Tokelauan (/toʊkəˈlaʊən/)[2] is a Polynesian language spoken in Tokelau and historically by the small population of Swains Island (or Olohega) in American Samoa.

[3] Loimata Iupati, Tokelau's resident Director of Education, has stated that he is in the process of translating the Bible from English into Tokelauan.

[5] Of the 4600 people who speak the language, 1600 of them live in the three atolls of Tokelau – Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo.

[8] However, Tokelauan had been instituted into schools in the late 1940s; prior to the publication, there was not much headway made in the teaching of the language.

[8] This entire movement was based on the fact that the Tokelauan people take a great deal of pride in their language.

Tokelauan schools lacked an abundance of resources and materials that could be used to educate their children on the language.

[8] It has a high place in their culture,[8] and the revitalization and renewal of the language for their younger generation had eventually reached a point where action had to be taken.

Tokelau is a dependency of New Zealand and has three main parts, which consist of atolls: Atafu, Nukunonu, and Fakaofo.

Those residing in the three atolls of Tokelau are known to have shown much resistance to the macron, while the Tokelauan speakers of New Zealand are more open and accepting of adopting the use of this linguistic symbol.

[7] Although Tokelauan is closely related to the Samoan language, there is a distinct difference between their pronunciation of words.

[7] Tokelauan is written in the Latin script, albeit using only 15 letters: A, E, I, O, U, F, G, K, L, M, N, P, H, T, and V. Although there is not a lot of available systemic data for Tokelauan word stressing, linguistics have developed three rules relating word stress and vowels based upon some previous evidence.

This is because in English, the word the acts as what is known as a definite article, meaning that a defined object or person is being spoken of.

[8] However, in some cases, rather than using nā, plural definite nouns are subject to the absence of an article represented by 0.

[8] Examples of nā, a 0 exception, and ni are as such: (Notice that this is the use of an indefinite article in an interrogative statement.

[8] When describing personal names as well as the names of the month, pronouns (the use here is optional and it is most commonly used when there are words in between the pronoun and verb), and collaborative nouns that describe a group of people working together the most common particle is used.

[8] When the subject of a sentence is a locative or name of a place, ia is also used as the particle in those particular, as well as other specific instances.

KoTOPtaku1sg.POSSfakatatauguesslavaINTpeCOMPnaTAmauaobtainlavaINTteDETvaiaho.weekKo taku fakatatau lava pe na maua lava te vaiaho.TOP 1sg.POSS guess INT COMP TA obtain INT DET week'My guess was that a full week had passed.

KuaTAfiufed-upfokiindeedke-iru-auCOMP-drink-1sga!EXCLAMKua fiu foki ke-iru-au a!TA fed-up indeed COMP-drink-1sg EXCLAM'[They] were tired of trying to get me to drink.

'[13]Ona: Complement used in sentences pertaining to “phasal, modal, and commentative predicates.” KuaTAtataunecessaryonoCOMPfaimakeheafale.houseKua tatau ono fai he fale.TA necessary COMP make a house'It had become necessary to acquire a house'[13]Oi: Complement used in sentences pertaining to items of sequence.

According to Hooper's research, there are four elements that in Tokelauan semantics that determine the strength of the bond between the complement and rest of the sentence.

[13] Tokelauan is a quite free flowing language as the sentence structures can vary greatly.

Although there is a preferred method of ordering the phrase (i.e., argument, subject, case complement), the language allows for different variations.

Tokelau has adopted the Hawaiian-type kinship system and modified distinctions in sibling terms.

The language has specific words for different members of the family, and some of these terms have multiple meanings.

For example, 'mother's sister,' 'male cousin's brother' and 'sister's nephew' are all different terms in the Tokelauan language.

The Tokelau languages contains terms for affinal relationships, however, there is no single word that can be transcribed as 'affinity'.