Austronesian · ISO 639-3 mri · mi
Maori Language Māori
Maori is an Austronesian language spoken by about 213,849 people in 1 country. It is an official language of New Zealand. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Maori is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Maori
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
- Southern East Polynesian Proximal
- Maoric
- Maori
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Maori language
Maori (Māori) is spoken by about 213,849 people, which makes it the 518th most spoken language in the world — just behind Saafi-Saafi (240,000) and ahead of Abkhazian (190,110). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Maoric group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Maori spoken?
Maori is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in New Zealand (144,513).
Maori is an official language in 1 country: New Zealand.
Writing system and status
Maori is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as vulnerable, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Tahitian, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 mi, ISO 639-3 mri.
Frequently asked questions about Maori
How many people speak Maori?
Where is Maori spoken?
In which countries is Maori an official language?
What language family does Maori belong to?
What is Maori called in Maori?
Is Maori 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.