Samoan, spoken by around 260,000 people, is used in Samoa and American Samoa as well as some communities in Tokelau and New Zealand. As part of the Austronesian language family, it uses the Latin alphabet and features an analytic grammar with free word order. Known for its simplicity in structure and richness in cultural expression, Samoan is central to the traditional oral history, music, and community identity of the Samoan people.
Stats
Language Family: Austronesian
Writing System: Latin
Writing System Type: Alphabet
Writing Direction: Left to Right
Tones / Pitch Accent: None
Morphology: Analytic
Cases: 0
Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: None
Number of Verb Tenses: 6
Word Order: Free
Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 10
Number of Consonants: 10
Areas Where Spoken
American Samoa (official) (90.6%) (40 k)
New Zealand (2.0%) (104 k)
Samoa (official) (47.5%) (107 k)
Tokelau (19.8%) (400)
Resources
Mass Resource List
Books
Dictionary
www2.hawaii.edu: English <-> Samoan
Flashcards
Lessons
Live Lingua: Handful of languages
Manuatele: Vocab, phrases
News
Phrasebooks
YouTube Videos
Matou Samoan Language: Grammar and vocab