Tongan

Tongan is an Austronesian language spoken by about 128,000 people in Tonga and by about 30,000 people in American Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, and Fiji. It is a member of the Austronesian family, which includes languages such as Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, and Maori. Tongan is one of the few languages in the world that uses the letter ⟨ʻ⟩, called the ʻokina, to mark a glottal stop. This letter was introduced by missionaries in the 19th century and is not found in other Austronesian languages. Tongan is written using the Latin alphabet, but with some additional letters: ⟨ʻ⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨ng⟩, ⟨v⟩, and ⟨z⟩. Tongan has a rich oral tradition and many of its stories and poems have been passed down through the generations. One of the most famous Tongan tales is the story of Sina and the Eel, which tells of a young girl who outwits an eel that is trying to eat her. Tongan is also the language of the national church, the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga, which has over 300,000 members. The church was founded in 1831 by Methodists from Samoa and Tonga who were sent by the London Missionary Society. Tongan is a unique and beautiful language that is an important part of the culture of the Pacific Islands.