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EntityQ2407831· pop 35· linked from 748 articles

Also known as Nias language, nia

Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia

In the Vinony graph

Within Vinony's link graph, Nias is referenced by 748 other articles, and connects out to Malay trade and creole languages, Central Malay and Sama–Bajaw.

Vinony files it under Language articles citing Ethnologue 18, Language articles with old Ethnologue 18 speaker data and Languages of Indonesia.

Its subject is documented across 35 Wikipedia language editions.

Key facts

Native to
Indonesia
Region
Nias and Batu Islands , North Sumatra
Ethnicity
Nias people
Native speakers
(770,000 cited 2000 census)
Language family
Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands Northern Barrier Islands Nias–Sikule Nias
Writing system
Latin
Iso 639 2
nia
Iso 639 3
nia
Glottolog
nias1242

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Show 5 more facts
Wikimedia language code
nia
native label
bahasa Batu
number of speakers, writers, or signers
825768
Sources (7)

via Wikidata · CC0

~13 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A video of spoken Nias

The Nias language is an Austronesian language spoken on Nias Island and the Batu Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is known as Li Niha by its native speakers. It belongs to the Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup which also includes Mentawai and the Batak languages. It had about 770,000 speakers in 2000. There are three main dialects: northern, central and southern. It is an open-syllable language, which means there are no syllable-final consonants.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Nias” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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