| Javanese, a member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family, is spoken in the following areas of Indonesia: Central Java, East Java (except the island of Madura), and some eastern parts of West Java. It is the native language of more than 75,000,000 speakers (about 30% of the population of Indonesia). Well-known dialects include (i) Central Javanese, spoken mainly in Semarang, Solo, and Yogyakarta, (ii) East Javanese, spoken in Malang-Pasuruan and Surabaya, and (iii) West Javanese, spoken mainly in Cirebon. Javanese is known as a language that exhibits well defined speech levels. |