World Language Map

Where is Rapanui spoken?

Rapanui is an Austronesian language, spoken in Chile. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Key

Language families (largest ten)

  • Atlantic-Congo
  • Austronesian
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Indo-European
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Nuclear Trans New Guinea
  • Otomanguean
  • Austroasiatic
  • Tai-Kadai
  • Pama-Nyungan

Everything else

  • All other families Smaller families, isolates and unclassified languages.
  • Point A language with no area map. The dot sits at its Glottolog position, in its family colour.

How to read the map. Each colour is a language family: a group of languages that share a common ancestor. The ten largest families have their own colour and every other family is grey. Areas are see-through, so where two languages share a place the colours mix. Tap anywhere to list every language whose area covers that spot. Areas are generalisations drawn from published atlases, many of them decades old, and cities are multilingual, so an area never says that everyone there speaks the language. A dot marks a language that has no area map. The family name is always given in words, because colour alone is hard to tell apart for some people.

Where Rapanui is spoken

Rapanui is spoken in one country: Chile.

Country
Chile

Rapanui has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak Rapanui?

Wikidata gives about 5,000 speakers (Wikidata, with no source given). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Shifting. Glottolog lists it as shifting: the youngest speakers are adults, and children are growing up speaking another language.

Where Rapanui sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies Rapanui as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Austronesian
  2. Malayo-Polynesian
  3. Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
  4. Oceanic
  5. Central Pacific linkage
  6. Tokalau Fijian
  7. Polynesian
  8. Nuclear Polynesian
  9. Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian
  10. Solomons Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian
  11. Central Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian
  12. East Polynesian
  13. East Polynesian Distal
  14. Far East Polynesian
  15. Rapanui

Related languages

Other languages in the Far East Polynesian group:

More about Rapanui

Codes: ISO 639-3 rap, Glottolog rapa1244. Glottolog macroarea: Papunesia.

Questions about Rapanui

Where is Rapanui spoken?

Rapanui is spoken in Chile. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak Rapanui?

Wikidata gives about 5,000 speakers (Wikidata, with no source given). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is Rapanui in?

Glottolog places Rapanui in the Austronesian family, in the branch Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central Pacific linkage, Tokalau Fijian, Polynesian, Nuclear Polynesian, Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian, Solomons Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian, Central Northern Outlier Polynesian-East Polynesian, East Polynesian, East Polynesian Distal and Far East Polynesian.

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