Carolinian language
| Carolinian | |
|---|---|
| Refaluwasch | |
| Native to | Guam, Northern Mariana Islands |
| Region | Saipan, Anatahan, and Agrihan islands, Carolines. |
Native speakers | 2,600 (2000)[1] |
|
Austronesian
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in |
 Northern Mariana Islands |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
cal |
| Glottolog |
caro1242[2] |
Carolinian is an Austronesian language spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands, where it is an official language along with English and Chamorro. Spoken mostly by the Carolinian people, Carolinian is most closely related to Satawalese, Woleaian, and Puluwatese. Carolinian has 95% lexical similarity with Satawalese, 88% with Woleaian and Puluwatese; 81% with Mortlockese; 78% with Chuukese, 74% with Ulithian. A 1990 census estimated the number of speakers at about 3,000, currently 5,700. Carolinian is known as Refaluwasch by native speakers. It has 31 characters in its alphabet.
References
- ↑ Carolinian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Carolinian". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
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