Austronesian · ISO 639-3 mah · mh
Marshallese Language Kajin M̧ajeļ
Marshallese is an Austronesian language spoken by about 61,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Marshall Islands. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Marshallese is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Marshallese
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
- Oceanic
- Micronesian
- Central Micronesian
- Western Micronesian
- Marshallese
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Marshallese language
Marshallese (Kajin M̧ajeļ) is spoken by about 61,000 people, which makes it the 532nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Komi-Permyak (64,000) and ahead of Kalaallisut (56,200). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Western Micronesian group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Marshallese spoken?
Marshallese is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Marshall Islands (59,868). More than half of the population speaks it in Marshall Islands — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Marshallese is an official language in 1 country: Marshall Islands.
Writing system and status
Marshallese is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Gilbertese, Nauru, Samoan, Fijian, Maori, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 mh, ISO 639-3 mah.
Frequently asked questions about Marshallese
How many people speak Marshallese?
Where is Marshallese spoken?
In which countries is Marshallese an official language?
What language family does Marshallese belong to?
What is Marshallese called in Marshallese?
Is Marshallese 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.