Mangareva language

Mangareva
Native to French Polynesia
Region Gambier Islands, Mangareva Island
Ethnicity 1,340 (2011 census?)[1]
Native speakers
 600 (2011 census)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mrv
Glottolog mang1401[3]

Mangareva (or Mangarevan) is a Polynesian language spoken in the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia by about 600 people on the islands of Gambier and Mangareva[4]. Speakers also have some bilingualism in Tahitian, in which there is a 60% lexical similarity, and usually with French, as well. It is a member of the Marquesic subgroup, and as such is closely related to Hawaiian, Tahitian[5] and Marquesan.[4]

According to the Endangered Languages Project, Mangarevan is considered Endangered with less than 900 speakers out of the ethnic population of 1,491 [6]. The larger portion of the population speak French in the Gambier Islands [6].

History

The first explorers to document the people, traditions, and language of the Gambiers were the French who annexed the islands in 1881. Similar to many Polynesian languages, Mangareva's written language differentiates from spoken language because it was transcribed by Europeans [5]. Polynesian languages were often interpreted by French missionaries reportedly found it difficult to pronounce or recognize the glottal stop of Mangarevan; they chose to represent it in writing using the letter h [7].

Sounds and Phonology

Mangarevan has 9 phonemic consonants: /p t k m n ŋ v r ʔ/.[8] The velar nasal /ŋ/ is spelled |G| in the orthography [5].

The absence of */s/ is shared with most Polynesian languages; the absence of */f/ is a characteristic shared with Rarotongan,[9] Ra'ivavae and Rapa Iti.[8]

Mangareva's phonology has been identified as a Marquesic derivative from Proto-Eastern Polynesian (PEP) and Proto-Central Eastern (PCE) [7].

Doublets, words that have different phonological forms but the same etymological root[10], are more common in Mangarevan language in comparison to any other Eastern Polynesian culture.

For example, a PEP doublet like fafine (ʻwoman’) becomes ʻaʻine in Mangarevan. Furthermore, a modern Mangarevan (MGV) doublet is veʻine (ʻmarried woman’ or ʻwife’) [7].

Comparison with other Polynesian languages

Mangarevan primarily shares commonalities with Rarotongan, Māori, Marquesan and Tahitian [5].

In terms of consonants, Mangarevan shares linguistic similarities with Cook Islands Māori, Paumotu, Rarotongan, as well as New Zealand Māori. Native Mangarevans are thought to have migrated from Rarotonga, and evidence of that lies in the language placement of participal nouns like -ranga in place of -anga, and in terms of plural prefixes like the term "mau" [9]. Since Early Polynesians landmarked Mangareva as they explored the Southeast Pacific, Mangareva acted as one of the first homelands of the early settlers of Rapa Nui. Therefore, the language of Rapa Nui maintains close ethmological roots to the phonology of Mangarevan language [11].

Notes

  1. ↑ Mangareva language at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  2. ↑ Mangareva at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mangareva". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. 1 2 "Mangareva". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Manuireva, Ena (2014). "Mangarevan - A Shifting Language" (PDF). Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  6. 1 2 "Did you know Mangareva is endangered?". Endangered Languages. Retrieved 2018-10-03.
  7. 1 2 3 Fischer, Steven R. (2001-06-01). "Mangarevan Doublets: Preliminary Evidence for Proto-Southeastern Polynesian". Oceanic Linguistics. 40 (1): 112–124. doi:10.1353/ol.2001.0005. ISSN 1527-9421.
  8. 1 2 See p.93 of François & Charpentier (2015).
  9. 1 2 "48. Mangareva Dictionary, Gambier Islands". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 30: 39–40. 1900. doi:10.2307/2842683.
  10. ↑ Bright, James W.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888). "Principles of English Etymology". The American Journal of Philology. 9 (2): 221. doi:10.2307/287575. ISSN 0002-9475.
  11. ↑ KIRCH, PATRICK V.; CONTE, ERIC; SHARP, WARREN; NICKELSEN, CORDELIA (July 2010). "The Onemea Site (Taravai Island, Mangareva) and the human colonization of Southeastern Polynesia". Archaeology in Oceania. 45 (2): 66–79. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.2010.tb00081.x. ISSN 0728-4896.

References

  • Charpentier, Jean-Michel; François, Alexandre (2015). Atlas Linguistique de Polynésie Française — Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia (in French and English). Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie Française. ISBN 978-3-11-026035-9.
  • A Dictionary of Mangareva (or Gambier Islands), E. Tregear, 1899 - see on Google books



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