Language code: `sm`

Technical information about ISO 639 language code sm

The table below provides technical details for the Samoan language, designated by the sm code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code	`sm`
Name	Official Samoan Native Gagana fa'a Sāmoa
Family	Oceanic
Text direction	Left-to-Right
Language varieties	Savai‘iUpoluTutuila-Manu‘a
Related languages	TokelauanTuvaluanWallisianFutunan
Key facts	Largest Polynesian language by number of native speakersPronoun system marks singular, dual and plural as well as inclusive vs. exclusive ‘we’Has distinct formal and colloquial speech registers with separate vocabularyUses the ʻokina for the glottal stop and macrons to show long vowelsOral traditions feature complex ceremonial oratory with specialized poetic language
Sample phrase	Talofa, o ā mai ʻoe?
Character encodings	UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32
Supported in Localizely

Samoan belongs to the Austronesian language family, specifically to the Oceanic subgroup. It is an official language in both Samoa and American Samoa and is written using the Latin script (Samoan alphabet). It is estimated that there are around 500,000 speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

Samoa

177K

American Samoa

44K

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Samoan speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

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Language code: `sm`

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Language code: sm

Documentation

Language presence globally

Documentation

About

Resources

Free tools

Boring stuff

Newsletter

Language code: `sm`