Misplaced Pages

#968031

38-522: The Pa‘umotu people today refer to their islands as Tuamotu while referring to themselves and their language as Pa‘umotu (or Paumotu). Pa‘umotu is one of six Polynesian languages spoken in French Polynesia, the other five languages being Tahitian , Marquesan , Mangarevan , Rapa , and Austral . The Pa‘umotu alphabet is based on the Latin script. Little is known regarding the early history of

76-475: A [k] . While standard Tahitian only has [k] as a result of dissimilation, the dialects of the Leeward Islands have many cases of [k] corresponding to standard Tahitian [t] . For example, inhabitants of Maupiti pronounce their island's name [maupiki] . Finally there is a toro ʼaʼï , a trema put on the i , but only used in ïa when used as a reflexive pronoun . It does not indicate

114-464: A straight apostrophe or a curly apostrophe preferred typographically , see below) instead of the turned curly apostrophe used in Hawaiian (locally named ʻokina ). 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 ʼeta and tārava is equal to

152-631: 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

190-402: A dictionary of that language. 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 . There is a five-vowel inventory with vowel length: When two vowels follow each other in a V 1 V 2 sequence, they form a diphthong when V 1

228-500: 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. If a content word is composed of a single syllable with a single vowel, its vowel must be long. Thus, every Tahitian content word

266-606: A table with all phonemes in more detail. The glottal stop or ʼeta is a genuine consonant. This is typical of Polynesian languages (compare to the Hawaiian ʻokina and others). See Typography below. Tahitian makes a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels; long vowels are marked with macron or tārava . For example, pāto , meaning 'to pick, to pluck' and pato , 'to break out', are distinguished solely by their vowel length . However, macrons are seldom written among older people because Tahitian writing

304-605: A turned letter apostrophe ( U+02BB ʻ MODIFIER LETTER TURNED COMMA , called ʻokina in Hawaiian). As the ASCII apostrophe ( U+0027 ' APOSTROPHE ) 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

342-402: A wide variety of dialects. The natives refer to this nomadic tendency as orihaerenoa , from the root words ori (meaning 'to wander around'), haere (meaning 'to go') and noa (meaning 'non-restriction'). Pa‘umotu is very similar to Tahitian , and a considerable amount of Tahitianization has affected Pa‘umotu. Primarily due to the political and economical dominance of Tahiti in

380-435: Is mago , but in the blending of the two languages it becomes ma'o , dropping the voiced velar nasal consonant g . The same is true with words such as matagi / mata'i and koe / 'oe . These differences in dialect lead to a split between "Old Pa‘umotu" and "New Pa‘umotu". Many younger Pa‘umotu do not recognize some words that their forebears used, such as the word ua for 'rain'. Younger Pa‘umotu use

418-509: 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: tē PRS . CONT tāmāʼa eat nei PRS . CONT au I tē tāmāʼa nei au PRS.CONT eat PRS.CONT I "I am eating" ʼua PFV tāpū chop vau I ʼi O te the vahie wood ʼua tāpū vau ʼi te vahie Rural flight Too Many Requests If you report this error to

SECTION 10

#1732791019969

456-517: Is 'thing', which in Paʻumotu is mea , and is the same in Samoan and Maori. Paʻumotu speakers utilize fast deliberate speech, slow deliberate speech, and normal speech patterns. They apply phrase stress, which can be phonemic or morphemic, and primary stress, which is not phonemic. Tahitian language Tahitian (Tahitian: Reo Tahiti , part of Reo Māʼohi , languages of French Polynesia)

494-914: 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. Tahitian is the most prominent of the indigenous Polynesian languages spoken in French Polynesia ( reo māʼohi ). The latter also include: When Europeans first arrived in Tahiti at

532-436: 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 V 1 in /V 1 ʔV 2 / . To give an example, the word oraraʼa 'life', from ora 'to live' and -raʼa , is pronounced with antepenultimate stress. Prefixes added to a root word do not carry primary stress. For example, ʼōrama 'vision', related to rama 'vision',

570-401: Is at least two moras long. 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. In general main stress falls on

608-410: Is more open, and as a consequence more sonorant, than V 2 . An exception to this rule is the sequence /eu/ , which never becomes the diphthong [eu̯] . Two vowels with the same sonority are generally pronounced in hiatus, as in [no.ˈe.ma] 'November', but there is some variability. The word tiuno 'June' may be pronounced [ti.ˈu.no] , with hiatus, or [ˈtiu̯.no] , with a diphthong. Next follows

646-404: Is on the penultimate vowel before a juncture , with long vowels counting double and semi-vocalized vowels not counting as vowels. One out of every two or three vowels is stressed.. that is, the minimum domain for assigning stress is two vowels, and the maximum is three. When a long vowel is stressed, the stress falls on the entire vowel, regardless of which mora is penultimate, unless the long vowel

684-416: 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 taʼa 'to be understood'. When combined with the causative prefix faʼa- , it becomes faʼataʼa , which is stressed on the penultimate syllable. In former practice, the Tahitian glottal stop ( ʼ ) used to be seldom written, but today it is commonly spelled out, although often as

722-425: Is word-final. No more than one unstressed vowel/mora can occur in a row, but, when the first of two vowels is long, there is no stresses mora between them. Morphemes of a single short vowel cannot be stressed. Naturally, a lot of similarity between other Polynesian languages can be seen in the vocabulary of Paʻumotu. 'Woman', for example, is vahine , very close to the Hawaiian and Maori wahine . Another example

760-587: The ʼeta . 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 . Like many Austronesian languages, Tahitian has separate words for inclusive and exclusive we , and distinguishes singular , dual , and plural . Typologically, Tahitian word order

798-462: The Tahitian arioi , Tupaia . Many of these were "non-geographic" or "ghost islands" of Polynesian mythology and all were transcribed using phonetic English spelling . 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 ,

SECTION 20

#1732791019969

836-485: The Tahitian translation of the Book of Mormon. An available source for Pa‘umotu-English comparatives is The cult of Kiho-Tumu , which contains Pa‘umotu religious chants and their English translation. The glottal stop is found in a large number of Tahitian loanwords. It is also found in free variation with /k/ and /ŋ/ in a number of words shared between Pa‘umotu and Tahitian. An epenthetic glottal stop may be found at

874-756: The Tuamotus . It is believed that they were settled c. 700 AD by people from the Society Islands . Europeans first arrived in the islands in 1521, when Ferdinand Magellan reached them while sailing across the Pacific Ocean. Subsequent explorers visited the islands over the centuries, including Thor Heyerdahl , the famous Norwegian ethnographer who sailed the Kon-Tiki expedition across the Pacific in 1947. The effects of early European visits were marginal as they had no political effects. The language, however,

912-460: 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. This extrametricality does not apply in the case of words with only two syllables, which remain stressed on the penultimate syllable. In compound words, each morpheme's stressed syllable carries secondary stress, and

950-635: The attributes of Kiho and how he created the world. In more recent times, the Tuamotus were the site of French nuclear testing on the atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa . Paumotu is a member of the Polynesian group of Oceanic languages , itself a subgroup of the Austronesian family . Some foreign influence is present. Paʻumotu is spoken among the atolls of the Tuamotu Archipelago, which amount to over 60 small islands. Many of

988-472: The beginning of monophthong-initial words. Short vowels contrast with long vowels and vowel length is thereby phonemic. A number of non-identical vowel pairs appear in Pu'amotu, and long vowels are interpreted as pairs of identical vowels and written by doubling the vowels in all cases. In non-stressed position, the distinction between long and short may be lost. The position of stress is predictable. Primary stress

1026-661: 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 ( U+A78C ꞌ LATIN SMALL LETTER SALTILLO ) may be used instead. Today, macronized vowels and ʼeta are also available on mobile devices, either by default or after installing an application to input vowels with macron as well as

1064-496: 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 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

1102-423: The final verb ending bears main stress while the earlier ones bears secondary stress. 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 -raʼa

1140-777: The former inhabitants have moved to Tahiti, causing the language to dwindle. In the 1970s, there were a number of Pa‘umotu living in Laie, O'ahu, Hawai'i, as well as other locations on the island of O'ahu. Some were reported to live in California and Florida. There were also a number of people living in New Zealand who were reportedly Pa‘umotu, although they came from Tahiti. Paʻumotu has seven dialects or linguistic areas: covering Parata, Vahitu, Maraga, Fagatau, Tapuhoe, Napuka and Mihiro. The native Pa‘umotu people are somewhat nomadic, shifting from one atoll to another and thereby creating

1178-479: 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. There is another type of words whose stress pattern requires another rule to explain. These include mutaʼa 'first', tiaʼa 'shoe', ariʼi 'king', all of which are stressed on

Tuamotuan language - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-472: The region, many Pa‘umotu (especially those from the Western atolls) are bilingual, speaking both Paʻumotu and Tahitian. Many young Pa‘umotu who live on atolls nearer to Tahiti speak only Tahitian and no Pa‘umotu. An example is the Paʻumotu use of a velar sound such as k or g , which in Tahitian-Pa‘umotu (a blending of the languages) is rather a glottal stop. For example, the word for 'shark' in Paʻumotu

1254-487: The stressed syllable of the last morpheme carries primary stress. Thus, for example, manureva 'airplane', from manu 'bird' and reva 'leave', is pronounced [ˌmanuˈreva] . 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, reva becomes revareva , haʼaviti 'do quickly' becomes haʼavitiviti , and pīhae 'to tear' becomes pīhaehae . In reduplicated verbs,

1292-575: The usage of such symbols in other Polynesian languages, it is promoted by the Académie tahitienne 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. At this moment, the Académie tahitienne seems to have not made a final decision yet whether the ʼeta should appear as a normal letter apostrophe ( U+02BC ʼ MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE ) or

1330-501: The word toiti for 'rain' in contemporary Pa‘umotu. According to UNESCO , Paʻumotu is "definitely endangered " Indeed, since before the 1960s, many of the Tuamotu islanders have migrated to Tahiti for education or work opportunities; this rural flight has strongly contributed to the weakening of Paʻumotu, which is sometimes described as a " dying language ". Since the 1950s, the only language used in education in French Polynesia

1368-470: Was French. No Tahitian or Pa‘umotu is taught in schools. The Pa‘umotu language is being monitored by a dedicated regulatory body, called Académie pa'umotu  [ fr ] , or Kāruru vānaga . It was created in 2008, following the model of Académie tahitienne . No systematic grammar has been published on the Pa‘umotu language. Current Tahitian-Pa‘umotu orthographies are based upon the Tahitian Bible and

1406-407: Was not taught at school until 1981. In rapid speech, the common article te is pronounced with a schwa, as [tə] . Also in rapid speech, /tVt/ sequences are dissimilated to [kVt] , so te tāne 'man, male' is pronounced [kə taːne] , te peretiteni 'president' becomes [tə perekiteni] . Intervening syllables prevent this dissimilation, so te mata 'eye' is never pronounced with

1444-539: Was ultimately affected by the Tahitian language, which was itself affected by European expansion. The eventual arrival of European missionaries in the 19th century also led to loanwords , including the creation of new vocabulary terms for the Pa‘umotu new-found faith, and the translation of the Bible into Pa‘umotu. The original religion of the Tuamotus involved the worship of a higher being, Kiho-Tumu or Kiho. Religious chants have been preserved and translated that describe

#968031