sibling terms: Sibling of own sex (male or female); sibling of opposite sex (male); and sibling of opposite sex, (female). For example, 'mother's sister,' 'male cousin's brother' and 'sister's nephew' are all different terms in the Tokelauan language. In Tokelau, the term most closely translated to “incest” is holi kāiga which is made up of two words: holi meaning 'to tread' and also 'to desecrate' or 'violate'. The word Kāiga means 'kinship'. The term holi kāiga can be applied to not only a 'desecration of kinship' but in any cases that the order of kinship is changed, for example a child defying an elder. The most common use of the term, however, is used when speaking about the sexual contact between individuals. In the Tokelauan language, Kāiga has both adjectival and nominal linguistic functions: e kāiga ki mā 'we two are related' ko īa he kāiga e o oku 'he/she is a kinsman of mine' i nā aho iēnā nae hē lahi nā kāiga 'in those days there were not many kingroups' When the word is used nominally, it may imply a diverse variety of social units that all have a shared ancestor. The Tokelau languages contains terms for affinal relationships, however, there is no single word that can be transcribed as 'affinity'. The term opposite of kāiga ('kin' or 'related') is he kāiga ('not kin' or 'unrelated'), and that only those who are he kāiga should be wedded. Violating the kinship relationship means breaching not only the current relationship but the whole kinship of all descendants. Language endangerment With fewer than 5000 speakers, the Tokelauan language is endangered. There is a struggle to teach a language that is spoken by only handful of people, when learning a widely known language such as English has a much greater benefit in their society. The heritage language of the community starts to diminish as parents stray away from teaching their children the local language, in hopes that they will succeed in learning the more dominant language. Older generations of people living in Tokelau speak both Tokelauan and Samoan, but the younger generation, due to the newer schooling system, are apt to speak English rather than Samoan. In a census in 2001 in New Zealand, only 44 percent of the people with a Tokelauan background could hold a conversation in the language, compared to 53 percent in 1996. Comparably, a meager 29 percent