Madurese is a language of the

Madurese people Madurese people ('' mUH-dOO-rUH''; ; ) are one of the Austronesian-speaking ethnic group native to the Indonesian island of Madura in the Java Sea, off the northeastern coast of Java. They speak their own native Madurese (with diverse varieties ...

, native to the

Madura Island is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. The island comprises an area of approximately (administratively including various smaller islands to the east, southeast and north that are administratively part of Madura's easternmost ...

and eastern part of

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

; it is also spoken by migrants to other parts of Indonesia, namely the

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

Malang Malang (; , ), historically known as Tumapel, is an inland List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of East Java. It has a history dating back to the age of the Singhasari, Singhasari K ...

Gresik Gresik Regency ( older spelling: Grissee, ) is a regency within East Java Province of Indonesia. As well as a large part of the northern and western suburbs of the city of Surabaya, it includes the offshore Bawean Island, some 125 km to the ...

eastern salient of Java The eastern salient of Java ( Indonesian: ', "eastern end" or ', "The Horseshoe" – referring to the region's shape on the map; , "far east", , "eastern corner") is a region that makes up the easternmost part of the island of Java, Indonesia. It i ...

(comprising

Pasuruan Pasuruan () is a city in East Java Province of Java, Indonesia. It had a population of 186,262 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 208,006 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. the official estimate as at ...

Bondowoso Bondowoso Regency () is a landlocked Regencies of Indonesia, regency in East Java, Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,560.10 km2, and had a population of 736,772 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 776,151 at the 2020 ...

Probolinggo Probolinggo (, , Javanese language, Javanese: ''Kuthå Pråbålinggå'') is a city on the north coast of East Java province, Indonesia. It covers an area of 56.676 sq. km, and had a population of 217,062 at the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Stati ...

Situbondo Situbondo Regency ( Madurese: ''Kabhupatèn Situbânḍâ'') is a regency ''(kabupaten)'' in the east of East Java province, Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,658.03 km2, and had a population of 647,619 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statisti ...

Jember Jember Regency is a regency of East Java province, in Indonesia. The land area is 3,314.13 km2, and the population was 2,332,726 at the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 2,536,729 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakart ...

Lumajang Lumajang Regency () is a Regencies of Indonesia, Regency () located in the East Java province of Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,790.90 sq. km, and had a population of 1,006,458 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 1 ...

, to

Banyuwangi Banyuwangi, previously known as Banjoewangi, is a large town and an administrative district (''kecamat5an'') which serves as the capital of Banyuwangi Regency at the far eastern end of the island of Java, Indonesia. It had a population of 106,000 ...

), the

Masalembu Islands The Masalembu Islands () form a small archipelago in the Java Sea to the north of Madura in Indonesia. It is located about halfway between Madura and Borneo, and forms part of the Masalembu district in the Sumenep Regency of East Java. The archi ...

, Raas Islands, and even some on

Kalimantan Kalimantan (; ) is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area, and consists of the provinces of Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan. The non-Ind ...

. It was traditionally written in the

Javanese script Javanese script (natively known as ''Aksara Jawa'', ''Hanacaraka'', ''Carakan'', and ''Dentawyanjana'') is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese language ...

, but the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

and the

Pegon script Pegon (Javanese language, Javanese and Sundanese language, Sundanese: , ; also known as , , Madurese language, Madurese: , ''Abjâd Pèghu'') is a modified Arabic script used to write the Javanese language, Javanese, Sundanese language, Sundan ...

(based on

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

) is now more commonly used. The number of speakers, though shrinking, is estimated to be 10–14 million, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the country. Bawean language, which is a dialect of Madurese, is also spoken by

Bawean people The Bawean, or Baweans, or also Baweanese, also called Bawean Madurese (Madurese language, Madurese: , , or ) are an indigenous Madurese people, Madurese ethnic group native to the island of Bawean, located in the Java Sea off the coast of Jav ...

Bawean Island Bawean () is an island of Indonesia located approximately north of Surabaya in the Java Sea, off the coast of Java. It is administered by Gresik Regency of East Java province. It is approximately in diameter and is circumnavigated by a sing ...

, Indonesia. Then also by their descendants in Malaysia and Singapore. According to

K. Alexander Adelaar Karl Alexander "Sander" Adelaar (born 1953 in The Hague) is a Dutch linguist. He is primarily interested in the Austronesian languages of Borneo, Madagascar, and Taiwan, as well as the Malayic languages. He also does research on the oral and lite ...

, Madurese is a Malayo-Sumbawan language of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, a branch of the larger

Austronesian language family The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

. Thus, despite apparent geographic spread, Madurese is more related to

Balinese Balinese may refer to: *Bali, an Indonesian island *Balinese art *Balinese dance *Balinese people *Balinese language *Nusa Penida Balinese * Bali Aga Balinese **Balinese script **Balinese (Unicode block) *Balinese mythology *Balinese cat, a cat bre ...

, Malay,

Sasak The Sasak (Balinese script: ᬲᬸᬓᬸᬲᬲᬓ᭄, ''Wång Sâsak'') people live mainly on the island of Lombok, Indonesia, numbering around 3.6 million (85% of Lombok's population). They are related to the Balinese in language and in ...

and Sundanese, than it is to Javanese, the language used on the island of Java just across Madura Island. Links between Bali–Sasak languages and Madurese are more evident with the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

form (common form).

Phonology

Latin letters are given according to the 2008 orthography.

Vowels

Vowels , , , and its higher counterparts , , , are usually in complementary distribution. The last 4 vowels occur after voiced and aspirated consonants, while the first 4 vowels occur elsewhere. Consonants , , and , although by default lower the vowels, are transparent after higher vowels, for example ''belli'' "to buy" instead of ''*bellè'' .

Consonants

Madurese has more

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

s than its neighboring languages due to it having voiceless unaspirated, voiceless aspirated (traditionally often transcribed as voiced aspirated), and voiced unaspirated. Similar to Javanese, it has a contrast between dental and

alveolar Alveolus (; pl. alveoli, adj. alveolar) is a general anatomical term for a concave cavity or pit. Uses in anatomy and zoology * Pulmonary alveolus, an air sac in the lungs ** Alveolar cell or pneumocyte ** Alveolar duct ** Alveolar macrophage * M ...

(even

retroflex A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...

) stops. The letters , , , , and are used in loanwords.

Morphology

Madurese nouns are not inflected for gender and are

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

ized via

reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The cla ...

. Its basic word order is subject–verb–object.

Negation In logic, negation, also called the logical not or logical complement, is an operation (mathematics), operation that takes a Proposition (mathematics), proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P, P^\prime or \over ...

is expressed by putting a negative particle before the verb, adjective or

noun phrase A noun phrase – or NP or nominal (phrase) – is a phrase that usually has a noun or pronoun as its head, and has the same grammatical functions as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently ...

. As with other similar languages, there are different negative particles for different kinds of negation.see

Common words

Numerals

Sample text

From Article 1 of the 1948

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

. ;Latin: Sâdhâjâna orèng lahèr mardhika èsarengè dhrâjhât klabân ha'-ha' sè padâ. Sâdhâjâna èparèngè akal sareng nurani bân kodhu areng-sareng akanca kadhi tarètan. ; Aksara Pèghu: ;Translation: "All Human Beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madurese Language Malayo-Polynesian languages Languages of Indonesia Languages of Singapore Languages of Malaysia Madura Island