Tahitian language

Tahitian
Reo Tahiti Reo Mā'ohi
Spoken in	French Polynesia
Ethnicity	Tahitians
Native speakers	unknown (124,000 cited 1977 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Eastern Polynesian Tahitic Tahitian
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ty
ISO 639-2	tah
ISO 639-3	tah

Tahitian (Reo Tahiti in Tahitian) is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages. It is also related to the Rarotongan, New Zealand Māori, and Hawaiian languages.

Tahitian was first transcribed from the oral spoken language into writing by missionaries of the London Missionary Society in the early 19th century.

In French Polynesia, it is the most prominent of the indigenous Polynesian languages (reo mā’ohi) which also include;

• Pa'umotu (reo Pa'umotu), includes 7 dialects, spoken in the Tuamotu Islands
• Marquesan, spoken in the Marquesas Islands, with two sub-divisions, North Marquesan (le'eo Enata) and South Marquesan (le'eo Enata)
• Austral, spoken by about 8,000 people in the Austral Islands
• Mangareva, spoken by about 1,600 people in the Gambier Islands

History

Early writing

When Europeans first arrived in Tahiti at the end of the 18th century, there was no writing system and Tahitian was only a spoken language. In 1797, Protestant missionaries arrived in Tahiti on a British ship called the Duff, captained by James Wilson. Among the missionaries was Henry Nott (1774–1844) who learned the Tahitian language and worked with Pomare II, a Tahitian king, to translate the English Bible into Tahitian. A system of 5 vowels and 9 consonants was adopted for the Tahitian Bible which would become the key text by which many Polynesians would learn to read and write.

Alphabet

Tahitian features a very small number of phonemes, as further evidence of its linguistic heritage: five vowels and nine consonants, not counting the lengthened vowels and diphthongs.

letter	name	pronunciation		notes
		IPA	English approximation
a	’ā	/a/, /ɑː/	a: butter, ā: father
e	’ē	/e/, /eː/	e: late, ē: same but longer
f	fā	/f/	friend	becomes bilabial [ɸ] after o and u
h	hē	/h/	house	becomes [ʃ] (as in English shoe) after i and before o or u
i	’ī	/i/, /iː/	as in machine	may become diphthong ai in some words like rahi
m	mō	/m/	mouse
n	nū	/n/	nap
o	’ō	/ɔ/, /oː/	o: nought, ō: go
p	pī	/p/	sponge (not aspirated)
r	rō	/r/	-	alveolar trill
t	tī	/t/	stand (not aspirated)
u	’ū	/u/, /uː/	u: foot, ū: moo	strong lip rounding
v	vī	/v/	vine	becomes bilabial ([β]) after o and u
’	’eta	/ʔ/	uh-oh	glottal stop beginning each syllable

The glottal stop or ’eta is a genuine consonant. (People unfamiliar with Tahitian might mistake it for a punctuation mark.) This is typical of Polynesian languages (compare to the Hawai'ian ʻokina and others). However, in Tahitian the glottal stops are seldom written in practice, and if they are, often as a straight apostrophe ' , instead of the curly apostrophe. Alphabetical word ordering in dictionaries ignores the existence of glottals. Admittedly, the Tahitian glottal is normally weak, except in a few words like i’a (fish), and easily missed by the untrained ear of the non-native speaker.

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.

Finally there is a toro ’a’ï, a trema put on the i, but only used in ïa when used as a reflexive pronoun. It does not indicate a different pronunciation.

Although the use of ’eta and tārava is equal to the usage of such symbols in other Polynesian languages, it is promoted by l'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. This can make usage unclear. See list. At this moment l'Académie Tahitienne seems to have not made a final decision yet whether the `eta should appear as a small normal curly comma (’) or a small inverted curly comma (‘). Compare 'okina.

Further, Tahitian syllables are entirely open, as is usual in Polynesian languages. 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 practically an isolating language, except when it comes to the personal pronouns, which have separate forms for singular, plural and dual numbers.

Grammar

Personal prounouns

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

Singular

• Au – I, me; ʻUa 'amu au i te i'a. – I have eaten the fish.: E haere au i te farehapi'ira'a ānānahi – I will go to school tomorrow;
• 'oe : you, thou; ʻUa 'amu 'oe i te i'a. – You have eaten the fish; ʻUa fa'a'ino 'oe tō mātou pereo'o. – You broke our car. ;
• 'ōna/'oia : he, she; ʻUa amu 'ōna i te i'a. – He/she ate the fish. ; ʻEaha 'ōna i haere mai ai ? – Why is she here/why did she come here? ; ʻAita 'ona i 'ō nei. – He/she is not here.

Dual

• Tāua (inclusive) – we/us two ; ʻUa amu tāua i te i'a : We (us two) have eaten the fish.; Haere tāua. : Let's go (literally 'go us two'). ; ʻO tō tāua hoa tē tae mai ra. : Our friend has arrived.

• Māua (exclusive) – we two ; ʻUa amu māua i te i'a. : We have eaten the fish. ;ʻE ho'i māua ma Titaua i te fare. : Titaua and I are returning/going home. ; No māua tera 'are. : This is our house.

• 'ōrua : you two ; ʻUa amu 'ōrua i te i'a. : You two ate the fish. ; Haere 'ōrua : You (two) go. ; Na 'ōrua teie puta. : This book belongs to both of us.

• Rāua : them two ; ʻUa amu rāua i te i'a. – They (they two) have eaten the fish. ; Nō 'ea mai rāua ? – Where are you two/both? ; ʻO rāua 'o Pā tei noho i te fare – He/she and Pa stayed home.

Plural

• Tātou (inclusive) – we ; ʻO vai tā tātou e tīa'i nei? – Who are we expecting ? ; E'ore tā tātou amura'a toe. – We have more food.

• Mātou (exclusive) – we, them and me ; ʻO mātou ma Herenui i haere mai ai. – We came with Herenui; ʻUa 'ite mai 'oe ia mātou – You saw us/you have seen us.

• 'outou – you (plural) ; ʻA haere atu 'outou, e pe'e atu vau. – You (all) go, I am coming. ; O 'outou 'o vai mā i haere ai i te tautai ? – Who went fishing with you (all)?

• Rātou – them; ʻUa pe'ape'a rātou 'o Teina. – They have quarelled with Teina. ; Nō rātou te pupu pūai. – They have the strongest team.

Word order

Typologically, Tahitian word order is VSO (verb–subject–object), which is typical of Polynesian languages. Some examples of word order from are:

• te tāmā'a nei au – "[present continuous] eat [present continuous] I", "I am eating"
• 'ua tāpū vau 'i te vahie – "[perfective aspect] chop I [object marker] the wood", "I chopped the wood"
• 'ua hohoni hia 'oia 'e te 'uri – "[perfective aspect] bite [passive voice] he by the dog", "He was bitten by the dog"
• 'e mea marō te ha'ari – "Are thing dry the coconut", "The coconuts are dry"
• 'e ta'ata puai 'oia – "Is man strong he", "He is a strong man"

Articles

Definite article

The article te is the definite article and means the. In conversation it is also used as an indefinite article for a or an.

For example;

• te fare – the house; te tane – the man

The plural of the definite article te is te mau.

For example;

• te mau fare – the houses; te mau tane – the men

Also, te may also be used to indicate a plural;

For example;

• te ta'ata – can mean the person or the people

Indefinite article

The indefinite article is te hō'e, meaning a or an.

For example;

• te hō'e fare – a house

ʻO

The article ʻo is used with proper nouns and pronouns and implies it is.

For example;

• ʻO Tahiti – (It is) Tahiti
• ʻO rātou – (It is) they

ʻE

The article ʻe corresponds to ʻo and is used in all common nouns.

For example;

• ʻe ta'ata – (it is) a person
• ʻ e vahine – (it is) a woman
• ʻe mau vahine – (many) women

Aspect and modality markers

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

• e: expresses an unfinished action or state.

E hīmene Mere ānapo: ""Will sing Mary tonight", "Mary will sing tonight"

• 'ua: expresses a finished action, a state different from a preceding state, or surprise.

'Ua riri au: "Unhappy I", "I am unhappy"

• tē ... nei: indicates progressive aspect.

Tē tanu nei vau i te taro: "planting I [dir. obj. marker] the taro", "I am planting the taro"

• e ... ana: expresses a habitual action or state.

E tāere ana 'ōna: "Always is late he", "He is always late"

• i ... nei: indicates a finished action or a past state.

I fānau 'aia i Tahiti nei: "Was born she in Tahiti", "She was born in Tahiti"

• i ... iho nei: indicates an action finished in the immediate past.

I tae mai iho nei 'ōna: "He just came"

• 'ia: indicates a wish, desire, supposition, or condition.

'Ia vave mai!: "Hurry up!"

• 'a: indicates a command or obligation.

'A pi'o 'oe i raro!: "Bend down!"

• 'eiaha, 'iaha: indicates negative imperative.

'Eiaha e parau!: "Do not speak"

• 'ahiri, 'ahani: indicates a condition or hypothetical supposition.

'Ahiri te pahī i ta'ahuri, 'ua pohe pau roa ia tātou: "If the boat had capsized, we would all be dead"

• 'aita: expresses negation.

'Aita vau e ho'i mai: "I will not return"

Vocabulary

Common phrases and words

Tahitian	English
ʻIa ora na	Hello, greetings
Haere mai, maeva, manava	Welcome
parahi	goodbye
nana	bye
ʻE	Yes
ʻAita	No
mauruuru roa	thank you very much
mauruuru	thanks
ʻE aha te huru?	How are you?
matai'i	well, good
matai'i roa	very good
tane	man
vahine	woman
fenua	land
ra'i	sky
vai	water
āuahi	fire
ʻamu	eat
inu	drink
po	night
mahana	day/sun
moana	ocean, sea

Taboo names – pi’i

In many parts of Polynesia the name of an important leader was (and sometimes still is) considered sacred (tapu) and was therefore accorded appropriate respect (mana). In order to avoid offense, all words resembling such a name were suppressed and replaced by another term of related meaning until the personage died. If, however, the leader should happen to live to a very great age this temporary substitution could become permanent.

In the rest of Polynesia tū means to stand, but in Tahitian it became ti’a, because the word was included in the name of king Tū-nui-’ē’a-i-te-atua. Likewise fetū (star) has become in Tahiti feti’a and aratū (pillar) became arati’a. Although nui (big) still occurs in some compounds, like Tahiti-nui, the usual word is rahi (which is a common word in Polynesian languages for 'large'). The term ’ē’a fell in disuse, replaced by purūmu or porōmu. Nowadays ’ē’a means 'path' while purūmu means 'road'.

Tū also had a nickname, Pō-mare (literally means 'night coughing'), under which his dynasty has become best known. By consequence pō (night) became ru`i (nowadays only used in the Bible, pō having become the word commonly in use once again), but mare (literally cough) has irreversibly been replaced by hota.

Other examples include;

• vai (water) became pape as in the names of Papeari, Papeno’o, Pape’ete
• moe (sleep) became ta’oto (the original meaning of which was 'to lie down').

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

See also

• Lord Monboddo
• Swadesh list of Tahitian words

References

• Y. Lemaître, Lexique du tahitien contemporain, 1973. ISBN 2-7099-0228-1
• same; 2nd, reviewed edition, 1995. ISBN 2-7099-1247-3
• T. Henry, Ancient Tahiti – Tahiti aux temps anciens
• D.T. Tryon, Conversational Tahitian; ANU 1970

External links

• Tahitian–English dictionary
• Tahitian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Académie Tahitienne – Fare Vāna’a
• Puna Reo – Cultural Association, English section too