Austronesian · ISO 639-3 tvl
Tuvalu Language Te gana Tuvalu
Tuvalu is an Austronesian language spoken by about 13,000 people in 1 country. It is an official language of Tuvalu. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Tuvalu is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tuvalu
About the Tuvalu language
Tuvalu (Te gana Tuvalu) is spoken by about 13,000 people, which makes it the 544th most spoken language in the world — just behind Chipewyan (13,000) and ahead of Northern Frisian (10,000). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Ellicean group within the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch.
Where is Tuvalu spoken?
Tuvalu is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Tuvalu (9,973). More than half of the population speaks it in Tuvalu — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Tuvalu is an official language in 1 country: Tuvalu.
Writing system and status
Tuvalu is written in the Latin script. Glottolog classifies it as threatened, meaning fewer children learn it than in the past.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Samoan, Tokelau, Maori, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Tonga (Tonga Islands) and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 tvl.
Frequently asked questions about Tuvalu
How many people speak Tuvalu?
Where is Tuvalu spoken?
In which countries is Tuvalu an official language?
What language family does Tuvalu belong to?
What is Tuvalu called in Tuvalu?
Is Tuvalu 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.