Minority Language - Nowhere Recognized Minority Languages

Nowhere Recognized Minority Languages

The largest communities of speakers that of a language not recognized as a nation-wide official language anywhere:

  • Punjabi language: 28 million speakers, regional status in Pakistan and India
  • Javanese language: 80 million speakers, regional status in Suriname
  • Marathi language: 60 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Wu Chinese: 77 million speakers, no official status
  • Cantonese: 70 million speakers, regional status in Hong Kong and Macau
  • Chinese dialects other than Mandarin, Wu and Cantonese: Min (60 million), Gan (20-50 million), Hakka (34 million), Xiang (30-36 million); see identification of the varieties of Chinese
  • Sindhi language: 60 million speakers, regional status in Pakistan and India
  • Gujarati language: 40 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Maithili language: 20 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Pashto language: 45 million speakers, regional status in Afghanistan and Pakistan
  • Kurdish language: 16-26 million speakers, regional status in Iraq
  • Malayalam language: 52 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Kannada language: 40 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Telugu language: ≈90 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Bhojpuri language: 35 million speakers, formerly considered a dialect of Hindi, in the process of being granted regional status on its own right in India
  • Oriya language: 30 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Sundanese language: 27 million speakers, regional status in West Java, Indonesia
  • Oromo language: 25 million speakers, regional status in Ethiopia and Kenya
  • Cebuano language: 20 million speakers, regional status in Central Visayas, Philippines
  • Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo with close to 20 million speakers each are the major languages of Nigeria, all three with regional status, and none with majority status.
  • Zhuang languages: 14 million speakers, regional status in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
  • Assamese language: 13 million speakers, regional status in India
  • Madurese language: 13 million speakers, no official status
  • Berber languages: 10 million speakers, no official status
  • Lombard language: 9 million speakers, no official status, treated as an Italian dialect
  • Uyghur language: 8-10 million speakers, regional status in Xinjiang
  • Neapolitan language: 8 million speakers, no official status, treated as an Italian dialect
  • Balochi language: 8 million speakers, regional status in Balochistan
  • Ilokano language: 8 million speakers, regional status in Ilocos Region, Philippines
  • Hiligaynon language: 7 million speakers, regional status in Western Visayas, Philippines
  • Minangkabau language: 7 million speakers, no official status
  • Krio: 6 millions speakers, de facto national language of Sierra Leone but without official status
  • Bhili language: 6 million speakers, largest linguistic community of India without regional status
  • Sicilian language: 5 million speakers, no official status
  • Hmong language: 4 million speakers, no official status
  • Yiddish language: 3 million speakers, no official status
  • Silesian language: 2 million speakers, no official status
  • Aramaic language: 2 million speakers, no official status
  • Yi language: 2 million speakers, no official status
  • American Sign Language: 500,000 to 2 million signers, many states recognize as a "foreign language" for educational purposes; some recognize as a language of instruction in schools.

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Famous quotes containing the words recognized, minority and/or languages:

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