Samoan is spoken in Samoa, American Samoa, and the diaspora communities in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. The language is characterized by having two stylistic registers (formal and colloquial) that have differences across all aspects of the language. The phonological differences between the two registers impact on the number of consonants in the phonemic inventory; 13 in the formal and 10 in the colloquial. In addition to the consonants Samoan has five qualitative vowels (articulated in long and short forms), multiple vowel clusters, and no consonant clusters. Samoan is written in the Latin alphabet. To date, there is only one study that gives an overview of children’s acquisition of Samoan speech sounds. This study describes the phonetic inventory and phonological processes for 4-year-old Samoan speakers in a bilingual context. There are no studies on Samoan-speaking children with speech sound disorders, childhood apraxia of speech, dysarthria, or cleft lip and palate.

Key words:
Samoan, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Ballard, E., & Toaetolu-Fautua, I. (2025). Samoan speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

• Ballard, E., & Toaetolu-Fautua, I. (2024). Samoan: Multilingual children’s speech development. Charles Sturt University, Australia. https://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech/languages
• Video: Samoan [English version] – Children’s Speech Development
• PowerPoint: Samoan [English version] – Children’s Speech Development (pdf)

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals