Ang wikang Palauano, kilala rin bilang wikang Palawano (a tekoi er a Belau) ay isa sa dalawang opisyal na wika ng Palau, ang iba naman ay nasa wikang Ingles. Ito ay isang pamilyang wikang Austronesyo, at ay isa sa dalawang indigenous na mga wika sa Micronesia na hindi itong parte ng pamilyang wikang Osyaniko, ang iba ay Chamorro (tignan ang Dempwolff 1934 harv error: no target: CITEREFDempwolff1934 (help), Blust 1977 harv error: no target: CITEREFBlust1977 (help), Jackson 1986 harv error: no target: CITEREFJackson1986 (help), at Zobel 2002 harv error: no target: CITEREFZobel2002 (help)).
While the phonemic inventory of Palauan is relatively small, comparatively, many phonemes contain at least two allophones that surface as the result of various phonological processes within the language. The full phonetic inventory of consonants is given below in IPA (the phonemic inventory of vowels, above, is complete).
↑The figure used here, for all countries, is from Ethnologue. According to the 2005 Palau Census, there are 18,544 people aged 5 years or older residing in the Republic of Palau, of whom 4,718 do not speak Palauan. There are thus an estimated 13,826 Palauan speakers in Palau as of 2005; the UNSD estimated 12,400 in Palau in 2008. This number does not include native Palauan speakers residing outside of Palau, who probably comprise several thousand additional speakers (4,000 according to Ethnologue). (See Nuger 2016:13 harv error: no target: CITEREFNuger2016 (help).)
↑Katakana is no longer widely used, since the orthography based on Latin script has received official status and is taught in schools. But see Matsumoto 2001:90 harv error: no target: CITEREFMatsumoto2001 (help).
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