Austronesian · ISO 639-3 pau
Palauan Language
Palauan is an Austronesian language spoken by about 17,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Palau. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Palauan is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Palauan
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Palauan
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Palauan language
Palauan is spoken by about 17,000 people, which makes it the 542nd most spoken language in the world — just behind Northern Sami (25,700) and ahead of Chipewyan (13,000). It belongs to the Austronesian language family.
Where is Palauan spoken?
Palauan is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Palau (16,179). More than half of the population speaks it in Palau — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Palauan is an official language in 1 country: Palau.
Writing system and status
Palauan 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 Indonesian, Javanese, Caribbean Javanese, Malay, Filipino, Sundanese and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 pau.
Frequently asked questions about Palauan
How many people speak Palauan?
Where is Palauan spoken?
In which countries is Palauan an official language?
What language family does Palauan belong to?
Is Palauan 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.