Tahitian Language
Tahitian (Reo Mā`ohi or 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, and distantly to Malay, Tagalog and Malagasy.
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
Read more about Tahitian Language: Alphabet, Taboo Names – pi’i
Famous quotes containing the word language:
““What may this mean? Language of Man pronounced
By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed!
The first at least of these I thought denied
To beasts, whom God on their creation-day
Created mute to all articulate sound;
The latter I demur, for in their looks
Much reason, and in their actions, oft appears.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)