Tahitian language

Tahitian, a Tahitic language, is one of the two official languages of French Polynesia (along with French). It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to Rarotongan, New Zealand Māori, and Hawaiian.

Geographic spread

Tahitian is primarily spoken in the Îles de la Société (Society Islands), which includes, notably, the island of Tahiti (which is where the capital of French Polynesia, Pape’ete, is situated). It is also spoken on the Tuha’a pae (les Australes, the five Austral Islands) and on the islands of l'Archipel des Tuamotu (the Tuamotu Archipelago), but shows more and more dialectic variations the farther one progresses away from Tahiti, to a point that one may as well speak of different languages. The languages of the Marquesan group (see Marquesic languages) are completely distinct. In general, the peoples of French Polynesia who speak one language, speak French, if two, then Tahitian is added, if three, then their local language or dialect is added. Furthermore, there is a diverse diaspora of Tahitian speakers throughout Oceania, including pockets as far south as New Zealand.

With respect to cognate languages, some oft-quoted figures include 76% lexical similarity with Hawaiian and 85% with Rarotongan. Considering the huge distance between, say, Hawaii and Tahiti, this degree of similarity is astounding. Both the Hawaiians and the Tahitians have lived in their respective archipelagos for centuries; infrequent contact between the two cultures was made using double-hulled sailing canoes. Captain Cook mentions the large canoes being used in the 1760's. To celebrate this feat of ocean navigation, the Hokule'a traveled from Honolulu to Papeete in 1976.

For example - Tahitian ra’i (sky) is lani in Hawaiian, and rangi in both Rarotongan and Māori. Another example is fare (house), represented by hale in Hawaiian, 'are in Rarotongan and whare in Māori (where 'wh' is approximately pronounced 'f').

Alphabet

Typologically, Tahitian word order is VSO (Verb-Subject-Object), which is typical of Polynesian languages. It also features a very small number of phonemes, as further evidence of its linguistic heritage: five vowels and eight consonants not counting the lengthened vowels, diphtongs and the glottal stop.

letter	name	pronunciation (English)	prononciation (français)	notes
a	’ā	a: butter, ā: father	a: patte, ā: pâte
e	’ē	e: late, ē: same but longer	e: été, ē: il bée
f	fā	friend	comme en français	becomes bilabial after o and u
h	hē	house	«aspiré»	becomes ʃ of shoe after i and before o or u
i	’ī	as in machine either shorter i or longer ī	i: vite, ī: cîme	may become diphthong ai in some words like rahi
m	mō	mouse	comme en français
n	nū	nap	comme en français
o	’ō	o: not, ō: go	o: roc, ō: pôle	the short o more like (French) eau if not accentuated
p	pī	spunge (not aspirated)	comme en français
r	rō	the rolled 'r' sometimes trilled as in Scottish	comme en espagnol
t	tī	stand (not aspirated)	comme en français
u	’ū	u: foot, ū: moo	u: cou, ū: moue	strong lip rounding
v	vī	vine	comme en français	becomes bilabial after o and u
’	’eta	uh-uh	ils hachent (sans liaison)	the glottal stop

The glottal stop or ’eta is a genuine consonant. (People unfamiliar with Tahitian might mistake it for a punctuation mark.) This is typical of Polynesian languages (compare to the Hawaiian okina and others). However, in Tahitian the glottal stops are seldom written in practice, and if they are, often as a straight apostrophe ' , instead of the curly apostrophe. The native speakers know where to pronounce them and are not taught to write them down. Alphabetical word ordering in dictionaries ignores the existence of glottals. Admittedly, the Tahitian glottal is normally weak, except in a few words like i’a (fish), and easily missed by the untrained ear of the non-native speaker.

Tahitian makes a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels; long vowels are marked with a tārava or macron. For example, pāto, meaning "to pick, to pluck" and pato, "to break out", are distinguished solely by their vowel length. However, macrons are seldom written.

Finally there is a toro ’a’ï, a trema put on the i, but only used in ïa when used as a reflexive pronoun. It does not indicate a different pronunciation.

Although the use of ’eta and tārava is equal to the usage of such symbols in other Polynesian languages, is promoted by l'Académie Tahitienne, and is adopted by the territorial government, there are at least a dozen other ways of applying accents. Some methods are historical and no longer used, while others are heavily promoted by people who think they know better. This only adds to the confusion. See list. At this moment l'Académie Tahitienne seems to have not made a final decision yet whether the `eta should appear as a small normal curly comma (’) or a small inverted curly comma (‘). Compare 'okina.

Further, Tahitian syllables are entirely open, as is usual in Polynesian languages. In its morphology Tahitian relies on the use of "helper words" (such as prepositions, articles, and particles) to encode grammatical relationships, rather than on inflection, as would be typical of European languages. It is practically an isolating language, except when it comes to the personal pronouns, which have separate forms for singular, plural and dual numbers.

Taboo names (pi’i)

In many parts of Polynesia the name of an important leader was (and sometimes still is) considered sacred and was therefore accorded appropriate respect. In order to avoid offence, all words resembling such a name were suppressed and replaced by another term of related meaning until the personage died. If, however, the leader should happen to live to a very great age this temporary substitution could become permanent. In the rest of Polynesia tū means to stand, but in Tahitian it is ti’a, because of king Tū-nui-’ē’a-i-te-atua. likewise fetū (star) has become in Tahiti feti’a and aratū (pillar) became arati’a. Although nui (big) still occurs in some compounds, like Tahiti-nui, the normal word is rahi (which is common Polynesian for 'large'). And also ’ē’a fell in disuse, replaced by purūmu or porōmu. Nowadays ’ē’a means 'path', purūmu is 'road'. Tū also had a nickname, Pō-mare (the snorer), under which his dynasty has become best known. By consequence pō (night) became ru`i (nowadays only used in the Bible, pō having become the normal word again), but mare (litteraly cough) has irreversibly been replaced by hota. Other examples: vai (water) became pape as in the names of Papeari, Papeno’o, Pape’ete. moe (sleep) became ta’oto (the original meaning of which was 'to lie down'). Some of the old words are still used on the Leewards.

External links

E Parau Tatou i te Reo Tahiti! - A complete beginners course in Tahitian with lessons, songs and wordlists.
Tahitian - English Dictionary
Académie Tahitienne - Fare Vāna’a

References

Y. Lemaître; Lexique du tahitien contemporain; 1973 ISBN 2-7099-0228-1
same; second, reviewed edition, 1995 ISBN 2-7099-1247-3
T. Henry; Ancient Tahiti – Tahiti aux temps anciens
D.T. Tryon; Conversational Tahitian; ANU 1970

Society Islands | Tahitic languages | Languages of French Polynesia

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Geographic spread

Alphabet

Taboo names (pi’i)

See also

External links

References