Learn Javanese

Learn Javanese online with practical, real-life situations! Simple, fast and easy learning. Speak Bahasa Jawa language with confidence. Start now with uTalk!


About Javanese

Javanese - baṣa Jawa - is the native language of about 40% of the population of Indonesia. Its speakers mostly live on the island of Java and are generally also fluent in Indonesian. It is related to Malay, Sundanese and Madurese, although not closely. Javanese has a strong literary tradition dating over 1000 years. Nowadays, the Latin alphabet, introduced by the Dutch, is used, although a separate Javanese alphabet exists for scholarly use.

Get Started
uTalk Language Logo
Arrow facing left to cycle backwards through text
Play sample text audio Play sample text audio
Arrow facing right to cycle forward through text

Planet Earth
Where is it spoken?

Indonesia

People Talking
Number of speakers

98,000,000

Family Tree
Language family

Austronesian

Malayo-Polynesian

Javanese

Fun facts — Javanese

  • Different words are used when speaking to older and younger people, and between people of different status. For example, 'to eat' can be 'mangan', 'nedha', 'nedhi' or 'dhahar' depending who is speaking to whom.
  • A common way to scold someone in Javanese is to call him a 'bedhes' or 'monkey'!
  • Javanese is the only Indonesian language spoken by a large number of people in a South American country. It is spoken by several thousand people in Suriname, next to Northern Brazil.

Over 30 million people have started speaking a new language with uTalk

Treasure

Over 2500 words and phrases, across 60+ topics covering everyday situations

Native Speakers

Practise speaking and compare your pronunciation with native speakers

Games

Game-based learning is fun and intuitive

Get Started