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84-595: Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa ( Samoan : Sāmoa i Sisifo ), is an island country in Polynesia , consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu ); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima ); and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands ( Nuʻutele , Nuʻulua , Fanuatapu and Namua ). Samoa

168-817: A controversy. On 1 August 1721 he headed an expedition sponsored by the Dutch West India Company , the rivals of the VOC , to seek Terra Australis and to open a western trade route to the "Spice islands" in the East Indies. His fleet consisted of three ships, the Arend , the Thienhoven , and Afrikaansche Galey and had 223 men on crew. Roggeveen first sailed down to the Falkland Islands (which he renamed "Belgia Australis"), passed through

252-614: A grave, in the midst of the white men's sugar fields". The Germans, in particular, began to show great commercial interest in the Samoan Islands , especially on the island of Upolu, where German firms monopolised copra and cocoa bean processing. The United States laid its own claim, based on commercial shipping interests in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and Pago Pago Bay in eastern Samoa, and forced alliances, most conspicuously on

336-409: A handful; feanu , to spit; anusaga , spittle; tanu , to bury; tanulia , the part buried. These verbal nouns have an active participial meaning; e.g. ʻO le faiga o le fale , the building of the house. Often they refer to the persons acting, in which case they govern the next noun in the genitive with a ; ʻO le faiga a fale , contracted into ʻo le faiga fale , those who build

420-664: A larger force of Samoan rebels loyal to Mataʻafa Iosefo . Supporting Prince Tanu were landing parties from four British and American warships. After several days of fighting, the Samoan rebels were finally defeated. American and British warships shelled Apia on 15 March 1899, including the USS Philadelphia . Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States quickly resolved to end the hostilities and divided

504-592: A larger-scale war seemed imminent. A massive storm on 15 March 1889 damaged or destroyed the warships, ending the military conflict. The Second Samoan Civil War reached a head in 1898 when Germany , the United Kingdom , and the United States were locked in dispute over who should control the Samoan Islands. The Siege of Apia occurred in March 1899. Samoan forces loyal to Prince Tanu were besieged by

588-431: A maʻa , the heap of stones, that is, the stones which have been heaped up. Those nouns which take ʻaga are rare, except on Tutuila ; gataʻaga , the end; ʻamataʻaga , the beginning; olaʻaga , lifetime; misaʻaga , quarrelling. Sometimes the addition of ga makes the signification intensive; such as ua and timu , rain; uaga and timuga , continued pouring (of rain). The simple form of

672-708: A member of the Austronesian family, and more specifically the Samoic branch of the Polynesian subphylum. It is closely related to other Polynesian languages with many shared cognate words such as aliʻi , ʻava , atua , tapu and numerals as well as in the name of gods in mythology . Linguists differ somewhat on the way they classify Samoan in relation to the other Polynesian languages . The "traditional" classification, based on shared innovations in grammar and vocabulary, places Samoan with Tokelauan ,

756-497: A number of countries, the total number of speakers worldwide was estimated at 510,000 in 2015. It is the third-most widely spoken language in New Zealand, where 2.2% of the population, 101,900 people, were able to speak it as of 2018. The language is notable for the phonological differences between formal and informal speech as well as a ceremonial form used in Samoan oratory. Samoan is an analytic , isolating language and

840-450: A population of some 38,000 Samoans and 1,500 Europeans. However, native Samoans greatly resented New Zealand's colonial rule, and blamed inflation and the catastrophic 1918 flu epidemic on its misrule. By the late 1920s the resistance movement against colonial rule had gathered widespread support. One of the Mau leaders was Olaf Frederick Nelson , a half Samoan and half Swedish merchant. Nelson

924-465: A vowel in some words creates the sound of the English w , a letter not part of the Samoan alphabet, as in uaua (artery, tendon). /a/ is reduced to [ ə ] in only a few words, such as mate or maliu 'dead', vave 'be quick'. In formal Samoan, used for example in news broadcasts or sermons, the consonants /t n ŋ/ are used. In colloquial Samoan, however, /n ŋ/ merge as [ŋ] and /t/

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1008-529: Is Apia . The Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a Samoan language and Samoan cultural identity . Samoa is a unitary parliamentary democracy with 11 administrative divisions . It is a sovereign state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations . Western Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. Because of

1092-450: Is (C)V, where V may be long or a diphthong. A sequence VV may occur only in derived forms and compound words; within roots, only the initial syllable may be of the form V. Metathesis of consonants is frequent, such as manu for namu 'scent', lavaʻau for valaʻau 'to call', but vowels may not be mixed up in this way. Every syllable ends in a vowel. No syllable consists of more than three sounds, one consonant and two vowels,

1176-406: Is at Safotu. The same thing is done in referring to a family; as Sa Muliaga, the family of Muliaga, the term Sa referring to a wide extended family of clan with a common ancestor. So most words ending in ga , not a sign of a noun, as tigā , puapuaga , pologa , faʻataga and aga . So also all words ending in a diphthong , as mamau , mafai , avai . In speaking

1260-432: Is either the bathing-place or the party of bathers. The first would take o after it to govern the next noun, ʻO le taʻelega o le nuʻu , the bathing-place of the village; the latter would be followed by a , ʻO le taʻelega a teine , the bathing-place of the girls. Sometimes such nouns have a passive meaning, such as being acted upon; ʻO le taomaga a lau , the thatch that has been pressed; ʻo le faupuʻega

1344-464: Is his excellence or that is his best. Many verbs may become participle-nouns by adding ga ; as sau , come, sauga ; e.g. ʻO lona sauga muamua , his first coming; mau" to mauga , ʻO le mauga muamua , the first dwelling. As there is no proper gender in Oceanic languages, different genders are sometimes expressed by distinct names: When no distinct name exists, the gender of animals

1428-600: Is in New Zealand , where there were 101,937 Samoan speakers at the 2018 census, or 2.2% of the country's population. Samoan is the third-most spoken language in New Zealand after English and Māori. According to the 2021 census in Australia conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Samoan language is spoken in the homes of 49,021 people. US Census 2010 shows more than 180,000 Samoans reside in

1512-661: Is known by adding poʻa and fafine respectively. The gender of some few plants is distinguished by tane and fafine , as in ʻo le esi tane ; ʻo le esi fafine . No other names of objects have any mark of gender. The singular number is known by the article with the noun; e.g. ʻo le tama , a boy. Properly there is no dual. It is expressed by omitting the article and adding numbers e lua for things e.g. e toʻalua teine , two girls, for persons; or ʻo fale e lua , two houses; ʻo tagata e toʻalua , two persons; or ʻo lāʻua , them/those two (people). Jacob Roggeveen His father, Arend Roggeveen,

1596-442: Is located 64 km (40 mi) west of American Samoa , 889 km (552 mi) northeast of Tonga , 1,152 km (716 mi) northeast of Fiji , 483 km (300 mi) east of Wallis and Futuna , 1,151 km (715 mi) southeast of Tuvalu , 519 km (322 mi) south of Tokelau , 4,190 km (2,600 mi) southwest of Hawaii , and 610 km (380 mi) northwest of Niue . The capital and largest city

1680-450: Is pronounced [k] . The glottal stop /ʔ/ is phonemic in Samoan. Its presence or absence affects the meaning of words otherwise spelled the same, e.g. mai = from, originate from; maʻi = sickness, illness. The glottal stop is represented by the koma liliu ("inverted comma"), which is recognized by Samoan scholars and the wider community. The koma liliu is often replaced by an apostrophe in modern publications. Use of

1764-441: Is sometimes used where English would require the indefinite article. As a specific, rather than a definite article, it is used for specific referents that the speaker has in mind (specificity), regardless of whether the listener is expected to know which specific referent(s) is/are intended (definiteness). A sentence such as ʻUa tu mai le vaʻa , could thus, depending on context, be translated into English as "A canoe appears", when

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1848-524: Is the court of highest jurisdiction. The Chief Justice of Samoa is appointed by the head of state upon the recommendation of the prime minister. Samoa comprises eleven itūmālō (political districts). These are the traditional eleven districts which predate European arrival. Each district has its own constitutional foundation ( faʻavae ) based on the traditional order of title precedence found in each district's faalupega (traditional salutations). The capital village of each district administers and coordinates

1932-576: Is used when the speaker doesn't have a particular individual of a class in mind, such as in the sentence Ta mai se laʻau , "Cut me a stick", whereby there is no specific stick intended. The plural non-specific article ni is the plural form and may be translated into English as "some" or "any", as in Ta mai ni laʻau , "Cut me some sticks". In addition, Samoan possesses a series of diminutive articles. Names of natural objects, such as men, trees and animals, are mostly primitive nouns, e.g. ʻO le la ,

2016-617: The League of Nations , then through the United Nations. Between 1919 and 1962, Samoa was administered by the Department of External Affairs , a government department which had been specially created to oversee New Zealand's Island Territories and Samoa. In 1943, this department was renamed the Department of Island Territories after a separate Department of External Affairs was created to conduct New Zealand's foreign affairs. During

2100-612: The Strait of Le Maire , and continued south to beyond 60 degrees south to enter the Pacific Ocean . He made landfall near Valdivia, Chile . He visited the Juan Fernández Islands , where he spent 24 February to 17 March. The expedition later arrived at Easter Island (Rapa Nui) on Easter Sunday , 5 April 1722 (whereupon he reported seeing 2,000–3,000 inhabitants). Roggeveen charted the location of six islands in

2184-678: The Tuamotu Archipelago , two islands in the Society Islands , and four islands in Samoa , losing his flagship, Afrikaansche Galey at Takapoto atoll. At Makatea , he opened fire on a crowded beach in retaliation for a violent encounter with the inhabitants, and in return the Makateans ambushed a shore party, killing ten of his crewmen. The remaining two vessels sailed past New Guinea to reach Batavia in 1722, where he

2268-633: The United States territory of American Samoa . It is an official language , alongside English , in both jurisdictions. It is widely spoken across the Pacific region, heavily so in New Zealand and also in Australia and the United States . Among the Polynesian languages, Samoan is the most widely spoken by number of native speakers. Samoan is spoken by approximately 260,000 people in the archipelago and with many Samoans living in diaspora in

2352-624: The election , ending the rule of long-term Prime Minister Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi of the Human Rights Protection Party (HRPP), although the constitutional crisis complicated and delayed this. On 24 May 2021, she was sworn in as the new prime minister, though it was not until July that the Supreme Court ruled that her swearing-in was legal, thus ending the constitutional crisis and bringing an end to Tuilaʻepa's 22-year premiership. The FAST party's success in

2436-606: The 2021 election and subsequent court rulings also ended nearly four decades of HRPP rule. The 1960 constitution , which formally came into force with independence from New Zealand in 1962, builds on the British pattern of parliamentary democracy , modified to take account of Samoan customs. The national modern Government of Samoa is referred to as the Malo . The head of state of Samoa is known as O le Ao o le Malo in Samoan, and since its establishment only paramount chiefs have held

2520-555: The Americans or the British. The second major incident arose out of an initially peaceful protest by the Mau (which literally translates as "strongly held opinion"), a non-violent popular pro-independence movement which had its beginnings in the early 1900s on Savai'i, led by Lauaki Namulauulu Mamoe , an orator chief deposed by Solf. In 1909, Lauaki was exiled to Saipan and died en route back to Samoa in 1915. By 1918, Western Samoa had

2604-501: The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database is contradictory in that while in part it suggests that Tongan and Samoan form a subgroup, the old subgroups Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian are still included in the classification search of the database itself. There are approximately 470,000 Samoan speakers worldwide, 50 percent of whom live in the Samoan Islands. Thereafter, the greatest concentration

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2688-463: The MPs must be women. Universal suffrage was adopted in 1990, but only chiefs ( matai ) may stand for election to the Samoan seats. There are more than 25,000 matais in the country, about five per cent of whom are women. The prime minister , chosen by a majority in the assembly, is appointed by the head of state to form a government. The prime minister's choices for the 12 cabinet positions are appointed by

2772-503: The Mau as a legitimate political organisation, and Olaf Nelson was allowed to return from exile. In September 1936, Samoans exercised for the first time the right to elect the members of the advisory Fono of Faipule , with representatives of the Mau movement winning 31 of the 39 seats. After repeated efforts by the Samoan independence movement, the New Zealand Western Samoa Act of 24 November 1961 terminated

2856-502: The New Zealand authorities banned the organisation. As many as 1500 Mau men took to the bush, pursued by an armed force of 150 marines and seamen from the light cruiser HMS Dunedin , and 50 military police. They were supported by a seaplane flown by Flight Lieutenant Sidney Wallingford of the New Zealand Permanent Air Force . Villages were raided, often at night and with fixed bayonets. In March, through

2940-405: The Polynesian outlier languages and the languages of Eastern Polynesia , which include Rapanui , Māori , Tahitian and Hawaiian . Nuclear Polynesian and Tongic (the languages of Tonga and Niue) are the major subdivisions of Polynesian under this analysis. A revision by Marck reinterpreted the relationships among Samoan and the outlier languages. In 2008 an analysis, of basic vocabulary only, from

3024-614: The Samoans' seafaring skills, pre-20th-century European explorers referred to the entire island group , including American Samoa, as the "Navigator Islands". The country was a colony of the German Empire from 1899 to 1915, then came under a joint British and New Zealand colonial administration until 1 January 1962, when it became independent. The islands of Samoa were formed during the Miocene period around 7 million years ago. For

3108-697: The Solomon Islands south of Bougainville, and (3) territorial alignments in West Africa. The German Empire governed the western part of the Samoan archipelago from 1900 to 1914. Wilhelm Solf was appointed the colony's first governor. In 1908, when the non-violent Mau a Pule resistance movement arose, Solf did not hesitate to banish the Mau leader Lauaki Namulau'ulu Mamoe to Saipan in the German Northern Mariana Islands . The German colonial administration governed on

3192-548: The Trusteeship Agreement and granted the country independence as the Independent State of Western Samoa , effective 1 January 1962. Western Samoa, the first small-island country in the Pacific to become independent, signed a Treaty of Friendship with New Zealand later in 1962. Western Samoa joined the Commonwealth of Nations on 28 August 1970. While independence was achieved at the beginning of January, Samoa annually celebrates 1 June as its independence day. At

3276-698: The UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons . In June 2017, Parliament amended Article 1 of the Samoan Constitution to make Christianity the state religion. In September 2019, a measles outbreak resulted in the deaths of 83 people. Following the outbreak, the government imposed a curfew in December later during the same year. In May 2021, Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa became Samoa's first female prime minister. Mataʻafa's FAST party narrowly won

3360-543: The United States, which is triple the number of people living in American Samoa, while slightly less than the estimated population of the island nation of Samoa – 193,000, as of July 2011. Samoan Language Week ( Vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa ) is an annual celebration of the language in New Zealand supported by the government and various organisations including UNESCO . Samoan Language Week was started in Australia for

3444-461: The activities of the great powers battling for influence in Samoa ;– the United States, Germany and Britain – and the political machinations of the various Samoan factions within their indigenous political system. Even as they descended into ever greater interclan warfare, what most alarmed Stevenson was the Samoans' economic innocence. In 1894, just months before his death, he addressed

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3528-404: The affairs of the district and confers each district's paramount title, amongst other responsibilities. For example: Samoan language Samoan ( Gagana faʻa Sāmoa or Gagana Sāmoa , pronounced [ŋaˈŋana ˈsaːmʊa] ) is a Polynesian language spoken by Samoans of the Samoan Islands . Administratively, the islands are split between the sovereign country of Samoa and

3612-630: The apostrophe and macron diacritics in Samoan words was readopted by the Ministry of Education in 2012 after having been abandoned in the 1960s. /l/ is pronounced as a flap [ ɾ ] following a back vowel ( /a, o, u/ ) and preceding an /i/ ; otherwise it is [ l ] . /s/ is less sibilant (hissing) than in English. /r h/ are found in loan words. The consonants in parentheses are only present in loanwords and informal Samoan. Loanwords from English and other languages have been adapted to Samoan phonology: Stress generally falls on

3696-469: The archaeological record supports oral tradition and native genealogies that indicate interisland voyaging and intermarriage among precolonial Samoans, Fijians , and Tongans . Notable figures in Samoan history included the Tui Manu'a line, Queen Salamasina , King Fonoti and the four tama a ʻāiga : Malietoa , Tupua Tamasese , Mataʻafa , and Tuimalealiʻifano . Nafanua was a famous woman warrior who

3780-549: The arrival of the SS Talune from Auckland on 7 November 1918. The NZ administration allowed the ship to berth in breach of quarantine; within seven days of this ship's arrival, influenza became epidemic in Upolu and then spread rapidly throughout the rest of the territory. Samoa suffered the most of all Pacific islands, with 90% of the population infected; 30% of adult men, 22% of adult women and 10% of children died. The cause of

3864-634: The demonstration. When he resisted, a struggle developed between the police and the Mau. The officers began to fire randomly into the crowd and used a Lewis machine gun , mounted in preparation for the demonstration, to disperse the demonstrators. Mau leader and paramount chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi III was shot from behind and killed while trying to bring calm and order to the Mau demonstrators. Ten others died that day and approximately 50 were injured by gunshot wounds and police batons. That day would come to be known in Samoa as Black Saturday. On 13 January 1930,

3948-698: The early economic development of Samoa. The Salem brig Roscoe (Captain Benjamin Vanderford), in October 1821, was the first American trading vessel known to have called, and the Maro (Captain Richard Macy) of Nantucket , in 1824, was the first recorded United States whaler at Samoa. The whalers came for fresh drinking water, firewood, provisions and, later, for recruiting local men to serve as crewmen on their ships. The last recorded whaler visitor

4032-576: The epidemic was confirmed in 1919 by a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Epidemic concluded that there had been no epidemic of pneumonic influenza in Western Samoa before the arrival of the Talune from Auckland on 7 November 1918. The pandemic undermined Samoan confidence in New Zealand's administrative capacity and competence. Some Samoans asked that the rule of the islands be transferred to

4116-410: The fire; talafaʻasolopito , ("history") stories placed in order, faletalimalo , ("communal house") house for receiving guests. Like many Austronesian languages, Samoan has separate words for inclusive and exclusive we , and distinguishes singular , dual , and plural . The root for the inclusive pronoun may occur in the singular, in which case it indicates emotional involvement on the part of

4200-551: The first known non-Polynesian to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville , who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. Contact was limited before the 1830s, which is when British missionaries of the London Missionary Society, whalers, and traders began arriving. Visits by American trading and whaling vessels were important in

4284-552: The first month of World War I , on 29 August 1914, troops of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed unopposed on Upolu and seized control from the German authorities, following a request by Great Britain for New Zealand to perform this "great and urgent imperial service." From the end of World War I until 1962, New Zealand controlled Western Samoa as a Class C Mandate under trusteeship through

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4368-457: The first time in 2010. The Samoan alphabet consists of 14 letters, with three more letters ( H , K , R ) used in loan words. The ʻ ( koma liliu or ʻokina ) is used for the glottal stop . Vowel length is phonemic in Samoan; all five vowels also have a long form denoted by the macron . For example, tama means child or boy, while tamā means father. Diphthongs are /au ao ai ae ei ou ue/ . The combination of u followed by

4452-400: The four highest titles of Samoa – the elder titles of Malietoa and Tupua Tamasese of antiquity and the newer Mataʻafa and Tuimalealiʻifano titles, which rose to prominence in 19th-century wars that preceded the colonial period. These four titles form the apex of the Samoan matai system as it stands today. Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Jacob Roggeveen , a Dutchman, was

4536-473: The government changed the rule of the road from right to left , in common with most other Commonwealth countries - most notably countries in the region such as Australia and New Zealand, home to large numbers of Samoans. This made Samoa the first country in the 21st century to switch to driving on the left. At the end of December 2011, Samoa changed its time zone offset from UTC−11 to UTC+13, effectively jumping forward by one day, omitting Friday, 30 December from

4620-707: The head of state, subject to the continuing confidence of the legislative assembly. Prominent women in Samoan politics include the late Laʻulu Fetauimalemau Mataʻafa (1928–2007) from Lotofaga constituency, the wife of Samoa's first prime minister. Their daughter Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa is a matai and a long-serving senior member of cabinet, who was elected Prime Minister in 2021. Other women in politics include Samoan scholar and eminent professor Aiono Fanaafi Le Tagaloa , orator-chief Matatumua Maimoana and Safuneituʻuga Paʻaga Neri (former Minister of Communication and Technology). The judicial system incorporates English common law and local customs. The Supreme Court of Samoa

4704-406: The house, the builders. In some cases verbal nouns refer to either persons or things done by them: ʻO le faiga a talo , the getting of taro, or the party getting the taro , or the taro itself which has been got. The context in such cases decides the meaning. Sometimes place is indicated by the termination; such as tofā , to sleep; tofāga , a sleeping-place, a bed. ʻO le taʻelega

4788-697: The island chain at the Tripartite Convention of 1899 , signed at Washington on 2 December 1899 with ratifications exchanged on 16 February 1900. The eastern island-group became a territory of the United States (the Tutuila Islands in 1900 and officially Manu'a in 1904) and was known as American Samoa. The western islands, by far the greater landmass, became German Samoa . The United Kingdom had vacated all claims in Samoa and in return received (1) termination of German rights in Tonga , (2) all of

4872-560: The island chiefs: There is but one way to defend Samoa. Hear it before it is too late. It is to make roads, and gardens, and care for your trees, and sell their produce wisely, and, in one word, to occupy and use your country ... if you do not occupy and use your country, others will. It will not continue to be yours or your children's, if you occupy it for nothing. You and your children will in that case be cast out into outer darkness. He had "seen these judgments of God" in Hawaii , where abandoned native churches stood like tombstones "over

4956-481: The islands of Tutuila and Manu'a , which became American Samoa . Britain also sent troops to protect British business enterprise, harbour rights, and consulate office. This was followed by an eight-year civil war , during which each of the three powers supplied arms, training and in some cases combat troops to the warring Samoan parties. The Samoan crisis came to a critical juncture in March 1889 when all three colonial contenders sent warships into Apia harbour, and

5040-480: The liberal preacher Pontiaan van Hattem by publishing his leaflet De val van 's werelds afgod (The fall of the world's idol). The first part appeared in 1718 in Middelburg, and was subsequently confiscated by the city council and burned. Roggeveen fled from Middelburg to nearby Flushing . Thereafter he established himself in the small town of Arnemuiden , and published parts 2 and 3 of the series, again raising

5124-523: The listener or reader is not expected to know which canoe, or "The canoe appears", if the listener or reader is expected to know which canoe, such as when the canoe has previously been mentioned. The plural specific is marked by a null article: ʻO le tagata "the person", ʻO tagata "people". (The word ʻoe in these examples is not an article but a "presentative" preposition. It marks noun phrases used as clauses, introducing clauses or used as appositions etc.) The non-specific singular article se

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5208-676: The local calendar. This also had the effect of changing the shape of the International Date Line , moving it to the east of the territory. This change aimed to help the nation boost its economy in doing business with Australia and New Zealand. Before this change, Samoa was 21 hours behind Sydney , but the change means it is now three hours ahead. The previous time zone, implemented on 4 July 1892, operated in line with American traders based in California . In October 2021, Samoa ceased daylight saving time . In 2017, Samoa signed

5292-530: The mediation of local Europeans and missionaries, Mau leaders met New Zealand's Minister of Defence and agreed to disperse. Supporters of the Mau continued to be arrested, so women came to the fore rallying supporters and staging demonstrations. The political stalemate was broken following the victory of the Labour Party in New Zealand's 1935 general election. A 'goodwill mission' to Apia in June 1936 recognised

5376-541: The name it had been called by in the United Nations since it joined. American Samoa protested against the name change, asserting that it diminished its own identity. In 2002, New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark formally apologised for New Zealand's role in the Spanish influenza outbreak in 1918 that killed over a quarter of Samoa's population and for the Black Saturday killings in 1929. On 7 September 2009,

5460-431: The nominative ʻoe , the prepositions o, a, i, e , and the euphonic particles i and te , are unaccented; as ʻO maua, ma te o atu ia te oee , we two will go to you. Ina , the sign of the imperative, is accented on the ultima; ína , the sign of the subjunctive , on the penultima. The preposition iá is accented on the ultima, the pronoun ia on the penultima. Samoan syllable structure

5544-420: The number of words and affixes of which the compound word is composed; as tofátumoánaíná , to be engulfed. The articles le and se are unaccented. When used to form a pronoun or participle, le and se are contractions for le e , se e , and so are accented; as ʻO le ona le meae , the owner, literally the (person) whose (is) the thing, instead of O le e ona le meae . The sign of

5628-473: The office. The current head of state is Tuimalealiʻifano Vaʻaletoʻa Sualauvi II , who was elected by the legislature in 2017 and again in 2022. The Legislative Assembly or Fono is the unicameral legislature, consisting of 51 members serving five year terms. Forty-nine are matai title-holders elected from territorial districts by Samoans; the other two are chosen by non-Samoans with no chiefly affiliation on separate electoral rolls. At least ten per cent of

5712-461: The past 2 million years, the Samoan archipelago has experienced records of volcanic hotspots . Samoa was discovered and settled by the Lapita people (Austronesian people who spoke Oceanic languages ), who travelled from Island Melanesia . The earliest human remains found in Samoa are dated to between roughly 2,900 and 3,500 years ago. The remains were discovered at a Lapita site at Mulifanua , and

5796-421: The penultimate mora ; that is, on the last syllable if that contains a long vowel or diphthong or on the second-last syllable otherwise. Verbs formed from nouns ending in a, and meaning to abound in, have properly two aʻs, as puaa ( puaʻaa ), pona , tagata , but are written with one. In speaking of a place at some distance, the accent is placed on the last syllable; as ʻO loʻo i Safotu , he

5880-490: The period of New Zealand control, their administrators were responsible for two major incidents. In the first incident, approximately one fifth of the Samoan population died in the influenza epidemic of 1918–1919 . In 1918, during the final stages of World War I , the Spanish flu had taken its toll, spreading rapidly from country to country. On Samoa, there had been no epidemic of pneumonic influenza in Western Samoa before

5964-418: The principle that "there was only one government in the islands." Thus, there was no Samoan Tupu (king), nor an alii sili (similar to a governor), but two Fautua (advisors) were appointed by the colonial government. Tumua and Pule (traditional governments of Upolu and Savai'i) were for a time silent; all decisions on matters affecting lands and titles were under the control of the colonial Governor. In

6048-754: The province of Zeeland , where he was born). On 12 August 1690, he graduated as a doctor of the law at the University of Harderwijk . About this time he married Marija Margaerita Vincentius. She died around 3 to 4 years later in October 1694. In 1706, he joined the Dutch East Indies Company (VOC), and between 1707 and 1714 worked as a Raadsheer van Justitie ("Council Lord of Justice") at Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta ). He married Anna Adriana Clement there, but she died soon afterward. In 1714, he returned to Middelburg by himself. He became involved in religious controversies, supporting

6132-621: The scientists' findings were published in 1974. The Samoans' origins have been studied in modern times through scientific research on Polynesian genetics , linguistics , and anthropology . Although this research is ongoing, a number of theories have been proposed. One theory is that the original Samoans were Austronesians who arrived during a final period of eastward expansion of the Lapita peoples out of Southeast Asia and Melanesia between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE. Intimate sociocultural and genetic ties were maintained between Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and

6216-436: The speaker. In formal speech, fuller forms of the roots mā- , tā- , and lā- are ‘imā- , ‘itā- , and ‘ilā- . Articles in Samoan do not show the definiteness of the noun phrase as do those of English but rather specificity . The singular specific article le has frequently, erroneously, been referred to as a "definite" article, such as by Pratt, often with an additional vague explanation that it

6300-422: The sun; ʻo le tagata , the person; ʻo le talo , the taro; ʻo le iʻa , the fish; also manufactured articles, such as matau , an axe, vaʻa , canoe, tao , spear, fale , house, etc. Some nouns are derived from verbs by the addition of either ga , saga , taga , maga , or ʻaga : such as tuli , to chase; tuliga , chasing; luluʻu , to fill the hand; luʻutaga ,

6384-486: The time of independence, Fiamē Mataʻafa Faumuina Mulinuʻu II , one of the four highest-ranking paramount chiefs in the country, became Samoa's first prime minister . Another paramount chief, Tuiaana Tuimalealiʻifano Suatipatipa II , was admitted to the Council of Deputies ; the remaining two – Tupua Tamasese Meaʻole and Malietoa Tanumafili II – became joint heads of state for life. On 15 December 1976, Western Samoa

6468-404: The two vowels making a diphthong; as fai , mai , tau . Roots are sometimes monosyllabic , but mostly disyllabic or a word consisting of two syllables. Polysyllabic words are nearly all derived or compound words; as nofogatā from nofo (sit, seat) and gatā , difficult of access; taʻigaafi , from taʻi , to attend, and afi , fire, the hearth, making to attend to

6552-690: The verb is sometimes used as a noun: tatalo , to pray; ʻo le tatalo , a prayer; poto , to be wise; ʻo le poto , wisdom. The reciprocal form of the verb is often used as a noun; e.g. ʻO le fealofani , ʻo femisaiga , quarrellings (from misa ), feʻumaiga ; E lelei le fealofani , mutual love is good. A few diminutives are made by reduplication , e.g. paʻapaʻa , small crabs; pulepule , small shells; liilii , ripples; ' ili'ili , small stones. Adjectives are made into abstract nouns by adding an article or pronoun; e.g. lelei , good; ʻo le lelei , goodness; silisili , excellent or best; ʻo lona lea silisili , that

6636-405: The voice is raised, and the emphasis falls on the last word in each sentence. When a word receives an addition by means of an affixed particle, the accent is shifted forward; as alofa , love; alofága , loving, or showing love; alofagía , beloved. Reduplicated words have two accents; as palapala , mud; segisegi , twilight. Compound words may have even three or four, according to

6720-408: Was a mathematician with much knowledge of astronomy , geography , rhetorics, philosophy, and the theory of navigation as well. He occupied himself with study of the mythical Terra Australis, and even got a patent for an exploratory excursion, but it was to be his son who, at the age of 62, eventually equipped three ships and made the expedition. He became notary of Middelburg (the capital of

6804-400: Was admitted to the United Nations as the 147th member state . It asked to be referred to in the United Nations as the Independent State of Samoa . Travel writer Paul Theroux noted marked differences between the societies in Western Samoa and American Samoa in 1992. On 4 July 1997 the government amended the constitution to change the name of the country from Western Samoa to Samoa ,

6888-595: Was deified in ancient Samoan religion and whose patronage was highly sought after by successive Samoan rulers. Today, all of Samoa is united under its two principal royal families: the Sā Malietoa of the ancient Malietoa lineage that defeated the Tongans in the 13th century; and the Sā Tupua, Queen Salamasina's descendants and heirs who ruled Samoa in the centuries that followed her reign. Within these two principal lineages are

6972-411: Was eventually exiled during the late 1920s and early 1930s, but he continued to assist the organisation financially and politically. In accordance with the Mau's non-violent philosophy, the newly elected leader, High Chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi, led his fellow uniformed Mau in a peaceful demonstration in downtown Apia on 28 December 1929. The New Zealand police attempted to arrest one of the leaders in

7056-773: Was the Governor Morton in 1870. Christian missionary work in Samoa began in 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society arrived in Sapapali'i from the Cook Islands and Tahiti . According to Barbara A. West, "The Samoans were also known to engage in 'headhunting', a ritual of war in which a warrior took the head of his slain opponent to give to his leader, thus proving his bravery." In A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa (1892), Robert Louis Stevenson details

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