Austronesian · ISO 639-3 tah · ty
Tahitian Language Tahiti
Tahitian is an Austronesian language spoken by about 91,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of French Polynesia. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tahitian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tahitian
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
- Tahitian-Austral
- Tahitian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Tahitian language
Tahitian (Tahiti) is spoken by about 91,000 people, which makes it the 527th most spoken language in the world — just behind Balanta-Ganja (96,000) and ahead of Scottish Gaelic (72,000). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Tahitian-Austral group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Tahitian spoken?
Tahitian is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in French Polynesia (94,097).
Tahitian is an official language in 1 country: French Polynesia.
Writing system and status
Tahitian 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 Maori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ty, ISO 639-3 tah.
Frequently asked questions about Tahitian
How many people speak Tahitian?
Where is Tahitian spoken?
In which countries is Tahitian an official language?
What language family does Tahitian belong to?
What is Tahitian called in Tahitian?
Is Tahitian 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.