Tahitian language

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Template:Short description Template:Infobox language

Tahitian (autonym: Template:Lang, Template:IPA, part of Template:Lang, Template:IPA, languages of French Polynesia)<ref name="maohi">Template:Lang correspond to "languages of natives from French Polynesia", and may in principle designate any of the seven indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia. The Tahitian language specifically is called Template:Lang (See Charpentier & François 2015: 106).</ref> is a Polynesian language, spoken mainly on the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It belongs to the Eastern Polynesian group.

As Tahitian had no written tradition before the arrival of the Western colonists, the spoken language was first transcribed by missionaries of the London Missionary Society in the early 19th century.

Context

Tahitian is the most prominent of the indigenous Polynesian languages spoken in French Polynesia (Template:Lang).<ref name="maohi" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The latter also include:<ref name="atlas">Charpentier & François (2015).</ref>

History

When Europeans first arrived in Tahiti at the end of the 18th century, there was no writing system and Tahitian was only a spoken language. Reports by some early European explorers including Quirós<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> include attempts to transcribe notable Tahitian words heard during initial interactions with the indigenous people of Marquesa. Aboard the Endeavour, Lt. James Cook and the ship's master, Robert Molyneux, transcribed the names of 72 and 55 islands respectively as recited by the Tahitian arioi, Tupaia. Many of these were "non-geographic" or "ghost islands" of Polynesian mythology and all were transcribed using phonetic English spelling.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1797, Protestant missionaries arrived in Tahiti on a British ship called Duff, captained by James Wilson. Among the missionaries was Henry Nott (1774–1844) who learned the Tahitian language and worked with Pōmare II, a Tahitian king, and the Welsh missionary, John Davies (1772–1855), to translate the Bible into Tahitian. A system of five vowels and nine consonants was adopted for the Tahitian Bible, which would become the key text by which many Polynesians would learn to read and write. John Davies's spelling book (1810) was the first book to be printed in the Tahitian language. He also published a grammar and a dictionary of that language.

Phonology

Tahitian features a very small number of phonemes: five vowels and nine consonants, not counting the lengthened vowels and diphthongs. Notably, the consonant inventory lacks any sort of phonemic dorsal consonants.

Tahitian consonants
Labial Alveolar Glottal
Plosive Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Nasal Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Fricative Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Trill Template:IPA link

There is a five-vowel inventory with vowel length:

Tahitian vowels
Front Central Back
Close Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Mid Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Open Template:IPA link Template:IPA link

When two vowels follow each other in a V1V2 sequence, they form a diphthong when V1 is more open, and as a consequence more sonorant, than V2. An exception to this rule is the sequence Template:IPA, which never becomes the diphthong Template:IPA. Two vowels with the same sonority are generally pronounced in hiatus, as in Template:IPA 'November', but there is some variability. The word Template:Lang 'June' may be pronounced Template:IPA, with hiatus, or Template:IPA, with a diphthong.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Next follows a table with all phonemes in more detail.

Tahitian phonemes
letter name pronunciation notes
IPA English
approximation
a Template:'etaā Template:IPA a: opera, ā: father
e Template:'etaē Template:IPA e: late, ē: same but longer
f fā Template:IPA friend becomes bilabial Template:IPA after o and u
h hē Template:IPA house becomes Template:IPA (as in English shoe) after i and before o or u
i Template:'etaī Template:IPA as in machine may become diphthong ai in some words like rahi
m mō Template:IPA mouse
n nū Template:IPA nap
o Template:'etaō Template:IPA o: nought, ō: same but longer
p pī Template:IPA sponge (not aspirated)
r rō Template:IPA - alveolar trill, may also be heard as a flap Template:IPA
t tī Template:IPA stand (not aspirated)
u Template:'etaū Template:IPA u: foot, ū: moo strong lip rounding
v vī Template:IPA vine becomes bilabial (Template:IPA) after o and u
Template:'eta Template:'etaeta Template:IPA uh-oh glottal stop

The glottal stop or Template:Lang is a genuine consonant. This is typical of Polynesian languages (compare to the Hawaiian [[Template:OkinaOkina|Template:Okinaokina]] and others). See Typography below.

Tahitian makes a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels; long vowels are marked with macron or Template:Lang. For example, Template:Lang, meaning 'to pick, to pluck' and Template:Lang, 'to break out', are distinguished solely by their vowel length. However, macrons are seldom written among older people because Tahitian writing was not taught at school until 1981.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In rapid speech, the common article Template:Lang is pronounced with a schwa, as Template:IPA.<ref name="BlustTK">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Also in rapid speech, Template:IPA sequences are dissimilated to Template:IPA, so Template:Lang 'man, male' is pronounced Template:IPA, Template:Lang 'president' becomes Template:IPA. Intervening syllables prevent this dissimilation, so Template:Lang 'eye' is never pronounced with a Template:IPA.<ref name="BlustTK"/> While standard Tahitian only has Template:IPA as a result of dissimilation, the dialects of the Leeward Islands have many cases of Template:IPA corresponding to standard Tahitian Template:IPA.<ref name="atlas93">Charpentier & François (2015): 93).</ref> For example, inhabitants of Maupiti pronounce their island's name Template:IPA.<ref name="BlustTK"/>

Finally there is a Template:Lang, a trema put on the i, but only used in Template:Lang when used as a reflexive pronoun. It does not indicate a different pronunciation. Usage of this diacritic was promoted by academics but has now virtually disappeared, mostly because there is no difference in the quality of the vowel when the trema is used and when the macron is used.

Tahitian syllables are entirely open, as is usual in Polynesian languages.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> If a content word is composed of a single syllable with a single vowel, its vowel must be long. Thus, every Tahitian content word is at least two moras long.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Stress

Stress is predictable in Tahitian. It always falls on one of the final three syllables of a word, and relies on the distinction between heavy and light syllables. Syllables with diphthongs or with long vowels are both considered to be heavy. Other syllables are considered to be light. Heavy syllables always bear secondary stress.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> In general main stress falls on the penultimate syllable in a word. However, if there is a long vowel or diphthong in the last syllable, that syllable receives main stress. If there is a long vowel in the antepenultimate syllable, and the penultimate syllable is light, the antepenultimate syllable receives main stress.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

There is another type of words whose stress pattern requires another rule to explain. These include Template:Lang 'first', Template:Lang 'shoe', Template:Lang 'king', all of which are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable. In all these words, the last two vowels are identical, and are separated by a glottal stop. One can posit that in such words, the last syllable is extrametrical, and does not count towards stress assignment.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> This extrametricality does not apply in the case of words with only two syllables, which remain stressed on the penultimate syllable.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

In compound words, each morpheme's stressed syllable carries secondary stress, and the stressed syllable of the last morpheme carries primary stress. Thus, for example, Template:Lang 'airplane', from Template:Lang 'bird' and Template:Lang 'leave', is pronounced Template:IPA. Tahitian has reduplication as well. The endings of some verbs can be duplicated in order to add a repetitive sense to the verb. For example, Template:Lang becomes Template:Lang, Template:Lang 'do quickly' becomes Template:Lang, and Template:Lang 'to tear' becomes Template:Lang. In reduplicated verbs, the final verb ending bears main stress while the earlier ones bears secondary stress.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

When suffixes are added to a word, primary and secondary stresses in the root word are maintained as secondary and tertiary stresses, and a new primary stress is calculated for the word. Tertiary and secondary stress are often merged. The suffix does not always carry main stress. For example, when the nominalizing suffix Template:Lang is applied to verbs, regular stress assignment results in the last syllable of the root verb being stressed. This is due to the destressing of the VTemplate:Sub in Template:IPA. To give an example, the word Template:Lang 'life', from Template:Lang 'to live' and Template:Lang, is pronounced with antepenultimate stress.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Prefixes added to a root word do not carry primary stress. For example, Template:Lang 'vision', related to Template:Lang 'vision', is stressed on the second syllable, and not the first, even though it has a long vowel. This can also be seen with the verb Template:Lang 'to be understood'. When combined with the causative prefix Template:Lang, it becomes Template:Lang, which is stressed on the penultimate syllable.<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Typography

In former practice, the Tahitian glottal stop (Template:'eta) used to be seldom written, but today it is commonly spelled out, although often as a straight apostrophe or a curly apostrophe preferred typographically,Template:Citation needed see below) instead of the turned curly apostrophe used in Hawaiian (locally named Template:Lang). Alphabetical word ordering in dictionaries used to ignore the existence of glottal stops. However, academics and scholars now publish text content with due use of glottal stops.

Although the use of Template:Lang and Template:Lang is equal to the usage of such symbols in other Polynesian languages, it is promoted by the Template:Lang and adopted by the territorial government. There are at least a dozen other ways of applying accents. Some methods are historical and no longer used.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> At this moment, the Template:Lang seems to have not made a final decision yet whether the Template:Lang should appear as a normal letter apostrophe (Template:Unichar) or a turned letter apostrophe (Template:Unichar, called Template:Lang in Hawaiian).

As the ASCII apostrophe (Template:Unichar) is the character output when hitting the apostrophe key on a usual French AZERTY keyboard, it has become natural for writers to use the punctuation mark for glottal stops, although to avoid the complications caused by automatic substitution of basic punctuation characters for letters in digital documents, and the confusion with the regular apostrophe used in multilingual texts mixing Tahitian with French (where the apostrophe marks the elision of a final schwa at end of common pronouns, prepositions or particles, and the orthographic suppression of the separating regular space before a word starting by a vowel sound, in order to indicate a single phonemic syllable partly spanning the two words), the saltillo (Template:Unichar) may be used instead.Template:Citation needed

Today, macronized vowels and Template:Lang are also available on mobile devices, either by default or after installing an application to input vowels with macron as well as the Template:Lang.

Tahitian is one of the few Austronesian languages – along with standard Samoan and Volow – that do not have a phoneme Template:IPA and do not use the letter K.

Grammar

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 a very analytic language, except when it comes to the personal pronouns, which have separate forms for singular, plural and dual numbers.

Personal pronouns

Like many Austronesian languages, Tahitian has separate words for inclusive and exclusive we, and distinguishes singular, dual, and plural.

Singular

Dual

Plural

Word order

Typologically, Tahitian word order is VSO (verb–subject–object), which is typical of Polynesian languages, or verb-attribute-subject for stating verbs/modality (without object). Some examples of word order are:<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref>

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

Articles

Definite article

The article Template:Lang is the definite article and means 'the'. In conversation it is also used as an indefinite article for 'a' or 'an'<ref>Template:Harvcoltxt</ref> – for example:

The plural of the definite article Template:Lang is Template:Lang – for example:

Template:Lang alone (with no plural marking) can also encode an unspecified, generic number – for example:

  • Template:Lang – 'the person' [specific singular] or 'people' [generic singular in Tahitian, generic plural in English]

vs.

Indefinite article

Template:Lang

The indefinite article is Template:Lang

For example;

The article Template:Lang also introduces an indefinite common noun.

For example;

In contrast, Template:Lang means 'a certain'.

For example;

Template:Lang

The article Template:Lang is used with proper nouns and pronouns and implies 'it is'.

For example;

Aspect and modality markers

Verbal aspect and modality are important parts of Tahitian grammar, and are indicated with markers preceding and/or following the invariant verb. Important examples are:

Taboo names – Template:Lang

Template:Unreferenced section In many parts of Polynesia the name of an important leader was (and sometimes still is) considered sacred (tapu) and was therefore accorded appropriate respect (mana). In order to avoid offense, 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 most Polynesian languages, the word tū means 'to stand',<ref>See entry *tuqu 'stand' in POLLEX, the Polynesian lexicon online.</ref> but in Tahitian it was replaced by Template:Lang, because the form tū was included in the name of king [[Pomare I|Tū-nui-Template:'etaēTemplate:'etaa-i-te-atua]]. Likewise fetū ('star' in most Polynesian languages)<ref>See entry *fetuqu 'star' in POLLEX, the Polynesian lexicon online.</ref> was replaced by Template:Lang in Tahitian. Although Template:Lang ('big') still occurs in some compounds, like Template:Lang, the usual word is Template:Lang (which is a common word in Polynesian languages for 'large'). The term Template:Lang fell into disuse, replaced by Template:Lang or Template:Lang. Currently Template:Lang means 'path' while Template:Lang means 'road'.

Tū also had a nickname, Pō-mare (literally means 'night coughing'), under which his dynasty has become best known. By consequence Template:Lang ('night') became Template:Lang (currently only used in the Bible, Template:Lang having become the word commonly in use once again), but Template:Lang (literally 'cough') has irreversibly been replaced by Template:Lang.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Other examples include:

Some of the old words are still used on the Leewards.

See also

Template:Portal

Notes

Template:Reflist

References

Template:InterWiki Template:Polynesian languages Template:Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages Template:Languages of French Polynesia

Template:Authority control

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