Javanese is primarily spoken in Indonesia. However, the five languages most similar to it are primarily spoken in other countries. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Javanese are Malagasy, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Tagalog, and Kinaray-a.
- Malagasy (50.6)
Malagasy is the official language of Madagascar, a large island nation off the coast of Africa. Malagasy’s origins can be traced back to the Austronesian peoples who migrated across the Indian Ocean centuries ago. Javanese is also an Austronesian language, which means both evolved from a common ancestral tongue. As a result, a number of basic words in Malagasy correspond to those in Javanese. For example, the word “death” is “mati” in Javanese and “maty” in Malagasy. - Cebuano (47.7)
Cebuano descends from the Central Philippine branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup. As fellow Malayo-Polynesian languages, Cebuano and Javanese share a large pool of cognates. Many Austronesian languages, including Cebuano and Javanese, have similar core numerals. For example, the Cebuano word for “five” is “lima” in both languages. - Ilonggo (44.8)
Ilocano is another language primarily spoken in the Philippines, specifically northern Luzon. It shares linguistic ancestry with Javanese, due to their common Austronesian roots. Words describing basic concepts are similar. For example, the word for “eye” is “mata” in both languages. - Tagalog (43.7)
Tagalog is one of the official languages of the Philippines. It shares many Malayo-Polynesian roots with Javanese. Despite centuries of Spanish influence on Tagalog (and centuries of Dutch and other influences on Javanese), one still finds vestiges of common ancestral words. - Kinaray-a (43.1)
Kinaray-a, spoken in the Visayas region of the Philippines, is yet another language that shares Austronesian roots with Javanese. The two languages are part of the broader Malayo-Polynesian branch, which explains why they have so many linguistic similarities. As a result, they share basic vocabulary words.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)