Tahitian language
| Tahitian | |
|---|---|
| reo Tahiti reo Māʼohi | |
| Native to | French Polynesia |
| Ethnicity | 185,000 Tahitians |
Native speakers | 68,260, 37% of ethnic population (2007 census) |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Tahitian Academy |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ty |
| ISO 639-2 | tah |
| ISO 639-3 | tah |
| Glottolog | tahi1242 |
Tahitian (autonym: reo Tahiti, pronounced [ˈreo tahiti], part of reo Māʼohi, [ˈreo ˈmaːʔohi], languages of French Polynesia) is a Polynesian language, spoken mainly on the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It belongs to the Eastern Polynesian group.
As Tahitian had no written tradition before the arrival of the Western colonists, the spoken language was first transcribed by missionaries of the London Missionary Society in the early 19th century.