Editing French Polynesia (section)

=== Languages ===
{{bar box
|title=Home languages in French Polynesia (2017 Census)
|titlebar=#ddd
|left1=Languages
|right1=percent
|float=right
|bars=
{{bar percent|French|darkgreen|73.9}}
{{bar percent|Tahitian|purple|20.2}}
{{bar percent|Marquesan|red|2.6}}
{{bar percent|Mangareva|black|0.2}}
{{bar percent|Austral languages|orange|1.2}}
{{bar percent|Tuamotuan|darkblue|1}}
{{bar percent|Chinese|green|0.6}}
{{bar percent|Other|purple|0.4}}
}}
All the indigenous languages of French Polynesia are [[Polynesian languages|Polynesian]]. French Polynesia has been linguistically diverse since ancient times, with each community having its own local speech variety. These dialects can be grouped into seven languages on the basis of [[mutual intelligibility]]: [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]], [[Tuamotuan language|Tuamotuan]], [[Rapa language|Rapa]], [[Austral language|Austral]], [[North Marquesan]], [[South Marquesan]], and [[Mangareva language|Mangarevan]]. Some of these, especially Tuamotuan, are really [[dialect continua]] formed by a patchwork of different dialects. The distinction between languages and dialects is notoriously difficult to establish, and so some authors may view two varieties as dialects of the same language, while others may view them as distinct languages. In this way, North and South Marquesan are often grouped together as a single Marquesan language, and Rapa is often viewed as part of Austral subfamily. At the same time, Ra'ivavae is often viewed as distinct from them.{{Sfn|Charpentier|François|2015|pp=73–76}}

[[French language|French]] is the sole official language of French Polynesia.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101023183701/http://polynesie.rfo.fr/infos/actualites/langues-le-tahitien-reste-interdit-a-lassemblee-de-polynesie_37394.html Le tahitien reste interdit à l'assemblée de Polynésie], RFO, 6 October 2010</ref> An [[organic law]] of 12 April 1996 states that "French is the official language, Tahitian and other Polynesian languages can be used." At the 2017 census, among the population whose age was 15 and older, 73.9% of people reported that the language they spoke the most at home was French (up from 68.6% at the 2007 census), 20.2% reported that the language they spoke the most at home was [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]] (down from 24.3% at the 2007 census), 2.6% reported [[Marquesan language|Marquesan]] and 0.2% the related [[Mangareva language]] (same percentages for both at the 2007 census), 1.2% reported any of the [[Austral language]]s (down from 1.3% at the 2007 census), 1.0% reported [[Tuamotuan language|Tuamotuan]] (down from 1.5% at the 2007 census), 0.6% reported a [[Varieties of Chinese|Chinese dialect]] (41% of which was [[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]]) (down from 1.0% at the 2007 census), and 0.4% another language (more than half of which was [[English language|English]]) (down from 0.5% at the 2007 census).<ref name="languages">{{cite web|url=http://ispf.pf/bases/Recensements/2017/Donnees_detaillees/Langues.aspx|title=Recensement 2017 – Données détaillées Langues|author=Institut Statistique de Polynésie Française (ISPF)|access-date=2019-04-07|archive-date=7 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407144500/http://ispf.pf/bases/Recensements/2017/Donnees_detaillees/Langues.aspx|url-status=dead}}</ref>

At the same census, 95.2% of people whose age was 15 or older reported that they could speak, read and write French (up from 94.7% at the 2007 census), whereas only 1.3% reported that they had no knowledge of French (down from 2.0% at the 2007 census).<ref name=languages /> 86.5% of people whose age was 15 or older reported that they had some form of knowledge of at least one Polynesian language (up from 86.4% at the 2007 census but down from 87.8% at the 2012 census), whereas 13.5% reported that they had no knowledge of any of the Polynesian languages (down from 13.6% at the 2007 census but up from 12.2% at the 2012 census).<ref name=languages />