Tokelau Languages

Description
Tokelauan is a Polynesian language spoken in Tokelau and on Swains Island (or Olohega) in American Samoa. It is closely related to Tuvaluan and is related to Samoan and other Polynesian languages. Tokelauan has a co-official status with English in Tokelau. There are approximately 4,260 speakers of Tokelauan, of whom 2,100 live in New Zealand, 1,400 in Tokelau, 956 in Australia and 17 in Swains Island. "Tokelau" means "north-northeast".

While many Tokelau residents are multilingual, Tokelauan was the language of day-to-day affairs in Tokelau until at least the 1990s, and is spoken by 88% of Tokelauan residents. Of the 4600 people who speak the language, 1600 of them live in the three atolls of Tokelau – Atafu, Nukunono and Fakaofo. Approximately 3000 people in New Zealand speak Tokelauan, and the rest of the known Tokelauan speakers are spread across Australia, Hawaii, and the West Coast of the United States. The Tokelauan language closely resembles its more widely spoken and close genealogical relative, Samoan; the two maintain a degree of mutual intelligibility.

Tokelau Languages
 * Tokelauan 88.1% (a Polynesian language)
 * English 48.6%,
 * Samoan 26.7%,
 * Tuvaluan 11.2%,
 * Kiribati 1.5%,
 * other 2.8%,
 * none 2.8%,
 * unspecified 0.8% (2016 ests.)

note: shares sum to more than 100% because some respondents gave more than one answer on the census

Word List(s)

 * Tokelauan Useful Phrases
 * Tokelauan Words and Phrases
 * Tokelauan Words and Phrases
 * Tokelauan Numbers

Alphabet and Pronunciation
Tokelauan is written in the Latin script, albeit using only 15 letters: A, E, I, O, U, F, G, K, L, M, N, P, H, T, and V. Its alphabet consists of 5 vowels: a (pronounced: /a/), e (pronounced: /e/), i (pronounced: /i/), o (pronounced: /o/) and u (pronounced: /u/); and 10 consonants: /p t k f v h m n ŋ l/, /ŋ/ spelled g
 * Tokelauan Alphabet and Pronunciation
 * Tokelauan Alphabet and Pronunciation

Language Aids and Dictionaries

 * Tokelau to English Dictionary

Additional Resources

 * The Tokelauan Language 1841-1991
 * Tokelau
 * Tokelau