Introduction

The Pingelap language is spoken by over 5,000 people mainly in the Micronesia region of Pohnpei state: Pingelap and Pohnpei islands.

The language is classified as: Austronesian, Malayo-Polynesian, Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic, Central-Eastern Oceanic, Remote Oceanic, Micronesian, Micronesian Proper, Pohnpeic-Chuukic, Pohnpeic. The ISO code is [pif] and is often refered to as Pingelapese.

The people of all ages use their language in many settings. They also use Pohnpeian [pon] which is 81% lexical similarity. Another closely related language is Mokilese, with 79% lexical similarity. Many also use English [eng].