World Language Map

Where is West Coast Bajau spoken?

West Coast Bajau (ling Sama) is an Austronesian language, spoken in Malaysia. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Where West Coast Bajau is spoken

West Coast Bajau is spoken in one country: Malaysia.

Country
Malaysia

West Coast Bajau has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak West Coast Bajau?

Wikidata gives about 210,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2010). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Threatened. Glottolog lists it as threatened: it is still spoken by all generations, but there are signs that the number of speakers is falling.

Where West Coast Bajau sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies West Coast Bajau as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Austronesian
  2. Malayo-Polynesian
  3. Basap-Greater Barito
  4. Greater Barito linkage
  5. Sama-Bajaw
  6. Sulu-Borneo
  7. Borneo Coast Bajaw
  8. West Coast Bajau

Related languages

Other languages in the Borneo Coast Bajaw group:

More about West Coast Bajau

Codes: ISO 639-3 bdr, Glottolog west2560. Glottolog macroarea: Papunesia.

Questions about West Coast Bajau

Where is West Coast Bajau spoken?

West Coast Bajau is spoken in Malaysia. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak West Coast Bajau?

Wikidata gives about 210,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2010). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is West Coast Bajau in?

Glottolog places West Coast Bajau in the Austronesian family, in the branch Malayo-Polynesian, Basap-Greater Barito, Greater Barito linkage, Sama-Bajaw, Sulu-Borneo and Borneo Coast Bajaw.

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