Austronesian · ISO 639-3 ton · to
Tonga (Tonga Islands) Language lea fakatonga
Tonga (Tonga Islands) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 186,010 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Tonga. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tonga (Tonga Islands) is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tonga (Tonga Islands)
About the Tonga (Tonga Islands) language
Tonga (Tonga Islands) (lea fakatonga) is spoken by about 186,010 people, which makes it the 520th most spoken language in the world — just behind Abkhazian (190,110) and ahead of Hiri Motu (180,000). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Tongic group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Tonga (Tonga Islands) spoken?
Tonga (Tonga Islands) is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Tonga (99,644). More than half of the population speaks it in Tonga — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Tonga (Tonga Islands) is an official language in 1 country: Tonga.
Writing system and status
Tonga (Tonga Islands) 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 Niuean, Samoan, Maori, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Tuvalu and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 to, ISO 639-3 ton.
Frequently asked questions about Tonga (Tonga Islands)
How many people speak Tonga (Tonga Islands)?
Where is Tonga (Tonga Islands) spoken?
In which countries is Tonga (Tonga Islands) an official language?
What language family does Tonga (Tonga Islands) belong to?
What is Tonga (Tonga Islands) called in Tonga (Tonga Islands)?
Is Tonga (Tonga Islands) 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.