a junta . Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century ; the oldest known mention of their presence in the region by the exonym Siamese dates to the 12th century . Various Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon kingdoms , Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region , competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang , Sukhothai , Lan Na and Ayutthaya , which rivaled each other . Documented European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya , now one of the great powers in the region . Ayutthaya reached its peak during cosmopolitan Narai 's reign ( 1656-1688 ) , gradually declining thereafter until being ultimately destroyed in the 1767 Burmese-Siamese War . Taksin ( r. 1767-1782 ) quickly reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom .
Sundanese script ( Aksara Sunda , ᮃᮊ᮪ᮞᮛ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people . It is built based on Old Sundanese script ( Aksara Sunda Kuno ) which was used by the ancient Sundanese between the 14th and 18th centuries .
Bantenese language , Western Sundanese language or Western Sundanese dialect is a dialect of Sundanese language spoken by the Bantenese and Sundanese native to Banten and the western side of Bogor Regency . The western Bogor area comprises the Jasinga Raya region , which covers Jasinga , Cigudeg , Tenjo , Nanggung , Parungpanjang , Sukajaya districts and also the northwestern parts of Sukabumi Regency . The Bantenese language is the lingua franca of the Kasepuhan Ciptagelar traditional community in Cisolok subdistrict , and the Kasepuhan Banten Kidul traditional community . The regional government of Banten is currently making a significant approach to preserve this dialect through a news program entitled Beja ti Lembur , which was aired by the regional CTV Banten network in Bantenese language .
Baduy or Badui language is spoken by Baduy people . Native speakers of the language are spread in Mount Kendeng , Rangkasbitung district of Lebak Regency , Pandeglang Regency and Sukabumi , West Java , Indonesia . It is estimated that there are 11,620 speakers as of 2010 . The Baduy language is closely related to Sundanese and sometimes considered a dialect of the latter .
West Java ( Indonesian : Jawa Barat ) is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java , with its provincial capital in Bandung . West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country 's capital region of Jakarta to the west , the Java Sea to the north , the province of Central Java to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south . The province is the homeland of the Sundanese people , the second-largest ethnic group in Indonesia after the Javanese . West Java was one of the early eight provinces of Indonesia formed following the country 's independence proclamation and was later legally reestablished on 4 July 1950 . In 1966 , the city of Jakarta was split off from West Java as a 'special capital region ' ( Daerah Khusus Ibukota ) , with a status equivalent to that of a province , while in 2000 the western parts of the province were in turn split away to form a separate Banten province . Even following these split-offs , West Java is the most populous province of Indonesia with a population of 49,316,712 as of mid 2019 . The province 's largest cities , Bekasi and Bandung , are the third and fourth most populous cities proper in Indonesia , respectively . As a satellite city within the Jakarta metropolitan area , Bekasi experiences a highly rapid population growth , having surpassed the West Java capital of Bandung in 2012 . Nonetheless , Bandung remains one of the most densely populated city proper in the world , while Bekasi and Depok , both satellites of Jakarta , are respectively the seventh and tenth most populous suburbs in the world .
Banten is the westernmost province on the island of Java , in Indonesia . Its provincial capital city is Serang . The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta to the east , the Java Sea to the north , the Indian Ocean to the south , and the Sunda Strait to the west , which separates Java from the neighbouring island of Sumatra . The population of Banten was officially estimated at 12,959,169 in the middle of 2019 , up from over 10.6 million during the 2010 census . Formerly part of the province of West Java , Banten became a separate province in 2000 . The province is a transit corridor to the neighbouring Indonesian island of Sumatra . Historically , it has had a culture distinct from the rest of Java and that of the broader Indonesian archipelago . In recent years , the northern half , particularly those areas near Jakarta and the Java Sea coast , have experienced rapid rises in population and urbanization , while the southern half , particularly that facing the Indian Ocean , maintains more of its traditional character . Centuries ago , the area in what-is-now Banten is ruled by the Sundanese Tarumanagara kingdom . After the fall of the Tarumanegara , Banten was controlled by many Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms , such as the Srivijaya Empire and the Sunda Kingdom . The spread of Islam in the region begins in the 15th century . By the late 16th century , Islam has replaced Hinduism and Buddhism as the dominant religion in the province , with the establishment of the Banten Sultanate .
Bopomofo , also called Zhuyin ( Chinese : 注音 ) or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols , is the major Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects which is nowadays most commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin . It is also used to transcribe other varieties of Chinese , particularly other varieties of Standard Chinese and related Mandarin dialects , as well as Taiwanese Hokkien . Zhuyin Fuhao and Zhuyin are traditional terms , whereas Bopomofo is the colloquial term , also used by the ISO and Unicode . Consisting of 37 characters and four tone marks , it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin . Zhuyin was introduced in China by the Republican Government in the 1910s and used alongside the Wade-Giles system , which used a modified Latin alphabet . The Wade system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958 by the Government of the People 's Republic of China , and at the International Organization for Standardization ( ISO ) in 1982 . Bopomofo is an official transliteration system in Taiwan , being used in Guoyu Jianbian Cidian , Guoyu Chongbian Cidian and other documents . It is widely used as the main electronic input method for Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan ( ROC ) . Taiwan adopted Hanyu Pinyin as one of the official romanization systems for Mandarin Chinese in 2009 , but the system is not commonly used in electronic input .
A semi-syllabary is a writing system that behaves partly as an alphabet and partly as a syllabary . The term has traditionally been extended to abugidas , but for the purposes of this article it will be restricted to scripts where some characters are alphabetic and others are syllabic .
Gurmukhī ( Punjabi : ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ , IPA : [ ˈɡʊɾmʊkʰiː ] ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts , standardized and used by the second Sikh guru , Guru Angad ( 1504-1552 ) . Commonly regarded as a Sikh script , Gurmukhi is used in Punjab , India as the official script of the Punjabi language . The primary scripture of Sikhism , the Guru Granth Sahib , is written in Gurmukhī , in various dialects often subsumed under the generic title Sant Bhasha or saint language . Modern Gurmukhī has thirty-five original letters , hence its common alternative term pentī or the thirty-five , plus six additional consonants , nine vowel diacritics , two diacritics for nasal sounds , one diacritic that geminates consonants and three subscript characters .
Sant Bhasha ( Sant Bhāṣā ) is a language composed of vocabulary common to northern Indian languages , which was extensively used by saints and poets to compose religious verses . It can be understood by readers with a background in either Punjabi , Hindi or Urdu . [ citation needed ] Sant Bhasha is most prominently used in the central Sikh scripture , the Guru Granth Sahib . The languages used include Punjabi , Lahnda , regional Prakrits , Apabhramsa , Sanskrit , Hindi languages ( Brajbhasha , Old Hindi , Awadhi , Bhojpuri etc . ) , Sindhi , and Persian .
Punjab ( /pʌnˈdʒɑːb/ ( listen ) , Punjabi : [ pənˈdʒaːb ] ) is a state in northern India . Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent , the state is bordered by the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the north , and the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east , Haryana to the south and southeast , and Rajasthan to the southwest . It is bordered by the Pakistani province of Punjab to the west . The state covers an area of 50,362 square kilometres , 1.53% of India 's total geographical area . It is the 20th-largest Indian state by area . With 27,704,236 inhabitants at the 2011 census , Punjab is the 16th-largest state by population , comprising 22 districts . Punjabi is the most widely spoken and official language of the state . The main ethnic group are the Punjabis , with Sikhs ( 58% ) and Hindus ( 38% ) . The state capital is Chandigarh , a Union Territory and also the capital of the neighbouring state of Haryana . The five tributary rivers of the Indus River from which the region took its name are Sutlej , Ravi , Beas , Chenab and Jhelum Rivers ; Sutlej , Ravi and Beas are part of the Indian Punjab . The history of Punjab has witnessed the migration and settlement of innumerable races , forming a melting pot of Punjabi civilisation . The first traces of human habitation in India were found in the Punjab region .
The Odia script ( Odia : ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଲିପି ; also known as the Oriya script ) is a Brahmic script used to write the Odia language .
Odia ( ଓଡ଼ିଆ Oṛiā ( help·info ) ; formerly romanized as Oriya ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha . It is the official language in Odisha ( formerly known as Orissa ) where native speakers make up 82% of the population , also spoken in parts of West Bengal , Jharkhand , Chhattisgarh , and Andhra Pradesh . Odia is one of the many official languages of India ; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand . The language is also spoken by a sizeable population of at least 1 million people in Chhattisgarh . Odia is the sixth Indian language to be designated a Classical Language in India , on the basis of having a long literary history and not having borrowed extensively from other languages . The earliest known inscription in Odia dates back to the 10th century AD .
Odisha ( /əˈdɪsə/ , /ɒˈrɪsə , ɔː- , oʊ-/ ; , pronounced [ oɽɪˈsaː ] ( listen ) ; is an Indian state located on the eastern coast of India . It neighbors the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand to the north , Chhattisgarh to the west and Andhra Pradesh to the south . Odisha has a coastline of 485 kilometres ( 301 mi ) along the Bay of Bengal . It is the 8th largest state by area , and the 11th largest by population . The state has the third largest population of Scheduled Tribes in India . The ancient kingdom of Kalinga , which was invaded by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE resulting in the Kalinga War , coincides with the borders of modern-day Odisha . The modern state of Odisha was established on 1 April 1936 , as a province in British India , and consisted of Odia-speaking regions . 1 April is celebrated as Utkala Dibasa . The region is also known as Utkala and is mentioned in India 's national anthem , Jana Gana Mana . Cuttack was made the capital of the region by Anantavarman Chodaganga in c. 1135 , after which the city was used as the capital by many rulers , through the British era until 1948 . Thereafter , Bhubaneswar became the capital of Odisha . The economy of Odisha is the 16th-largest state economy in India with ₹4.16 lakh crore ( US $ 58 billion ) in gross domestic product and a per capita GDP of ₹93,000 ( US $ 1,300 ) .