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54-551: The population of the Samoan Islands is approximately 250,000. The inhabitants have in common the Samoan language , a culture known as fa'a Samoa , and an indigenous form of governance called fa'amatai . Samoans are one of the largest Polynesian populations in the world, and most are of exclusively Samoan ancestry. The oldest known evidence of human activity in the Samoan Islands dates to around 1050 BCE. It comes from

108-540: A Lapita site at Mulifanua wharf on Upolu island. In 1768, the eastern islands were visited by the French explorer Bougainville , who named them the Navigator Islands . That name was used by missionaries until about 1845, and in official European dispatches until about 1870. Politically , the Samoan Islands are divided into two jurisdictions: In the late 19th century, competition for political control of

162-456: 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 the penultimate mora ; that is, on

216-525: 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/ 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

270-409: 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

324-431: 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

378-469: A small village settlement and the islet Nu'ulopa . Manono Island is part of the political district Aiga-i-le-Tai . The majority of people in the Aiga-i-le-Tai district live on the 'mainland' at the west end of Upolu island. Dogs of any kind are prohibited on Manono island. The four villages and their populations on Manono Island are Out of the four inhabited islands of Samoa, Manono Island has

432-892: A west to east direction. The islands of Manono, Apolima and Nuʻulopa lie in the Apolima Strait between Upolu and Savaiʻi. The four small, uninhabited islands – Nuʻutele, Nuʻulua, Namua and Fanuatapu – are situated off the east coast of Upolu and comprise the Aleipata Islands . The islands are approximately 800 km (500 mi) from Fiji , 530 km (330 mi) from Tonga , 2,900 km (1,800 mi) from New Zealand , and 4,000 km (2,500 mi) from Hawaii , U.S. The islands lie between 13° and 14° south latitude and 169° and 173° west longitude, and span an area of about 480 km (300 mi) from west to east. The larger islands are volcanic in origin, mountainous, and covered in tropical moist forest. Some of

486-450: 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,

540-706: Is a Polynesian language spoken by Samoans of the Samoan Islands . Administratively, the islands are split between the sovereign country of Samoa and 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

594-569: Is an island of Samoa , situated in the Apolima Strait between the main islands of Savai'i and Upolu , 3.4 km west-northwest off Lefatu Cape , the westernmost point of Upolu. By population, as well as by area, it is Samoa’s third largest island. There are four villages on the island with a total population of 889 (2006 Census). Electricity was only introduced in 1995 and there are several shops with beach fale accommodation for visitors. The boat trip from Upolu island takes about 20 minutes. The neighbouring islands are Apolima , which has

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648-521: 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 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

702-402: 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 the voice is raised, and

756-432: 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

810-465: Is exceeded only by the two substantially larger main islands of New Zealand Te Waipounamu and Te Ika-a-Māui as well as Rakiura , and the two main islands of Fiji and the Hawaiian islands of Hawaiʻi and Maui . The island of Upolu has more inhabitants than the island of Savai'i does. The next largest island is Tutuila , where the city and harbor of Pago Pago (with a population of 3,519 in 1990)

864-616: Is geographically distant from the Samoan archipelago. In 1892, the Samoan islands shifted to the eastern side of the International Date Line . The ruler Malietoa Laupepa issued a proclamation that Monday, July 4 would occur twice, giving an extra day in July 1892. This change, which occurred on the American Independence Day , was likely due to increasing trade with Americans. The islands would be on

918-464: 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

972-638: 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). Manono Island Manono

1026-463: Is located. Tutuila is much smaller than Upolu and Savai‘i, at 136.2 km (52.6 sq mi) in area, but it is the largest island in American Samoa. The highest point on Tutuila is Matafao Peak. Smaller islands in the archipelago include the three islets ( Manono Island , Apolima and Nu'ulopa ) located in the Apolima Strait between Savai'i and Upolu; the four Aleipata Islands off

1080-629: 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 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

1134-676: Is only visible at close approach. During the 1800s, Manono island was a stronghold for the Methodist church and its early mission in Samoa. At an annual church meeting here on 21 September 1859, a decision was made to establish a training institution on Upolu island which eventually led to the establishment of Piula Theological College in Lufilufi . The other two islands in the Apolima Strait are Apolima with one small village and

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1188-412: 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 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

1242-475: 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 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

1296-441: 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

1350-576: 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 ,

1404-574: 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 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 )

1458-738: The Earth's fundamental processes. Growing inside the summit crater of Vailulu'u is an active underwater volcanic cone , named after Samoa's goddess of war, Nafanua . The Samoan climate is tropical, with a rainy season from November to April. The island group is frequently hit by tropical cyclones between December and March, due to its position in the South Pacific Ocean. 14°16′S 171°12′W  /  14.267°S 171.200°W  / -14.267; -171.200 Samoan language Samoan ( Gagana faʻa Sāmoa or Gagana Sāmoa , pronounced [ŋaˈŋana ˈsaːmʊa] )

1512-513: 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 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

1566-472: The Samoa island chain, creating an enigma for scientists. For one thing, Savai'i , the most western of the Samoa island chain, and Ta'u Island , the most eastern, both erupted in the last century. For another thing, the subaerial rock samples initially collected from Savai'i, the westernmost of the islands, are too young by several million years to fit the classic hotspot model of age progression in an island chain. These facts led some scientists to suggest that

1620-466: The Samoa islands are inconsistent with this theory. The classic hotspot model (based mostly on studies of the Hawaii hotspot ) predicts that, if plate movement over a hotspot is what created a volcanic island chain, then the farther away from the hotspot the islands and seamounts in the chain are, the older they will prove to be. Some of the evidence is inconsistent with this explanation for the creation of

1674-472: The Samoa islands were not formed by the hotspot plume. One possible explanation for the inconsistency of the data with the hotspot formation theory is the fact that the island chain lies just north of the Tonga Trench . An alternative theory is that the islands were formed by magma seeping through cracks in stressed fracture zones. However, in 2005, an international team found new evidence that supports

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1728-618: The activity of the Samoa hotspot at the eastern end of the Samoa Islands. In theory, that hotspot was created by the movement of the Pacific tectonic plate over a 'fixed' deep and narrow mantle plume spewing up through the Earth's crust. One piece of evidence that this activity may have created the islands is that they generally lie in a straight east-to-west line, and the plate is moving from east to west. However, some characteristics of

1782-416: 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 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

1836-404: 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 the nominative ʻoe ,

1890-476: The eastern end of Upolu ( Nu'utele , Nu'ulua , Namua , and Fanuatapu ); and Nu‘usafe‘e. Aunu'u is a small island off the eastern end of Tutuila. To the east of Tutuila, the Manu'a group comprises Ofu, Olosega , and Ta’u . An uninhabited coral atoll, Rose Atoll , is the southernmost point in the territory of the United States. Another coral atoll, Swains Island , is within the territory of American Samoa but

1944-421: 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 the number of words and affixes of which

1998-410: 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

2052-442: The hotspot model. They gathered additional samples from Savai'i – submarine samples from the deep flanks and rifts of the island. Tests found that these samples are much older than the previously collected samples: They are about five million years old, an age that fits the hotspot model. The 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami killed more than 170 people in the Samoa Islands and Tonga . The M8.1 submarine earthquake took place in

2106-406: 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

2160-708: The islands between the United States , Germany , and the United Kingdom resulted in the December 1899 Tripartite Convention , which formally partitioned the Samoan archipelago into a German colony ( German Samoa ) in the western half and a United States territory (American Samoa) in the eastern half. New Zealand began occupying the western islands in World War I, while they were still a German colony and continued as an occupying force until 1920. Then, from 1920 until Samoa's independence in 1962, New Zealand governed

2214-486: The islands in that group under a League of Nations Class C Mandate from 1920 to 1946, and as a United Nations Trust Territory from 1946 to 1962. The force that eventually led to the political independence of the western islands in 1962 was the pro-independence Mau movement , which gained popularity across the area. The eastern islands remain a political territory of the United States. The Samoan Islands has total of 18 islands spread 3,030 km (1,170 sq mi) in

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2268-414: 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 is at Safotu. The same thing

2322-523: 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

2376-502: 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 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

2430-468: 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 , 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

2484-406: 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

2538-475: The region at 06:48:11 local time on September 29, 2009 (17:48:11 UTC , September 29), followed by smaller aftershocks. It was the largest earthquake of 2009. The Vailulu'u Seamount , an active submerged volcano, lies 45 km (28 mi) east of Ta'u in American Samoa . It was discovered in 1975 and has since been studied by an international team of scientists, contributing towards understanding of

2592-509: The same day as the United States. By 2011, the government of independent Samoa decided to shift back to the western side in order to have the same day as Australia and New Zealand. Being one day behind these countries, Samoa's primary trading partners, left only four business days in a week. The shift was implemented by skipping Friday, December 30; workers were paid for this "missed" day. Neighboring Tokelau shifted as well on this day. The volcanic Samoa island chain may have been formed by

2646-563: The smaller islands are coral atolls with black sand beaches. The highest point in Samoa is Mt. Silisili , on the island of Savai'i . At 1,858 m (6,096 ft), it is also one of the highest peaks in Polynesia. The highest peak in American Samoa is on Ta’u , Lata Mountain , at 966 m (3,169 ft). Upolu and Savai'i in Samoa are among the largest of the Polynesian islands, at 1,718 km (663 sq mi) and 1,125 km (434 sq mi), respectively, Their size

2700-436: 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

2754-422: 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 ,

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2808-499: The third largest population, after the much larger islands of Upolu and Savai'i. There are no cars or roads. The main thoroughfare is a footpath that follows the coast. Dogs and horses are banned for environmental reasons. However, dogs were sighted on the island in September 2016. In the early 19th century, the island was sometimes called Flat Island , because it consists of a small, flat hill and surrounding low-lying terrain, which

2862-404: 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

2916-690: 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

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