Austronesian · ISO 639-3 haw
Hawaiian Language ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi
Hawaiian is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Hawaiian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Hawaiian
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
- Oceanic
- Central Pacific linkage
- Tokalau Fijian
- Polynesian
- Nuclear Polynesian
- Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian
- Solomons Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian
- Central Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian
- East Polynesian
- East Polynesian Proximal
- Hawaiian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Hawaiian language
Hawaiian (ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi) is spoken by about 30,000 people, which makes it the 540th most spoken language in the world — just behind Chortí (30,000) and ahead of Northern Sami (25,700). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the East Polynesian Proximal group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Hawaiian spoken?
Hawaiian is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in United States (30,434).
Hawaiian is not a national official language anywhere. It also has regional official status in United States.
Writing system and status
Hawaiian is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as moribund, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Maori, Tahitian, Samoan, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 haw.
Frequently asked questions about Hawaiian
How many people speak Hawaiian?
Where is Hawaiian spoken?
What language family does Hawaiian belong to?
What is Hawaiian called in Hawaiian?
Is Hawaiian 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.