Sino-Tibetan · ISO 639-3 rki
Rakhine Language ရခိုင်ဘာသာ
Rakhine is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by about 1.0 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Myanmar script.
Where Rakhine is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Rakhine
Language family
- Sino-Tibetan
- Burmo-Qiangic
- Lolo-Burmese
- Burmish
- Southern Burmish
- Mranmaic
- Nuclear Mranmaic
- Arakanese-Marma
- Rakhine
Writing system
Myanmar script
Related languages
About the Rakhine language
Rakhine (ရခိုင်ဘာသာ) is spoken by about 1.0 million people, which makes it the 479th most spoken language in the world — just behind Pfaelzisch (1.0 million) and ahead of Ronga (1.0 million). It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family and, more precisely, to the Arakanese-Marma group within the Lolo-Burmese branch.
Where is Rakhine spoken?
Rakhine is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Myanmar (1.0 million).
Rakhine is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Rakhine is written in the Myanmar script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Marma, Burmese and Sichuan Yi.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 rki.
Frequently asked questions about Rakhine
How many people speak Rakhine?
Where is Rakhine spoken?
What language family does Rakhine belong to?
What is Rakhine called in Rakhine?
Is Rakhine 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.