Austronesian · ISO 639-3 nau · na
Nauru Language Dorerin Naoero
Nauru is an Austronesian language spoken by about 9,300 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Nauru. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Nauru is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Nauru
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
- Oceanic
- Micronesian
- Kosraean-Nauruan
- Nauru
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Nauru language
Nauru (Dorerin Naoero) is spoken by about 9,300 people, which makes it the 547th most spoken language in the world — just behind Niuean (10,000) and ahead of Sacapulteco (6,500). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Kosraean-Nauruan group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Nauru spoken?
Nauru is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Nauru (6,924). More than half of the population speaks it in Nauru — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Nauru is an official language in 1 country: Nauru.
Writing system and status
Nauru 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 Gilbertese, Marshallese, Samoan, Fijian, Maori, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 na, ISO 639-3 nau.
Frequently asked questions about Nauru
How many people speak Nauru?
Where is Nauru spoken?
In which countries is Nauru an official language?
What language family does Nauru belong to?
What is Nauru called in Nauru?
Is Nauru 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.