Languages of Tonga
See language map.Kingdom of Tonga, Pulèanga Tonga. 99,000. National or official languages: Tongan, English. Constitutional monarchy. 169 islands, 36 inhabited. Literacy rate: 93%–100%. Immigrant languages: . Also includes Chinese (2000). Information mainly from N. Besnier 1992; S. Wurm and S. Hattori 1981. The number of individual languages listed for Tonga is 3. Of those, all are living languages.
| English | [eng]
Classification: Indo-European, Germanic, West, English
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| Niuafo’ou | [num]
690 (1981 SIL). Niuafo’ou and ’Eua islands.
Dialects: Probably a dialect of East Uvean [wls] (Wallisian).
Classification: Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Remote Oceanic, Central Pacific, East Fijian-Polynesian, Polynesian, Nuclear, Samoic-Outlier, East Uvean-Niuafo’ou
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| Tongan | [ton]
96,300 in Tonga (1998). Population total all countries: 126,390. Also in American Samoa, Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Niue, United States, Vanuatu.
Alternate names: Tonga.
Dialects: Similar to Niue [niu]. Slight dialect differences north to south. Lexical similarity: 86% with Wallisian [wls], 66% with Samoan [smo].
Classification: Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Remote Oceanic, Central Pacific, East Fijian-Polynesian, Polynesian, Tongic
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