Polynesian languages

The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.

Polynesian
Geographic distribution	Polynesia
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Central Pacific East Fijian – Polynesian Polynesian
Proto-language	Proto-Polynesian
Subdivisions	Tongic Nuclear Polynesian
Glottolog	poly1242
The Central Pacific languages Olive-Green: East Fijian-Polynesian Languages (not shown: Rapa Nui) Pink: Western Fijian-Rotuman Languages

There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austronesian family.^[1] While half of them are spoken in geographical Polynesia (the Polynesian triangle), the other half – known as Polynesian outliers – are spoken in other parts of the Pacific: from Micronesia to atolls scattered in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands or Vanuatu. The most prominent Polynesian languages, in number of speakers, are Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Māori and Hawaiian.

The ancestors of modern Polynesians were Lapita navigators, who settled in the Tonga and Samoa areas about 3,000 years ago. Linguists and archaeologists estimate that this first population went through common development during about 1000 years, giving rise to Proto-Polynesian, the linguistic ancestor of all modern Polynesian languages. After that period of shared development, the Proto-Polynesian society split into several descendant populations, as Polynesian navigators scattered around various archipelagoes across the Pacific – some travelling westwards to already populated areas, others navigating eastwards and settling in new territories (Society Islands, Marquesas, Hawaii, New Zealand, Rapa Nui, etc.).

Still today, Polynesian languages show strong similarity, particularly cognate words in their vocabulary; this includes culturally important words such as tapu, ariki, motu, fenua, kava, and tapa as well as *sawaiki, the mythical homeland for some of the cultures.^[2]

Internal classification

Phylogenetic classification

Polynesian languages fall into two branches, Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Tongan and Niuean constitute the Tongic branch; all the rest are part of the Nuclear Polynesian branch.^[3]

• Nuclear Polynesian
  • Ellicean
    • Ellicean–Outlier
      • Tuvaluan
      • Nukuoro (Nukuoro in the Federated States of Micronesia)
      • Kapingamarangi (on Kapingamarangi in Federated States of Micronesia)
      • Nukuria (Nuguria in eastern Papua New Guinea)^[4]
      • Takuu (Takuu Atoll in eastern Papua New Guinea)
      • Nukumanu (Nukumanu in the east of Papua New Guinea)
      • Ontong Java (or Luangiua; Ontong Java, Solomon Islands)
      • Sikaiana (Sikaiana, Solomon Islands)
      • Pileni (Reef Islands, Solomon Islands)
    • Samoic
      • Samoan
      • Tokelauan
  • Eastern Polynesian
    • Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
    • Central–Eastern Polynesian
      • Marquesic
        • Marquesan–Mangareva
          • Marquesan (Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia)
          • Mangareva (Gambier Islands, French Polynesia)
        • Hawaiian (Hawaii)
      • Tahitic
        • Tahitian (Society Islands, French Polynesia)
        • Austral (Austral Islands, French Polynesia)
        • Rapa (Rapa Iti, French Polynesia)
        • Tuamotuan (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia)
        • Rarotongan (Cook Islands Māori, Cook Islands)
        • Rakahanga-Manihiki (Rakahanga and Manihiki, Northern Cook Islands)
        • Penrhyn (or Tongarevan; Tongareva, Northern Cook Islands)
        • Māori (New Zealand)
        • Moriori (Chatham Islands, New Zealand) †
  • Futunic (?):
    • Wallisian or East Uvean (fakaʻuvea) (Wallis Island, Wallis and Futuna)
    • Fakafutuna or (East) Futunan (Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna)
    • West Uvean or Faga Uvea (Ouvéa off New Caledonia)
    • Pukapukan (Pukapuka, northern Cook Islands)
    • Anuta (Anuta Island, Solomon Islands)
    • Rennellese (Rennell and Bellona island, Solomon Islands)
    • Tikopia (Tikopia Island, Solomon Islands)
    • Vaeakau-Taumako (?) (Reef Islands and Taumako island, Solomon Islands)
    • Futuna-Aniwa or West Futunan (Futuna and Aniwa in Vanuatu)
    • Mele-Fila (Mele Island, Vanuatu)
    • Emae (Emae Island, Vanuatu)
• Tongic
  • Tongan
  • Niuafoʻou (on Niuafoʻou Island, Tonga)
  • Niuean

History of classification

The contemporary classification of the Polynesian languages began with certain observations by Andrew Pawley in 1966 based on shared innovations in phonology, vocabulary and grammar showing that the East Polynesian languages were more closely related to Samoan than they were to Tongan, calling Tongan and its nearby relative Niuean "Tongic" and Samoan and all other Polynesian languages of the study "Nuclear Polynesian".^[5]

Previously, there had been lexicostatistical studies^[6][7] that squarely suggested a "West Polynesian" group composed of at least Tongan and Samoan and that an "East Polynesian" group was equally distant from both Tongan and Samoan. Lexicostatistics is a controversial^{[citation needed]} tool that can identify points in languages from which linguistic relations can be inferred^[clarify]. Since Pawley's 1966 publication, inferring the ancient relationships of the Polynesian languages has proceeded by the more diagnostic findings of studies employing the comparative method^[clarify] and the proofs of shared innovations.

Pawley published another study in 1967.^[8] It began the process of extracting relationships from Polynesian languages on small islands in Melanesia, the "Polynesian Outliers", whose languages Pawley was able to trace to East Futuna in the case of those farther south and perhaps to Samoa itself in the case of those more to the north.

Except for some minor differentiation of the East Polynesian tree, further study paused for almost twenty years until Wilson^[9] published a study of Polynesian pronominal systems in 1985 suggesting that there was a special relationship between the East Polynesian languages and all other Nuclear Polynesian but for Futunic, and calling that extra-Futunic group the "Ellicean languages". Furthermore, East Polynesian was found to more likely have emerged from extra-Samoan Ellicean than out of Samoa itself, in contradiction to the long assumption of a Samoan homeland for the origins of East Polynesian. Wilson named this new group "Ellicean" after the pre-independence name of Tuvalu and presented evidence for subgroups within that overarching category.

Marck,^[10] in 2000, was able to offer some support for some aspects of Wilson's suggestion through comparisons of shared sporadic (irregular, unexpected) sound changes, e. g., Proto-Polynesian and Proto-Nuclear-Polynesian *mafu 'to heal' becoming Proto-Ellicean *mafo. This was made possible by the massive Polynesian language comparative lexicon ("Pollex" – with reconstructions) of Biggs and Clark.^[11]

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', 'house' and 'parent' in a representative selection of languages: Tongan; Niuean; Samoan; Sikaiana; Takuu; Rapanui language; Tahitian; Cook Islands Māori (Rarotongan); Māori; North Marquesan; South Marquesan; Hawaiian and Mangarevan.

	Tongan	Niuean	Samoan	Sikaiana	Takuu	Rapanui	Tahitian	Rarotongan	Māori	North Marquesan	South Marquesan	Hawaiian	Mangarevan
sky	/laŋi/	/laŋi/	/laŋi/	/lani/	/ɾani/	/ɾaŋi/	/ɾaʔi/	/ɾaŋi/	/ɾaŋi/	/ʔaki/	/ʔani/	/lani/	/ɾaŋi/
north wind	/tokelau/	/tokelau/	/toʔelau/	/tokelau/	/tokoɾau/	/tokeɾau/	/toʔeɾau/	/tokeɾau/	/tokeɾau/	/tokoʔau/	/tokoʔau/	/koʔolau/	/tokeɾau/
woman	/fefine/	/fifine/	/fafine/	/hahine/	/ffine/		/vahine/	/vaʔine/	/wahine/	/vehine/	/vehine/	/wahine/	/veine/
house	/fale/	/fale/	/fale/	/hale/	/faɾe/	/haɾe/	/faɾe/	/ʔaɾe/	/ɸaɾe/	/haʔe/	/haʔe/	/hale/	/faɾe/
parent	/maːtuʔa/	/motua/	/matua/		/maatua/	/matuʔa/	/metua/	/metua/	/matua/	/motua/	/motua/	/makua/	/matua/

Certain regular correspondences can be noted between different Polynesian languages. For example, the Māori sounds /k/, /ɾ/, /t/, and /ŋ/ correspond to /ʔ/, /l/, /k/, and /n/ 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 ʻawa.

Similarities in basic vocabulary may allow speakers from different island groups to achieve a significant 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 many speakers to English, and only since the 1990s have they resurged in popularity.^[12][13]

Grammatical characteristics

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 (threesome) or paucal (a few), and that an original plural has disappeared.^[14] 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 that must be acquired by one's own action (alienable possession). The o-possessives or objective possessives refer to possessions that are fixed to someone, unchangeable, and do not necessitate any action on one's 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. One example is the Samoan word susu, which takes the o-possessive in lona susu (her breast) and the a-possessive in lana susu (her breastmilk). Compare also 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, but the Book of Joshua was written by someone else about Joshua. The distinction between one's birth village and one's current residence village can be made similarly.

Numerals in Polynesian languages

Numerals:^[15]

English	one	two	three	four	five	six	seven	eight	nine	ten
Proto-Polynesian	*tasi	*rua	*tolu	*fa	*rima	*ono	*fitu	*walu	*hiwa	*haŋafulu
Niuean	taha	ua	tolu	fā	lima	ono	fitu	valu	hiva	hogofulu
Tongan	taha	ua	tolu	fa	nima	ono	fitu	valu	hiva	hongofulu
Samoan	tasi	lua	tolu	fa	lima	ono	fitu	valu	iva	sefulu
Tuvaluan	tasi	lua	tolu	fa	lima	ono	fitu	valu	iva	agafulu
Nanumea	tahi	lua	tolu	fā	lima	ono	fitu	valu	iva	toa
Tokelauan	tahi	lua	tolu	fa	lima	ono	fitu	valu	iva	hefulu
Wallisian	tahi	lua	tolu	fā	nima	ono	fitu	valu	hiva	hogofulu
Pukapuka	tayi	lua	tolu	wa	lima	ono	witu	valu	iva	laugaulu
Rennellese	tahi	ŋgua	toŋgu	hā	ŋgima	ono	hitu	baŋgu	iba	katoa
Pileni	tasi	rua	toru	fā	lima	ono	fitu	valu	iva	kʰaro
Tikopia	tasi	rua	toru	fa	rima	ono	fitu	varu	siva	fuaŋafuru
Anuta	tai	rua	toru	paa	nima	ono	pitu	varu	iva	puangapuru
West Uvea	tahi	ƚua	toƚu	fa	lima	tahia-tupu	luaona-tupu	toluona-tupu	faona-tupu	limaona-tupu
Emae	tasi	rua	toru	fa	rima	ono	fitu	βaru	siβa	ŋafuru
Mele	tasi	rua	toru	fa	rima	ono	fitu	βaru	siβa	siŋafuru
Futuna-Aniwa	tasi	rua	toru	fa	rima	ono	fitu	varo	iva	tagafuru
Sikaiana	tahi	lua	tolu	hā	lima	ono	hitu	valo	sivo	sehui
Ontong Java	kahi	lua	kolu	hā	lima	oŋo	hiku	valu	sivo	sehui
Takuu	tasi	lua	toru	fa	rima	ono	fitu	varu	sivo	sinafuru
Kapingamarangi	dahi	lua	dolu	haa	lima	ono	hidu	walu	hiwa	mada
Nukuoro	dahi	ka-lua	ka-dolu	ka-haa	ka-lima	ka-ono	ka-hidu	ka-valu	ka-siva	ka-hulu
Rapa Nui	tahi	rua	toru	ha	rima	ono	hitu	vaʼu	iva	ʼahuru
Tahitian	tahi	piti	toru	maha	pae	ōno	hitu	vaʼu	iva	hōeʼahuru
Penrhyn	tahi	lua	tolu	hā	lima	ono	hitu	valu	iva	tahi-ngahulu
Rarotongan	taʼi	rua	toru	ā	rima	ono	ʼitu	varu	iva	ngaʼuru
Tuamotuan	tahi	rua	toru	fā	rima	ono	hitu	varu	iva	rongoʼuru
Maori	tahi	rua	toru	whā	rima	ono	whitu	waru	iwa	tekau (also ngahuru)
Moriori	tehi	teru	toru	tewha	terima	teono	tewhitu	tewaru	teiwa	meangauru
Mangareva	tahi	rua	toru	ha	rima	ono	hitu	varu	iva	rogouru
Marquesan	e tahi	e úa	e toú	e fa	e íma	e ono	e fitu	e vaú	e iva	ónohuú
Hawaiian	‘e-kahi	‘e-lua	‘e-kolu	‘e-hā	‘e-lima	‘e-ono	‘e-hiku	‘e-walu	‘e-iwa	‘umi

Orthography

Written Polynesian languages use orthography based on Latin script. Most Polynesian languages have five vowel qualities, corresponding roughly to those written i, e, a, o, u in classical Latin. However, orthographic conventions for phonemes that are not easily encoded in standard Latin script had to develop over time. Influenced by the traditions of orthographies of languages they were familiar with, the missionaries who first developed orthographies for unwritten Polynesian languages did not explicitly mark phonemic vowel length or the glottal stop. By the time that linguists trained in more modern methods 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 in many languages. Despite efforts at reform by local academies, the general conservative resistance to orthographic change has led to varying results in Polynesian languages, and several writing variants co-exist. The most common method, however, uses a macron to indicate a long vowel, while a vowel without that diacritical mark is short, for example, ā versus a. Sometimes, a long vowel is written double, e.g. Maaori.

The glottal stop (not present in all Polynesian languages, but, where present, one of the most common consonants) is indicated by an apostrophe, for example, 'a versus a. Hawaiʻian uses the ʻokina, also called by several other names, a unicameral consonant letter used within the Latin script to mark the phonemic glottal stop. It is also used in many other Polynesian languages, each of which has its own name for the character. Apart from the ʻokina or the somewhat similar Tahitian ʻeta, a common method is to change the simple apostrophe for a curly one, taking a normal apostrophe for the elision and the inverted comma for the glottal stop. The latter method has come into common use in Polynesian languages.

Notes and references

Notes

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Polynesian languages". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History..
2. Hīroa, Te Rangi (1964). Vikings of the Sunrise. New Zealand: Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. p. 69. ISBN 0-313-24522-3. Retrieved 21 August 2010.
3. Lynch, John; Malcolm Ross; Terry Crowley (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon. ISBN 978-0-7007-1128-4. OCLC 48929366.
4. Marck, Jeff (2000). "Topics in Polynesian languages and culture history" (PDF). Pacific Linguistics. Canberra.
5. Pawley, Andrew, 1966, Polynesian languages: a subgrouping based upon shared innovations in morphology. Journal of the Polynesian Society 75(1):39–64. JSTOR 20704348.
6. Elbert, Samuel H. (July 1953). "Internal Relationships of Polynesian Languages and Dialects". Southwestern Journal of Anthropology. 9 (2): 147–173. doi:10.1086/soutjanth.9.2.3628573. ISSN 0038-4801. JSTOR 3628573.
7. Emory, Kenneth P. (1963). "East Polynesian relationships: settlement pattern and time involved as indicated by vocabulary agreements". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 72 (2): 78–100. ISSN 0032-4000. JSTOR 20704084.
8. Pawley, Andrew, 1967, The relationships of Polynesian Outlier languages. Journal of the Polynesian Society 76(3):259–296. JSTOR 20704480.
9. Wilson, William H., 1985, Evidence for an Outlier source for the Proto-Eastern-Polynesian pronominal system. Oceanic Linguistics 24(1/2):85-133. doi:10.2307/3623064. JSTOR 3623064.
10. Marck, Jeff (2000), Topics in Polynesian languages and culture history. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
11. Biggs, Bruce (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) and Bruce Biggs and Ross Clark (1996), Pollex: Comparative Polynesian Lexicon (computer data base). Auckland: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.
12. Eleanor Ainge Roy (28 July 2018). "'Māori has gone mainstream': the resurgence of New Zealand's te reo language". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
13. Sara Kehaulani Goo (22 July 2019). "The Hawaiian Language Nearly Died. A Radio Show Sparked Its Revival". NPR. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
14. Indeed Fijian, a language closely related to Polynesian, has singular, dual, paucal, and plural; and even there we may see the paucal replacing the plural in generations to come, as the paucal currently can be used for a group from 3 up to as many as 10, usually with some family, workgroup or other association.
15. "The Numbers List". www.zompist.com. Retrieved 2022-09-20.

See also

• Proto-Polynesian language – the reconstructed ancestral language from which modern Polynesian languages are derived.
• ʻOkina – a glyph shaped like (but distinct from) an apostrophe: used to represent the glottal-stop consonant in some Polynesian Latin-based scripts.
• Rongorongo – the undeciphered script of Easter Island (Rapanui).
• List of English words of Polynesian origin

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Languages of Polynesia.

Further reading

• Edward Tregear (1891). The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary. Lyon and Blair. pp. 675. Retrieved 2011-07-21.
• Edward Tregear (1891). The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary. Lyon and Blair. at archive.org.
• Edward Tregear (1895). A Paumotuan dictionary with Polynesian comparatives. Whitcombe & Tombs Limited. pp. 76. Retrieved 2011-07-21.

Bibliography

• Charpentier, Jean-Michel; François, Alexandre (2015). Atlas linguistique de Polynésie française – Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia (in French and English). Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie française. ISBN 978-3-11-026035-9.
• Irwin, Geoffrey (1992). The Prehistoric Exploration and Colonisation of the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Krupa V. (1975–1982). Polynesian Languages, Routledge and Kegan Paul
• Lynch, J. (1998). Pacific Languages: an Introduction. University of Hawai'i Press.
• Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.
• Marck, Jeff (2000), Topics in Polynesian languages and culture history. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Silva, Diego B (2019). Language policy in Oceania. Alfa, Rev. Linguíst 63 (2).