The Nauruan language (Ekakairũ Naoero) is an Austronesian language spoken in Nauru. It is estimated that it has 7,000 speakers, approximately 50% of the population. Almost all speakers are bilingual in English.

It is a member of the Micronesian family of Austronesian languages. Its ISO 639 codes are 'na' and 'nau'.

Delaporte's Nauruan Dictionary

In 1907, Philip Delaporte published his pocket German-Nauruan dictionary (Taschenwörterbuch Deutsch-Nauruisch). The dictionary is small (10.5 x 14 cm), with 65 pages devoted to the glossary and an additional dozen to phrases, arranged alphabetically by the German. Approximately 1650 German words are glossed in Nauruan, often by phrases or synonymous forms. There are some 1300 'unique' Nauruan forms in the glosses, including all those occurring in phrases, and ignoring diacritical marks. The accents used there are not common; just one accent (the tilde) is in use today.

See also: Timothy Detudamo

External link

• Ethnologue on Nauruan