Madurese

Madurese is a language of the Austronesian family, spoken by the Madurese people. It is predominantly spoken on the island of Madura, nearby islands, and parts of eastern Java in Indonesia.

It is one of the most widely spoken regional languages in Indonesia, with speaker numbers in the millions. However, its daily use is shared with Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), the official language of the state, used in education and media.

Classification and relationship to other languages

Madurese is classified within the western branch of Malayo-Polynesian. It has close ties to other regional languages such as Javanese and Sundanese, but is a distinct language not mutually intelligible with them. The vocabulary has been influenced by Javanese, Malay/Indonesian, and—in religious contexts—Arabic words introduced through Islam.

Linguistic features

Like many regional languages, Madurese has a system of speech levels—distinct modes of speech that reflect the formality and social relationship between speaker and listener. The phonological system is marked by a distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants, which affects the quality of consonants that follow.

Writing and use

Historically it was written in Javanese script (Carakan) and in adapted Arabic script (Pegon); today Latin script is the most commonly used. The language is used in homes, markets, and local culture, and there are educational efforts at the regional level to include it in school curricula as a subject of mother-tongue instruction.