Tahitian Language

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