Austronesian · ISO 639-3 tkl
Tokelau Language
Tokelau is an Austronesian language spoken by about 3,300 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Tokelau. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tokelau is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tokelau
About the Tokelau language
Tokelau is spoken by about 3,300 people, which makes it the 549th most spoken language in the world — just behind Sacapulteco (6,500) and ahead of Ménik (3,300). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Samoan-Tokelauan group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Tokelau spoken?
Tokelau is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Tokelau (1,136). More than half of the population speaks it in Tokelau — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Tokelau is an official language in 1 country: Tokelau.
Writing system and status
Tokelau 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 Samoan, Tuvalu, Maori, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 tkl.
Frequently asked questions about Tokelau
How many people speak Tokelau?
Where is Tokelau spoken?
In which countries is Tokelau an official language?
What language family does Tokelau belong to?
Is Tokelau 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.