Indo-European · ISO 639-3 bar
Bavarian Language Boarisch
Bavarian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 14 million people in 2 countries. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Bavarian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Language family
- Indo-European
- Classical Indo-European
- Germanic
- Northwest Germanic
- West Germanic
- High German
- Upper German
- Middle-Modern High German
- Modern High German
- Bairisch
- Bavarian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Bavarian language
Bavarian (Boarisch) is spoken by about 14 million people, which makes it the 90th most spoken language in the world — just behind Nigerian Fulfulde (15 million) and ahead of Tajik (14 million). It belongs to the Indo-European language family and, more precisely, to the Bairisch group within the Germanic branch.
Where is Bavarian spoken?
Bavarian is used in 2 countries. The largest communities live in Germany (14 million) and Austria (8.5 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Austria — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Bavarian: Germany 17% (14 million) and Austria 95% (8.5 million).
Bavarian is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Bavarian is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are German, Swiss German, Mainfränkisch, Hunsrik, Upper Saxon, Limburgan and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 bar.
Frequently asked questions about Bavarian
How many people speak Bavarian?
Where is Bavarian spoken?
What language family does Bavarian belong to?
What is Bavarian called in Bavarian?
Is Bavarian an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.