Tahitian

Tahitian, also know as te Reo Tahiti or te Reo Ma'ohi, is a descendant of the Austronesian family, more specifically of the Central Eastern Polynesian family. It is spoken mainly in the Society Isles (which of course includes the island of Tahiti!) and can also be found in the Tuamotu Archipelago, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Vanuatu. There are 150,000 speakers total (117,000 in French Polynesia, 7,000 in New Caledonia, 262 in New Zealand and so on). The Tahitian language is most closely related to Rarotongan, New Zealand Maori, and Hawaiian.


































In comparison to all the Austronesian languages, from what I've encountered, Hawaiian seems
to have the most similarities to Tahitian. Some of those similarities are:

• the glottal stop: in Tahitian it is called the eta, in Hawaiian it is called the okina. They are both consonants in their respective language and it is written as an apostrophe. Those not familiar with Polynesian languages probably will not be able to hear this consonant or recognize it in writing.
• distinction between long and short vowels: long vowels are marked with macrons (tarava in Tahitian, mekona in Hawaii). For example, in Tahitian, "pāto" meaning "to pick, to pluck" and "pato" meaning "to break out" are spelled the same, but they are only distinguished by a vowel sound.
• verb-subject-object order: this is typical in most Polynesian languages, meaning that the verb usually comes at the beginning of the sentence followed by the subject and object.
• consonant-vowel ordering: every syllable in Tahitian ends in a vowel just as in Hawaiian. There are never consonant clusters, but it is quite common for 2 or 3 vowels to be grouped together, each vowel would be a separate syllable and would be clearly pronounced.
  

Some interesting facts: Tahitian is the official language of French Polynesia alongside French, but most notable is the fact that Tahitian is only used throughout the media on a limited basis. You may see Tahitian in newspapers here and there and it is sometimes used in radio broadcasts, and TV news for a few minutes every day. Also, only in the last two years has the Tahitian language been permitted to be taught in schools.

In parts of Polynesia, the names of important leaders were sacred. So, as to make sure that no one disrespected the name of a great leader, similar words were temporarily replaced while that leader was alive (or if a leader lived for a long time, it was possible that the new vocabulary would stay in the language). For example, in the rest of Polynesia "tu" means to stand, but in Tahitian it is "ti’a" because of king Tu-nui-’e’a-i-te-atua. Likewise, "fetu" (star) has become "feti’a" in Tahitian and "aratu" (pillar) became "arati’a".

Here's the link to a basic Tahitian-English dictionary: http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Tahitian-english/

Works Cited
-http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/258953
-http://www.janesoceania.com/oceania_language/
-http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tahitian.htm
-http://www.polynesianislands.com/fp/tahitian.html
-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/australiaandpacific/4448867/Sailing-in-the-South-Pacific-Paradise-recast.html