Niuafo'ou language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Niuafo'ou | ||
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Spoken in: | Tonga | |
Total speakers: | 690 (SIL 1981) | |
Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Central-Eastern Oceanic Remote Oceanic Central Pacific East Fijian-Polynesian Polynesian Nuclear Polynesian Samoic Outlier East Uvean-Niuafo'ou Niuafo'ou |
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Language codes | ||
ISO 639-1: | none | |
ISO 639-2: | NUM | |
ISO 639-3: | num | |
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. |
Niuafoʻouan is the language spoken on Tonga's northernmost island Niuafoʻou. Although, because it is part of Tonga, currently all inhabitants speak Tongan as well, Niuafoʻouan has been classified by linguists as a Nuclear Polynesian language with clear affinities to ʻUvean and Tokelauan.
The languages on the neighbouring islands of Niuatoputapu and Tafahi are closer to Tongan, of which they can be considered dialects.