The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Eastern Eastern Malayo-Polynesian branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian.

There are approximately forty Polynesian languages. The most prominent of these are Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Māori, and Hawaiian. Because the Polynesian islands were settled relatively recently (starting around 2,000 years ago), their languages retain strong commonalities. There are two broad subgroups: Tongan and Niuean constitute the Tongic division and all others are considered part of the Nuclear Polynesian division.

Internal correspondences

Partly because Polynesian languages split from one another comparatively recently, many words in these languages remain similar to corresponding words in others. The table below demonstrates this with the words for 'sky' 'north wind' 'woman' and 'house' in a representative selection of languages: Tongan; Samoan; Rapanui; Tahitian; Cook Islands Māori (Rarotongan); Māori; North Marquesan; South Marquesan; and Hawaiian.

	Tongan	Samoan	Rapa Nui	Tahitian	Rarotongan	Māori	North Marquesan	South Marquesan	Hawaiian
sky
north wind
woman
house

Certain regular correspondences can be noted between different Polynesian languages. For example, the Māori sounds , , , and correspond to , , , and in Hawaiian. Accordingly, "man" is tangata in Māori and kanaka in Hawaiian, and Māori roa "long" corresponds to Hawaiian loa. The famous Hawaiian greeting aloha corresponds to Māori aroha, "love, tender emotion." Similarly, the Hawaiian word for kava is ‘awa.

Similarities in basic vocabulary may allow speakers from different island groups to achieve a surprising degree of understanding of each other's speech. When a particular language shows unexpectedly large divergence in vocabulary, this may be the result of a name-avoidance taboo situation - see examples in Tahitian, where this has happened often.

Many Polynesian languages have been greatly affected by European colonization. Both Māori and Hawaiian, for example, have lost much ground to English, and have only recently been able to make progress towards restoration.

Personal pronouns

In general, Polynesian languages have three numbers for pronouns and possessives: singular, dual and plural. For example in Māori: ia (he/she), rāua (they two), rātou (they 3 or more). The words rua (2) and toru (3) are still discernible in endings of the dual and plural pronouns, giving the impression that the plural was originally a trial, and that an original plural has disappeared.Indeed Fijian, a language closely related to Polynesian, has singular, dual, trial, and plural; and even there we may see the trial replacing the plural in some generations to come, as the trial there currently can be used for a group from 3 up to as many as 10. Polynesian languages have four distinctions in pronouns and possessives: first exclusive, first inclusive, second and third. For example in Māori, the plural pronouns are: mātou (we, exc), tātou (we, inc), koutou (you), rātou (they). The difference between exclusive and inclusive is the treatment of the person addressed. Mātou refers to the speaker and others but not the person or persons spoken to (i.e., "I and some others, but not you"), while tātou refers to the speaker, the person or persons spoken to, and everyone else (i.e., "You and I and others").

a and o possession

Many Polynesian languages distinguish two possessives. The a-possessives (as they contain that letter in most cases), also known as subjective possessives, refer to possessions which must be acquired by one's own action. (alienable possession) The o-possessives or objective possessives refer to possessions which are fixed to you, unchangeable, and do not necessitate any action on your part, (but upon which actions can still be performed by others). (inalienable possession) Some words can take either form, often with a difference in meaning. Compare the particles used in the names of two of the books of the Māori Bible: Te Pukapuka a Heremaia (The Book of Jeremiah) with Te Pukapuka o Hōhua (The Book of Joshua); the former belongs to Jeremiah in the sense that he was the author, while the Book of Joshua was written by someone else about Joshua.

Orthography

Most Polynesian alphabets have five vowels (a,e,i,o,u) corresponding roughly in pronunciation to classical Latin. Unfortunately the missionaries did not realise that vowel length or the occurrence or not of the glottal stop resulted in words of different meanings. By the time that linguists made their way to the Pacific, at least for the major languages, the Bible was already printed according to the orthographic system developed by the missionaries, and the people had learned to read and write without marking vowel length or the glottal stop. This situation persists up to now in many languages, despite efforts of local academies to change it. Varying results have been achieved in the different languages and several writing systems exist. The most common method, however, is the one where a macron is used to indicate a long vowel, while a vowel without that accent is short. For example: ā versus a. The glottal stop (not present in all Polynesian languages, but where present it is one of the most common consonants) is indicated by an apostrophe. For example: 'a versus a. This is somewhat of an anomaly as the apostrophe is most often used to represent letters which have been omitted, while the glottal stop is rather a consonant which is not written. The problem can somewhat be alleviated by changing the simple apostrophe in a curly one, taking a normal comma for the elision and the inverted comma for the glottal stop. The latter method has come into common use in Polynesian languages.

See also: okina.

Components

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Recent research indicates that the traditional classification, with its Samoic Outlier proposal, is not justified by shared innovations in the Polynesian languages. The classification used here is that of Marck (in press), which is based on a study of sporadic sound changes in the various languages.

• Tongic languages
  • Tongan
  • Niuēan
  • Niuafoouan
• Nuclear Polynesian languages
  • Fakauvea or Wallisian, East Uvean (Wallis Island - Wallis and Futuna Islands)
  • Fagauvea or faga-ouvéa, West Uvean (Ouvéa - Loyalty islands - New Caledonia)
  • Fakafutuna or Futunian, East Futunan (Futuna Island - Wallis and Futuna Islands)
  • Futuna-Aniwan or West Futunan (Vanuatu)
  • Pukapuka
  • Rennell-Bellona
  • Tikopia
  • Ifira-Mele
  • Emae
  • Anuta
  • Ellicean languages
    • Samoic languages
      • Samoan
      • Tokelauan
    • Ellicean outlier
      • Tuvaluan
      • Nukuoro
      • Kapingamarangi
      • Nukuria
      • Takuu
      • Nukumanu
      • Luangiua
      • Sikaiana
      • Pileni
    • Eastern Polynesian
      • Rapanui language (Easter Island)
      • Central Eastern Polynesian
        • Marquesic languages
          • Hawaiian
          • Marquesan
          • Mangarevan
        • Tahitic languages
          • Māori
          • Moriori
          • Tahitian
          • Tuamotuan
          • Penrhyn
          • Rarotongan
        • Rapan languages
          • Rapan

External links

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• Ethnologue family tree

Notes

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References

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• Krupa V. (1975-1982). Polynesian Languages, Routledge and Kegan Paul
• Irwin, Geoffrey (1992). The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Lynch J. (1998). Pacific Languages : an Introduction. University of Hawaii Press.
• Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.

East Fijian-Polynesian languages | Austronesian languages

Polynesische Sprachen | Langues polynésiennes | Polynesiske språk | Języki polinezyjskie | Polynesialaiset kielet | Polynesiska språk