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Polynesian refers to a family of languages spoken across a vast region of the Pacific Ocean, including places like Hawaii, Samoa, and Tahiti, where millions of people use these related languages today. These languages matter because they connect the history and culture of Pacific Island communities and help preserve the distinct identities of Polynesian peoples across different islands.
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The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.
There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austronesian family. While half of them are spoken in geographical Polynesia (the Polynesian triangle), the other half – known as Polynesian outliers – are spoken in other parts of the Pacific: from Micronesia to atolls scattered in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands or Vanuatu. The most prominent Polynesian languages, by number of speakers, are Samoan, Tongan, Tahitian, Māori and Hawaiian.