Tongan language - Definition and Overview

Tongan is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has 100,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO language. ("Tonga" is a Bantu language spoken in Malawi.)

Tongan is one of the many tongues in the Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, along with Hawaiian, Maori, Samoan and Tahitian, for example. Together with Niuean, it forms the Tongic subgroup of Polynesian.

The English word "taboo" is a loan word from Tongan.

External Link

• Ethnologue on Tongan (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=TOV)

Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the

Tongan language Wikipedia