Rapa language

Rapa
Reo Rapa; Reo Oparo
Native to French Polynesia
Native speakers
 300 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ray
Glottolog rapa1245[2]

Rapa (or Rapan, autonym Reo Rapa or Reo Oparo) is the language of Rapa, in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia. It is an East Central Polynesian language, along with the Marquesic and Tahitic languages. There are three current versions on the Rapa Language currently being spoken: Old Rapa, Reo Rapa and New Rapa.[3] Old Rapa has been mostly replaced by Reo Rapa, a mix of the more commonly spoken Tahitian and Old Rapa.[4] New Rapa is commonly spoken by middle-aged and younger speakers.[5] Rapa is a critically endangered language, and there are only around 300 speakers of Reo Rapa, with only 15% of them able to speak Old Rapa.[6]

Classification

Reo Rapa as a language was created, not simply by incorporating lexical terms from Tahitian to Old Rapa, but from bilingualism and language shift due to the dominance of Tahitian. While Reo Rapa is a mix of Tahitian and Old Rapa, speakers can generally tell if the words they are speaking is sourced from Tahitian or Old Rapa due to phonemes absent in one language and present in the other. Based on the phonological form, speakers of Reo Rapa are aware that certain words they speak belong to Old Rapa or Tahitian.[7] For instance, velar nasal sounds such as /ng/ and velar stop sounds like /k/ are not present in Tahitian but are in Old Rapa.[8]

Reo Rapa is not a koine language, where the language is created due to interaction between two groups speaking mutually intelligible languages.[9] Contact between Old Rapa and Tahitian speakers was indirect and never prolonged, which is also a requirement to be called a koine language. Reo Rapa was the result of a completely monolingual community that shifted as a whole to the more dominant Tahitian Language, thus creating a bilingual community, which eventually created Reo Rapa.[9] Therefore, it is crucial to note that Reo Rapa should not be confused with the Rapa Nui language. The language is sufficiently different from the rest of the Austral languages to be considered a separate language.[10]

History

The loss of the indigenous Old Rapa began with an enormous population decrease due to disease brought by foreigners (mainly Europeans). Within the span of five years the population decreased by 75%. By 1867 the population was down to 120 residents from its estimated original of two thousand. This made the island of Rapa Iti susceptible to outside influences.[3] Of the islands of French Polynesia, Tahiti had become a large influence and had become a filter for Western influence, so before anything entered the islands it would have to pass through Tahiti. Being the powerful influence it was, its ways of religion, education, and government were easily adopted by the people of Rapa Iti, and the language of Tahiti followed.[3] The language we know as Reo Rapa was not created by the combination of 2 languages but through the introduction of Tahitian to the Rapa monolingual community. Reo Rapa is not a completely different language from Old Rapa or Tahitian but more of a creole. Old Rapa words are still used for the grammar and structure of the sentence of phrase but most common context words were replaced by Tahitian.[11]

New Rapa

New Rapa is a form or variety of Reo Rapa starting to be used by people under 50 as an attempt by the younger generation on Rapa Iti to reverse the language shift to the Tahitian Language. New Rapa is different from Reo Rapa because speakers can definitively tell which words originated from Old Rapa and which from Tahitian. In New Rapa, the Tahitian elements are phonologically modified as an attempt to create words that sound more similar to Old Rapa instead of Tahitian. In order to be called a "true local" Rapa speaker, the newer generation are modifying the Reo Rapa language so that it sounds less like Tahitian and more like Old Rapa.[12]

Geographic distribution

The Rapa Language over the years, with a strong Tahitian sociocultural influence, has resulted in speech varieties in the Rapa Language. The three speech varieties are known as Old Rapa, Reo Rapa, and New Rapa. French influence has also brought the French language to the island of Rapa Iti.[3]

Speech Varieties Definition Speaker Base
Old Rapa Indigenous language of Rapa Iti Some elders and very few speakers
Reo Rapa Variety based on Tahitian and Old Rapa. Tahitian is dominant source of the language. Everyone in the community
New Rapa Based on Reo Rapa but includes new terminology to sound “more Rapa” Middle aged and younger community members
Tahitian Tahitian Language Middle aged community members and elders in certain domains
French French Language Almost everyone, except for the oldest members of the community

[3]

The most commonly spoken language on the island of Rapa Iti is Reo Rapa. It was created from a culmination of Tahitian and Old Rapa and was developed due to language shift. However, this shift has stopped and from it a shift-break language has occurred known as the New Rapa. New Rapa is a variety of Reo Rapa and it illustrates the attempt to reverse the shift to the Tahitian language.[3]

Phonology

Like most Polynesian languages, Reo Rapa is a language which shares close ties with other Polynesian languages like Tahitian and Old Rapa. Tahitian played a major part in its influence for the creation of modern terms within the Reo Rapa language whilst Old Rapa contributed most of the traditional/cultural vocabulary. However this influence did not affect preexisting terms as heavily.[13] Below are two language charts comparing some common words and basic numerals within the Reo Rapa language and contrasting the similarities to the languages which have influence it the most.

Numerical Comparison[14] Common Words[14]
Number Tahitian Reo Rapa Old Rapa % similarity
one hō’ē ta’i hō’ē 70%
two piti rua piti 70%*
three toru toru toru14 100%
four maha ā maha 78%
five pae rima pae 95%*
six ono ono ono 100%
seven hitu ’itu hitu 52%*
eight va’u varu va’u 98%
nine iva iva iva 100%
ten ’ahuru rongouru ’ahuru 89%
hundred hānere rau hānere 95%
thousand tauatini mano tauatini 95%
Number Tahitian Reo Rapa Old Rapa % similarity
come/go haere naku haere 61%
eat ’amu kai kai 70%*
parent metua karakua metua 70%
brother tu’āne tungāne tu’āne 86%
sister tuahine tua’ine tuahine 86%
grandparent rū’au ’ina’ina ’ina’ina 72%
sky ra’i rangi ra’i 72%*
day mahana ao mahana 75%*
sun rā pake pake 81%
moon, month ’āva’e kāvake ’āva’e 100%
fresh water vai kōta’e kōta’e 100%
river ’ānāvai mangavai mangavai 98%
sea water miti kara miti 100%
taro taro mīkaka mīkaka 100%
tear (n) roimata karavai karavai 92%
name i’oa eingoa eingoa 100%
mountain mou’a mounga mou’a 81%
hill ’āivi taratika taratika 83%
talk paraparau ’akaero paraparau 72%

Phonology of Old Rapa

Consonant Phonemes of Old Rapa[5]
Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Retroflex Velar Glottal
Plosive p t k ʔ
Nasal m ɲ ŋ
Fricative v
Tap or Flap ɽ

Similar to other languages that fall within the Eastern Polynesian language family, the consonant phoneme inventory of Old Rapa is relatively small. Consisting of only nine distinct consonants, Old Rapa is constructed of eight voiceless phonemes and one voiced phoneme.

Of the nine phonemes, four are a result of a Stop - /p/, /t/, /k/, and /ʔ/. While /p/ is constantly bilabial and /t/ is dento-alveolar, the place where /k/ is articulated can range anywhere from pre-velar to uvular. When spoken, the place of articulation of /k/ depends on the succeeding vowel segment. Mary Walworth uses the following examples to demonstrate these differing occurrences:

  • Before a high-fronted [i]: in the word kite ‘know’, /k/ is pre-velar
  • Before a mid-fronted [e]: in the word kete ‘basket’, /k/ is velar
  • Before a low-back [ɑ]: in the word karakua ‘parent’, /k/ is distinguishably more backed
  • Before a mid-back [o]: in the word komo ‘sleep’, /k/ is uvular

The alveolar and post-alveolar stops, while distinguishable in the linguistic study of Old Rapa, are often misinterpreted as the phoneme /k/ to native speakers. This observation was noted multiple times in Walworth’s conversations with native speakers; for example, the difference between Tākate and Kākake was not perceived by the native speaker.

In the study of velar stops, there are instances in which lenition, the weakened articulation of a consonant, occurs. In the first case, the velar stop /k/ transitions more into a velar fricative when placed in the unstressed syllables. In Walworth’s example in the word kōta'e ‘water’, the /k/ phoneme is pronounced as [k]; however in the word eipoko ‘head’, the /k/ is pronounced as [x]. The second case is very similar to the first, but on a “phrase-level”. In this sense, when placed in a word that is not stressed, lenition occurs.

When referring to the Rapa usage of the phoneme /ɾ/, there is a distinct difference between the alveolar tap and a trill. When pronounced in words where it is located at the beginning of the stressed syllable, the alveolar tap becomes better defined as a trill. The usage of this phoneme and its variants is evident in the Walworth’s examples:

Examples where a trill is perceived:

  • /rapa/ ‘name of island’ > [‘ra.pa]
  • /roki/ ‘taro-bed’ > [‘ro.xi]
  • /ra:kau/ ‘plant-life’ > [‘ra:.xao]

Examples where a tap is retained:

  • /karakua/ ‘parent’ > [ka.ɾa.’ku.a]
  • /ʔare/ ‘house’ > [‘ʔa.ɾe]
  • /taratika/ ‘ridge’ > [ta.ɾa.’ti.xa]

While currently indeterminable, it is plausible that in Old Rapa the /ɾ/ phoneme existed closer resembling the lateral approximate /l/. In an article published by John Stokes in 1955, what is now taken to be the /ɾ/ phoneme was approximated to be mix between, “a clear l as in English and soft r.” However, Walworth states that even in the oldest of her consultants, there was no recollection of the /l/ phoneme, leading her to make the assumption that the /ɾ/ phoneme has come about as a result of the Tahitian influence.

When observing the usage of the labiodental fricative /v/, the shift period away from Old Rapa becomes more evident. In the older generations of native speakers, this phoneme is articulated more like that of the labiodental approximant ʋ. The usage of the labiodental fricative is almost always used by the newer generations of native speakers, whereas the approximant is almost never used. This change is directly attributed to the Tahitian influence of the labiodental fricative.[5]

Grammar

Reo Rapa was the combination of preserved grammar and sentence structure from the parent language, Old Rapa, with notable influences from Tahitian in the form of common content words. The grammar structure of Reo Rapa is of an SVO language created through the introduction of a widely spoken Tahitian to a monolingual Rapa community. The language is considered to be a creole language with grammar, traditional words, and sentence structure to be made up of Old Rapa while common context words are similar to, if not outright identical to Tahitian.[11] Some examples of Reo Rapa grammar is shown below.

  • Perfective TAM (Tense - Aspect - Mood) /ka/
    • ka rahi17 para te taofe
      • ka (Perfective Aspect) + rahi17 (Much) + para (Ripe) + te (Article) + taofe (coffee)
        • 'Some coffee was really ripe.'[15]
  • Definite word /tō/
    • e hina’aro na vau tō mei’a ra
      • e (Imperfective Aspect) + hina’aro (like) + na (Deictic) + vau (Singular) + tō (Definitive) + mei’a (Banana) + ra(Deixis)
        • 'I would like those you bananas (you mentioned).'[15]
  • Question words
    • /a'a/ (What)
    • /'ea/ (Where)
    • /a'ea/ (When)
    • /nā ’ea/ (How)
    • /'ia/ (How many)
      • ex. e a’a tō-koe huru
        • e (Imperfective Aspect) + a’a (What) + tō-koe (Article)(Possessive marker [o])-(Plural) + huru (state)
          • 'How are you' (literal translation - 'What is your state?')[15]
  • Past negative /ki’ere/
    • ki’ere vau i haere i te fare
      • ki’ere (Negative) + vau (Singular) + i (Prefective Aspect)) + haere (Go) + i (Prepositional) + te (Article) + fare(House)
        • 'I did not go to a house'[15]
  • Non-past negative (Regular negative) /kāre/
    • kāre tā-koe puta
      • kāre (Negative) + tā-koe (Article)(Possive marker [a])-(Plural) + puta (book)
        • 'You don't have your book.' (Literal translation - 'your book doesn't exist')[15]
  • Adverbial /ake/
    • me rahi ake teie eika i
      • me (Thing) + rahi (Big) + ake (Complement word, Adverbial) + teie (Demonstrative) + eika (Fish) + i (Prepositional)
        • 'This fish is bigger than my fish the other day'[15]

While Old Rapa contributes majority of Reo Rapa grammar words, some are taken from the Tahitian language as well such as the negative words, 'aita and 'eiaha. While 'aita is used as a simple "no" in Reo Rapa, 'eiaha is used to add a negative to a sentence to change a positive "yes" sentence to a negative "no" sentence.

  • Negative particle /'eiaha/
    • ’eiaha ’a haere mai i tō-ku fare
      • ’eiaha (Negative particle) + ’a (Imperfective mood ~ (A command or request)) + haere (Go) + mai (Evidential) + i (Preposition) + tō-ku (Grammar article (Prefix/Suffix) + Possessive + Grammatical Patient + Singular) + fare (House)

Language endangerment

To analyze the endangerment of a language UNESCO uses nine factors to gauge the level of endangerment.[3] For the Rapa Language, as stated by Mary E. Walworth the language is in the Grade 1, critically endangered zone with limited speakers.[3] The Language Status is currently classified as 7 (Shifting Language),according to the world ethnologue, this transition from Old Rapa language to Reo Rapa is quickly leading to the replacement of Old Rapa. Preventing the Old Rapa language and its culture of Rapa Iti from being passed down to the next generations. Currently the only people who speak Old Rapa proficiently are in their 60’s. And as more elders pass away, this will result in less opportunities for other speakers to use or learn the language and the language itself will become even more increasingly endangered.[3]

Number of speakers

Although UNESCO does not have a scale to measure the number of speakers, it is possible to measure the vitality of a language with proportion to its population.[3]

Language endangerment chart: Number of speakers/proportions[3]
Degree of endangerment Grade Speakers of native language
safe 5 All speak the language
unsafe 4 Nearly all speak the language
definitely endangered 3 A majority speak the language
severely endangered 2 A minority speak the language
critically endangered 1 Very few speak the language
extinct 0 None speak the language

The Old Rapa language is classified as Grade 1 or critically endangered where very few speak the language, the few who do generally are of the elder generation.

Community language attitudes

Old Rapa is classified as a Grade 2 when referring to how the members of the indigenous community recognize and react to the progression of language loss of the years. Within the Rapa Iti community, there is a large following of people that understand that the language of Old Rapa was subject to a period of severe language loss. However, there is also a large number of people who are not aware of this language loss. The cause of separation between these two perceptions has been found to be a result of formal education and religious conversion.[16]

The first influence to the language loss is that in the olden school system, speaking Old Rapa was considered forbidden. The second influence is a direct result of the imposition of foreign religions in which Tahitian was the primary language. Taking these two factors into consideration, it is hypothesized that Old Rapa was thereby classified as the inferior language and led to embarrassment when spoken between natives.

The first classes to receive formal education were primarily made up of natives who would have been, and are, in their 50s–60s at the time of this publication, in 2015. The above hypothesis and age group are further supported by select documented conversations, such as that of a 59-year-old, in which she states that the real Rapa is found in the Bible and that it is the language of both the church and the island that she experienced growing at the time.[16]

Type and quality of documentation

Current documentation of Rapa languages are classified as inadequate. The documentation of Old Rapa is limited in terms of both quantity and quality, severely hindering any potential efforts to revitalize the language. The oldest, published documentation of Old Rapa dates back to 1864, under the London Missionary Society, was a short word list compiled by James L. Green.[17]

After Green's findings, any further documentation of Old Rapa comes to a standstill, and resumes approximately 50 years later. The most comprehensive study of the language is the 1930, 5 volume, unpublished manuscript by John F.G. Stokes. Closely followed by a more recent 2006 unpublished lexicon used to later write a book published in 2008. The lexicon was put together by Tomite Reo Rapa and contains a collection of the Rapa vocabulary. The book, Ghasarian and Make 2008, was the product of the work of the Swiss ethnologist, Ghasarian and a Rapa elder, Alfred Make. Within the book, the evidence of the Tahitian influence on the language is presented and supported.[18]

Due to Old Rapa being so highly under-documented, there is an increased chance for the language to transition to be deemed extinct. There are currently no audio or video recordings of the language, which further contributes to the challenges of the Rapa Iti community's efforts to both revitalize and sustain their heritage language.[17]

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.
  • Walworth, Mary E. The Language of Rapa Iti: Description of a Language In Change. Diss. U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Honolulu: U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Print.
  • Richards, Rhys. "The Earliest Foreign Visitors and Their Massive Depopulation of Rapa-iti from 1824 to 1830." Jso.revues.org. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://jso.revues.org/67?file=1>.
  • Walworth. Mary E. (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact, 10(1), 98-141. DOI: 10.1163/19552629-01001006.

Notes

  1. ↑ Rapa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Rapa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Walworth, Mary E. The Language of Rapa Iti: Description of a Language In Change. Diss. U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Honolulu: U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Print.
  4. ↑ Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. pp. 89, 99.
  5. 1 2 3 Walworth, Mary E. THE LANGUAGE OF RAPA ITI: DESCRIPTION OF A LANGUAGE IN CHANGE. Diss. U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Honolulu: U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Print.
  6. ↑ Walworth, Mary (2014). "Rapa". Endangered Languages. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  7. ↑ Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. p. 120.
  8. ↑ Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. p. 105.
  9. 1 2 Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. pp. 121, 122.
  10. ↑ See Charpentier & François (2015).
  11. 1 2 Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. p. 119.
  12. ↑ Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. p. 124.
  13. ↑ Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. p. 100.
  14. 1 2 Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. p. 108.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. pp. 111, 112.
  16. 1 2 Walworth, Mary E. THE LANGUAGE OF RAPA ITI: DESCRIPTION OF A LANGUAGE IN CHANGE. University of Hawaii at Manoa. p. 32.
  17. 1 2 Walworth, Mary E. THE LANGUAGE OF RAPA ITI: DESCRIPTION OF A LANGUAGE IN CHANGE. University of Hawaii at Manoa. p. 33.
  18. ↑ Walworth, Mary E. THE LANGUAGE OF RAPA ITI: DESCRIPTION OF A LANGUAGE IN CHANGE. University of Hawaii at Manoa. p. 34.
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