| Tokelauan | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Tokelau |
| Native speakers | 3,200 total, with 1400 in Tokelau (2004) |
| Language family |
Austronesian
|
| Official status | |
| Official language in | Tokelau |
| Regulated by | No official regulation |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tkl |
Tokelauan is a Polynesian language closely related to Tuvaluan.
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It is spoken by about 1,500 people on the atolls of Tokelau, and by the few inhabitants of Swains Island in neighbouring American Samoa. It is a member of the Samoic family of Polynesian languages. It is, alongside English, the official language of Tokelau. In addition to the population of Tokelau, it is spoken by approximately 2,900 Tokelauan expatriates in New Zealand. The language is currently being taught privately, and in a few schools, in Brentwood, Essex, UK. Its ISO 639-3 code is tkl.
Tokelauan is mutually intelligible with Tuvaluan, the main language of the neighbouring island realm of Tuvalu, and uses Samoan literature. It also has marked similarities to the Niuafo'ou language of Tonga.
Tokelauan is written in the Latin alphabet, albeit only using 15 letters: a, e, i, o, u, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, h, t, and v. This consists of 5 vowels: a (pronounced ah), e (pronounced eh), i (pronounced ee), o (pronounced or) and u (pronounced oo); and 10 consonants: f, g, k, l, m, n, p, h, t, v.
Loimata Iupati, Tokelau's resident Director of Education, has stated that he is in the process of translating the Bible from English into Tokelauan.
| Tokelauan | English |
|---|---|
| Ko au e aloha atu kia Hemapu Hakalia | I love Hemapu Sakalia |
| Ko toku nena e i Nukunonu. | My grandmother lives in Nukunonu. |
| Malo ni, ea mai koe? | Hello, how are you? |
| E hēai ni vakalele i Tokelau | There Are No Aeroplanes in Tokelau |
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