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Samoan
Gagana faʻa Sāmoa
Map showing Samoa's central place in the Pacific, where the language is most spoken.
Native to
Samoan Islands
Region
Asia-Pacific
Ethnicity
Samoans
Native speakers
510,000 (2015)[1]
Language family
Austronesian
Malayo-Polynesian
Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian?
Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Oceanic
Central–Eastern Oceanic
Central Pacific
East Central Pacific
Polynesian
Nuclear Polynesian
Samoic?
Samoan–Tokelauan
Samoan
Writing system
Latin (Samoan alphabet) Samoan Braille
Official status
Official language in
Samoa American Samoa
Language codes
ISO 639-1
sm
ISO 639-2
smo
ISO 639-3
smo
Glottolog
samo1305
Linguasphere
39-CAO-a
IETF
sm-WS (Samoa) sm-AS (American Samoa)
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Samoan (Gagana faʻa Sāmoa or Gagana Sāmoa; IPA:[ŋaˈŋanaˈsaːmʊa]) is a Polynesian language spoken by Samoans of the Samoan Islands. Administratively, the islands are split between the sovereign country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language, alongside English, in both jurisdictions. It is widely spoken across the Pacific region, heavily so in New Zealand and also in Australia and the United States. Among the Polynesian languages, Samoan is the most widely spoken by number of native speakers.
Samoan is spoken by approximately 260,000 people in the archipelago and with many Samoans living in diaspora in a number of countries, the total number of speakers worldwide was estimated at 510,000 in 2015. It is the third-most widely spoken language in New Zealand, where 2.2% of the population, 101,900 people, were able to speak it as of 2018.[2]
The language is notable for the phonological differences between formal and informal speech as well as a ceremonial form used in Samoan oratory.
^Samoan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^"2013 Census totals by topic". Statistics New Zealand. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
Samoan (Gagana faʻa Sāmoa or Gagana Sāmoa; IPA: [ŋaˈŋana ˈsaːmʊa]) is a Polynesian language spoken by Samoans of the Samoan Islands. Administratively...
Samoans or Samoan people (Samoan: tagata Sāmoa) are the indigenous Polynesian people of the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in Polynesia, who speak the...
discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a Samoanlanguage and Samoan cultural identity. Samoa is a unitary parliamentary...
The Samoan Islands (Samoan: Motu o Sāmoa) are an archipelago covering 3,030 km2 (1,170 sq mi) in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and...
there are local signs for Samoan food. It's not clear if this means Samoan Sign Language is related to Australian Sign Language, or if it merely has many...
The Samoanlanguage is still in use in daily exchange; however, English is widely used and also the legal official language. Besides Samoanlanguage classes...
Samoan Australians refers to Australian citizens or residents who are of ethnic Samoan descent or people born in Samoa but grew up in Australia. However...
Samoan Braille is the braille alphabet of the Samoanlanguage. It is a subset of the basic braille alphabet, supplemented by an additional letter ⠰ to...
Samoan Americans are Americans of Samoan origin, including those who emigrated from the United States Territory of American Samoa and immigrants from...
territory in the Samoan Islands Samoanlanguage, the native language of the Samoan Islands Samoans, a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands This disambiguation...
Samoa. It is closely related to Tuvaluan and is related to Samoan and other Polynesian languages. Tokelauan has a co-official status with English in Tokelau...
Polynesian languages were more closely related to Samoan than they were to Tongan, calling Tongan and its nearby relative Niuean "Tongic" and Samoan and all...
Tuvaluan language was influenced by Samoan missionary-pastors. In an attempt to "Christianize" Tuvaluans, linguistic promotion of the Samoanlanguage was evident...
Below are some Samoan plant names in alphabetical order in the Samoanlanguage and their corresponding descriptions in English. Many are used in traditional...
Wilkes, reached Samoa in 1839. In 1855, J.C. Godeffroy & Sohn expanded its trading business into the Samoan archipelago. The first Samoan Civil War (1886-1894)...
indoˈnesija]) is the official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standardized variety of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca...
status. These Samoan proverbs are taken from the first Samoan dictionary, A grammar and dictionary of the Samoanlanguage, with English and Samoan vocabulary...
Western Samoa was the civil administration of Western Samoa by New Zealand between 1920 and Samoan independence in 1962. In 1914, German Samoa was captured...
The Samoa men's national association football team (Samoan: Sāmoa soka au) represents Samoa in men's international football and is controlled by the Football...
American Samoan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. American Samoan may refer to: Something of, or related to American Samoa A person from American Samoa, or...
and is from the Samoa Islands of independent Samoa and American Samoa, and Samoan writers in diaspora. Samoan as a written language emerged after 1830...
philosophical usage of the Samoanlanguage. By 1855 the translation of the Bible in Samoan was completed. The 1886 edition of the Samoan Bible was printed by...
Assembly (Samoan: Fono Aoao Faitulafono a Samoa), also known as the Parliament of Samoa (Samoan: Palemene o Samoa), is the national legislature of Samoa, seated...
The American Samoa men's national football team (Samoan: Au soka Amerika Sāmoa) represents American Samoa in men's international association football and...
minister of the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Palemia o le Malo Tuto’atasi o Sāmoa) is the head of government of Samoa. The prime minister is a member...
Global Information
Samoa
American Samoa