| Palauan | |
|---|---|
| a tekoi er a Belau | |
| Native to | Palau, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands |
Native speakers | 17,000 (2008)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin (formerly katakana)[2] | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Palau |
| Regulated by | Palau Language Commission |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | pau |
| ISO 639-3 | pau |
| Glottolog | pala1344 |
| Linguasphere | 31-PAA-aa |
  Palauan | |
| Coordinates: 7°20′N 134°29′E / 7.34°N 134.48°E | |
Palauan (a tekoi er a Belau[3]) is a Malayo-Polynesian language native to the Republic of Palau, where it is one of the two official languages, alongside English. It is widely used in day-to-day life in the country. Palauan is not closely related to other Malayo-Polynesian languages and its exact classification within the branch is unclear.
- ^ The figure used here, for all countries, is from Ethnologue. According to the 2005 Palau Census, there are 18,544 people aged 5 years or older residing in the Republic of Palau, of whom 4,718 do not speak Palauan. There are thus an estimated 13,826 Palauan speakers in Palau as of 2005; the UNSD estimated 12,400 in Palau in 2008. This number does not include native Palauan speakers residing outside of Palau, who probably comprise several thousand additional speakers (4,000 according to Ethnologue). (See Nuger 2016:13.)
- ^ Katakana is no longer widely used, since the orthography based on Latin script has received official status and is taught in schools. But see Matsumoto 2001:90.
- ^ Josephs 1990, p. 95.