Languages in American Samoa

The American Samoans have a rich indigenous language and English forms the second language. Most islanders can speak both. Samoan is from the Austronesian family of languages and closely related to other Polynesian languages such as Tongan.

The Samoans have different levels of spoken language, with high chiefs and orators speaking a particular variant that only the learned can understand and others using a more everyday version. Some words in Samoan have been borrowed from the English language such as Kerisimasi for Christmas, kolisi for college and telefoni for telephone.