World Language Map

Where is Tokelau spoken?

Tokelau is an Austronesian language, spoken in New Zealand. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Where Tokelau is spoken

Tokelau is spoken in one country: New Zealand.

Country
New Zealand

Tokelau has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak Tokelau?

Wikidata gives about 3,300 speakers (Wikidata, with no source given). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Shifting. Glottolog lists it as shifting: the youngest speakers are adults, and children are growing up speaking another language.

Where Tokelau sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Tokelau as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Austronesian
  2. Malayo-Polynesian
  3. Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
  4. Oceanic
  5. Central Pacific linkage
  6. Tokalau Fijian
  7. Polynesian
  8. Nuclear Polynesian
  9. Ellicean
  10. Pukapukic
  11. Samoan-Tokelauan
  12. Tokelau

Related languages

Other languages in the Samoan-Tokelauan group:

More about Tokelau

Codes: ISO 639-3 tkl, Glottolog toke1240. Glottolog macroarea: Papunesia.

Questions about Tokelau

Where is Tokelau spoken?

Tokelau is spoken in New Zealand. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak Tokelau?

Wikidata gives about 3,300 speakers (Wikidata, with no source given). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is Tokelau in?

Glottolog places Tokelau in the Austronesian family, in the branch Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central Pacific linkage, Tokalau Fijian, Polynesian, Nuclear Polynesian, Ellicean, Pukapukic and Samoan-Tokelauan.

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