Moriori language

Moriori
Native to New Zealand
Region Polynesia
Extinct 1898, with the death of Hirawanu Tapu[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog mori1267[2]

Moriori is an extinct[3] Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori. It is the native language of the Moriori, the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands (Rēkohū in Moriori), which are east of New Zealand and under its sovereignty.

History

The Chatham Island's first European contact was with William R. Broughton of Great Britain who landed on November 29, 1971 and claimed the islands. He renamed his ship, HMS Chatham. Broughton's crewmen intermarried with the women of Moriori. [4]

The invasion from Taranaki had a heavy impact on Moriori population, culture and language, with only 101 Moriori remaining in 1862,[5] and few speaking the language by the 1870s.[6] However, Samuel Deighton, Resident Magistrate on the Chathams from 1873 to 1891, compiled a short vocabulary of Moriori words, with their equivalents in Māori and English. The vocabulary was published as an appendix of Michael King's Moriori: A People Rediscovered.

The language was reconstructed for Barry Barclay's 2000 film documentary The Feathers of Peace,[7] in a recreation of Moriori contact with Pākehā and Māori.

In 2001, as part of a cultural revival movement, Moriori people began attempts to revive the language, and compiled a database of Moriori words.[8] There is a POLLEX (Polynesian Lexicon Project Online) database of Moriori words as well.[9]

The 2006 New Zeala[4]nd census showed 945 people choosing to include "Moriori" amongst their tribal affiliations, compared to 35 people in the 1901 census.[10]

Classification

One hypothesis that was discredited in the 1960s and 1970s stated the Moriori people were different from the Māori settlers of New Zealand, and another hypothesis among archaeologists who believed that the Moriori people who settled on the Chatham Islands were originally Māori.[4]

The genealogical history of the Moriori language exposes the Proto-tahitic subgroup that separates into four languages: Tahitian, Rarotongan, Tuamotuan, and Maori. Moriori is considered a dialect of Maori. The two languages share similar phonological structure. [11]

Geographic Distribution

The Moriori language was spoken by the people of the Chatham Islands near New Zealand. Characteristics of the Moriori language show commonness with the Māori dialect spoken by the tribe in Māori: Ngāi Tahu tribe of the South Island. [4]

Alphabet

Its alphabet matches the Māori alphabet.[12]

A, E, I, O, U, Ā, Ē, Ī, Ō, Ū, P, T, K, M, N, Ng, Wh, H, W, R.

Long vowels are marked with a macron.

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i u
Open-Mid ɛ ɔ
Open a
Bilabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Unaspirated plosive p t k
Voiceless fricative ɸ h
Nasal m n ŋ
Tap ɾ
Approximant w

[13]

R is pronounced as a trill /r/, Ng is pronounced as a "ng" /ŋ/, and Wh is pronounced as a "f"-like sound /ɸ/.[12]

Most of the words used in Moriori are post glottal glide. Their /f/ become the glide /w/, while the laryngeal feature is expressed by the glottal /h/. The coronal /s/ produces as the coronal glide /j/. [14]

Moriori had a voiceless palatal fricative, while Māori used voiceless alveolardental stop.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Hirawanu Tapu Peace Scholarship" (PDF). Moriori.co.nz. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Moriori". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Maori at Ethnologue
  4. 1 2 3 4 http://thegrid.co.nz/moriori-people/
  5. ↑ Denise Davis & Māui Solomon (28 Oct 2008). "Moriori: The impact of new arrivals". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
  6. ↑ King, Michael (1989). "Moriori: A People Rediscovered". Auckland: Viking: 136.
  7. ↑ "The Feathers of Peace (2000)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  8. ↑ Denise Davis & Māui Solomon (28 Oct 2008). "Moriori: The second dawn". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
  9. ↑ Greenhill, SJ; Clark, R (2011). "POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online". Oceanic Linguistics. 50 (2): 551–559. doi:10.1353/ol.2011.0014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Denise Davis & Māui Solomon (28 Oct 2008). "Moriori: Facts and figures". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 2009-02-07.
  11. ↑ Sutton, Douglas G. (1980). "A CULTURE HISTORY OF THE CHATHAM ISLANDS". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 89 (1): 67–93.
  12. 1 2 Simon Ager. "Moriori Alphabet". Omniglot. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
  13. ↑ Simon Ager. "Moriori Alphabet". Omniglot. Retrieved 2017-07-15.
  14. ↑ Fallon, P. D. (1998). The synchronic and diachronic phonology of ejectives (Order No. 9900827). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (304447675). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/304447675?accountid=147035
  15. ↑ BIGGS, B. G. (1957). The Structure Of Maori (Order No. 0022673). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (301930560). Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/301930560?accountid=147035

Further reading

  • Galbraith, Sarah. A Grammar of the Moriori language.
  • Clark, R. (1994). "Moriori and Maori: The Linguistic Evidence". In Sutton, D. (ed) The origins of the First New Zealanders. Auckland: Auckland University Press. pp. 123–135.
  • Taiuru, K.N. (2016). Word list and analysis of te reo Moriori.
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