Wallisian language

Influence from Tongan

Wallisian is related to Rennellese. It is also closely related to Tongan, because of former Tonga invasions in Wallis. For instance, the past form "ne'e" comes from Tongan. Wallisian is very closely related to Tongan, while Futunan is more closely related to Samoan.

Influence from English

During the 19th century, a form of pidgin English was used by Wallisians to communicate with traders, mainly due to the fact that the natives of Wallis and Futuna had a lot of contact with New England whaling ships as they frequently stopped at Wallis and Futuna. Currently, there are about 70 pidgin words that are still in use on Wallis island. In 1937 however an infestation of coconut beetles on Wallis island scared many of the trade partners of Wallis island whom happened to have been mainly English. Trade to Fiji for example was halted because of the infestation.^[7] Loanwords included european foods (laisi : rice, suka: sugar) and objects (pepa: paper), but also some animals (hosi: horse)^[8]

Influence from English grew stronger after the American army set a military base on the island in 1942. Loanwords such as puna (spoon), motoka (car, from motor car), famili (family), suka (sugar), peni (pen), tini (tin), etc. have integrated the Wallisian language.

Influence from Latin

When the missionaries came, they also introduced many Latin words, mainly for religious purposes. Jesus Christ was rendered into Sesu Kilisito, words like komunio (communion), kofesio (confession), temonio (devil, from demonio, fr démon), but also some non religious vocabulary : hola (time, hour (lat. hora)) ; hisitolia (history (lat. historia)) were introduced and are now part of the everyday Wallisian language. Not all religious words have been borrowed, though. Missionaries also tried to use existing concepts in Wallisians and give them a new Christian meaning. Thus Tohi tapu ("sacred book") refers to the Bible, while aho tapu ("holy day") means Sunday and Po Tapu ("sacred night") is Christmas; the concept of Trinity was translated into Tahitolu tapu which literally translates to "one-three holy". Missionaries also introduced the days of the week into the language, using the Latin ecclesiastical style of naming weekdays with feria (translitterated into felia), much like in Portuguese.

Claire Moyse-Faurie explains that in Wallisian, "loanwords conform to the syllabic structure by inserting an epenthetic vowel into the cluster and by either adding a final vowel or eliminating the final consonant".^[9]

Influence from French

Wallisian has been heavily influenced by French. French missionaries arrived at the end of the 19th century; in 1961, Wallis and Futuna became a French oversea territory and French is now the official language. According to many linguists such as K. Rensch French did not affect much the language in the beginning but is now profoundly transforming Wallisian. Many neologisms have been created by transliterating French words into Wallisian, as in the vocabulary of politics. Words such as Falanise (France), Telituale (Territory), politike, (politics), Lepupilika (Republic)..., many technical words (telefoni, televisio...), food that was brought in Wallis by the Europeans (tomato, tapaka (tobacco, from fr tabac, ), alikole (alcohol), kafe (coffee, from fr café)), etc. are borrowings from French.

In 1984, Karl Rensch stated that more and more French loanwords were entering the Wallisian language^[10] . In the 2000s, young people have started mixing both languages in their speech^[11].

Relationships between Wallisian and Futunan

Despite being two different polynesian languages, Wallisian and Futunan are similar enough to one another that knowing one language makes it much easier to learn the other as well.

Many Wallisians see themselves as superior to Futunans, such as reinforcing stereotypes claiming that Wallisian is easy while Futunan is a difficult language to pronounce. These stereotypes arise from the fact that since Wallis island was chosen as the administrative center for the French and as the seat of the Catholic bishop. Wallis island enjoyed more benefits from France and hence Wallisian became dominant to Futunan, especially since Futuna island lacked the educational resources that Wallis island could provide in the 1990s^[7]. A highly educated Futunan is typically expected to be trilingual is French, Futunan, & Wallisian. Only by being trilingual in all three can a Futunan retain the pride of Futuna island while being able to have the opportunity to advance economically and educationally on Wallis island.

The language debate: the Church and the French administration

The natives of Wallis islands and Futuna were able to get very close to the Catholic missionaries as the missionaries stayed, learned the native languages Wallisian and Futunan, and the missionaries created schools in order to educate the young and encourage young men to join the priesthood. The natives of the islands had a poor relationship with administrative officials since administrators only stay for two to three years before being moved elsewhere, this causes administrators to typically not learn local languages as they had very little use for it being exposed for such a relatively short period of time compared to the missionaries. The natives being close to the Catholics however caused the locals to begin learning Latin words which they began to incorporate into their own language, especially in religious settings. This rift between the clergy and the administration was seen all the way in France where anticlericalism was widespread. French politicians and church officials had been having difficulties agreeing with one another. The clergy for example found very little to no reason to impose the French language of the natives of Wallis and Futuna, however Paris demanded that the islands learn the language and an agreement between French politicians and the Catholic church was made. French would be taught two hours a day, four times a week, and as long as French classes did not interfere with Catholic studies. In 1959 when the islands of Wallis and Futuna joined the French republic as an overseas territory the educational system changed dramatically. The Catholic church lost control of the educational system to the French politicians who ordered teachers of the French language from France to teach French on the islands. Most of these teachers had very little experience teaching French as a second language and the change in the educational system led to a sociolinguistic split, younger generations became more or less bilingual while the older generations had a very little grasp of the French language. French teachers on the Wallis and Futuna islands were in a similar position as the French administrators. French teachers only taught for two to three years before their teaching contract ended and they are moved elsewhere. Having similar opinions to the priests the French teachers were asked about their experience when returning to France and they usually said that teaching French on the islands was a waste of time as only few people saw the need for the locals to become fluent in French. As the debates over how the people should be educated continued, Wallisians realized the cultural importance of their language and found a new desire to protect it by attempting to standardize the language, creating social media/entertainment in Wallisian rather than in French (despite the fact that most media comes from France anyways), and by making Wallisian a school subject.^[7]

As the French missionaries arrived in 1837 spreading Latin language, the natives became weary of a loss of Wallisian culture. The natives of Wallis islands began to have Wallisian classes for middle school children, and when the community obtained F.M. & A.M. transmitters the community began operating radio channels specifically in Wallisian.^[7]