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Languages of New Zealand
Official language(s)	English, Māori, New Zealand Sign Language
Sign language(s)	New Zealand Sign Language
Common keyboard layout(s)	QWERTY

There are several languages of New Zealand. English is the dominant and a de facto official language, spoken by most New Zealanders.^[1] The country's two de jure official languages are Māori and New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). Other languages are also used by ethnic communities.

Official languages

New Zealand became the first country in the world to adopt a sign language as an official language when it became official on 10 April 2006.^[2] It is now legal for use and access in legal proceedings including in court and access to government services.

There are around 70,000 native speakers of Maori out of a population of over 500,000 Māori people,^[3] with 161,000 of the country's 4 million residents claiming conversational ability in Māori.^[4]

Native languages

The pre-European inhabitants of the main islands of New Zealand all spoke Māori. A number of outlying islands and territories of New Zealand have their own native languages:

• Cook Islands Maori is the official language of the Cook Islands.
• Niuean is an official language of Niue (along with English).
• Tokelaun is an official language of Tokelau (along with English).
• Moriori language was the language of the Chatham Islands.

Immigrant languages

New Zealand has more speakers of several Polynesian languages resident in New Zealand than are resident in the country that language is native to (for example Niuean). It also has immigrants from other European and Asian countries who have brought their languages with them. According to Ethnologue, the largest groups are Samoan (50,000), "Rarotongan" (Cook Islands Maori, 25,000), Hindi and other Indian languages (26,200), Yue Chinese (20,000) and Arabic (4000).^[3]

References

1. ^ "Becoming a Kiwi". NZ Immigration. http://www.nz-immigration.co.nz/lifestyle/becoming-a-kiwi.html. Retrieved 2006-08-19.  
2. ^ Governor-General gives assent to Sign Language Bill, Press Release: Governor General, 10 April 2006. Retrieved 11 April 2006.
3. ^ ^{a b} Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) (2005). "Languages of New Zealand". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, (Fifteenth edition. ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=NZ. Retrieved 2006-08-19.  
4. ^ "2001 Census: National Summary" (PDF). Statistics New Zealand. pp. 119. http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/44B07124-E0B1-46A5-87EA-E823514E1846/0/NatSum01.pdf. Retrieved 2006-08-19.