Austroasiatic · ISO 639-3 sat
Santali Language সাঁওতালী
Santali is an Austroasiatic language spoken by about 7.3 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Ol Chiki, Bangla and Devanagari scripts.
Where Santali is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
About the Santali language
Santali (সাঁওতালী) is spoken by about 7.3 million people, which makes it the 150th most spoken language in the world — just behind Kanauji (7.4 million) and ahead of Eastern Maninkakan (7.1 million). It belongs to the Austroasiatic language family and, more precisely, to the Santalic group within the North Munda branch.
Where is Santali spoken?
Santali is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in India (7.8 million).
Santali is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in India.
Writing system and status
Santali is written in the Ol Chiki, Bangla, Devanagari and 2 more scripts. 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 Ho and Mundari.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 sat.
Frequently asked questions about Santali
How many people speak Santali?
Where is Santali spoken?
What language family does Santali belong to?
What is Santali called in Santali?
Is Santali 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.