Rapa Nui language























































Rapa Nui
Vananga rapa nui
Pronunciation
[ˈɾapa ˈnu.i]
Native to Chile
Region Easter Island
Ethnicity Rapa Nui people
Native speakers
2,700 (2007)[1]
Language family

Austronesian

  • Malayo-Polynesian

    • Oceanic

      • Polynesian

        • Eastern Polynesian
          • Rapa Nui





Writing system

Latin script, possibly formerly rongorongo
Official status
Official language in

 Easter Island (Chile)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 rap
ISO 639-3 rap
Glottolog
rapa1244[2]

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Rapa Nui or Rapanui (/ˌræpəˈni/)[3] also known as Pascuan (/ˈpæskjuən/), or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family spoken on the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.


The island is home to a population of just under 6,000 and is a special territory of Chile. According to census data,[4] there are about 3,700 people on the island and on the Chilean mainland who identify as ethnically Rapa Nui. Census data do not exist on the primary known and spoken languages among these people and there are recent claims that the number of fluent speakers is as low as 800.[5] Rapa Nui is a minority language and many of its adult speakers also speak Spanish; most Rapa Nui children now grow up speaking Spanish and those who do learn Rapa Nui begin learning it later in life.[6]




Contents






  • 1 Phonology


    • 1.1 Consonants


    • 1.2 Vowels




  • 2 Orthography


  • 3 Morphology


    • 3.1 Syllable structure


    • 3.2 Reduplication


    • 3.3 Loanwords




  • 4 Syntax


    • 4.1 Word order


    • 4.2 Pronoun


      • 4.2.1 Abbreviations used




    • 4.3 Questions


    • 4.4 Conjunction


    • 4.5 Possession


      • 4.5.1 Alienable and inalienable possession


      • 4.5.2 A and O possession


      • 4.5.3 Classifiers


      • 4.5.4 Abbreviations used




    • 4.6 Exclamation


    • 4.7 Compound words


    • 4.8 Negation


      • 4.8.1 Position in the Verb Phrase


      • 4.8.2 Clausal Negators


        • 4.8.2.1 ʻIna


        • 4.8.2.2 Kai


        • 4.8.2.3 (E)ko




      • 4.8.3 Constituent Negator:


        • 4.8.3.1 Taʻe




      • 4.8.4 Noun negator: kore


      • 4.8.5 Hia / ia


      • 4.8.6 Double negation






  • 5 Numerals


  • 6 History


    • 6.1 Language notes from 1770


    • 6.2 Language notes from 1774


    • 6.3 Post-Peruvian enslavement


    • 6.4 Language notes from 1886


    • 6.5 Language notes from the twentieth century


    • 6.6 Rongorongo




  • 7 Hispanisation


  • 8 Footnotes


  • 9 References


  • 10 External links





Phonology


Rapa Nui has ten consonants and five vowels.



Consonants








































Labial

Alveolar

Velar

Glottal

Nasal
/m/

⟨m⟩


/n/

⟨n⟩


/ŋ/

⟨g⟩




Stop
/p/

⟨p⟩


/t/

⟨t⟩


/k/

⟨k⟩


/ʔ/

⟨ʻ⟩



Fricative
/v/

⟨v⟩




/h/

⟨h⟩



Flap

/ɾ/

⟨r⟩





As present generation Rapa Nui speak Spanish as their first language in younger years and learn Rapa Nui later in life, flap /ɾ/ in word-initial position can be pronounced alveolar trill [r].



Vowels





























Front

Central

Back

High
i

u

Mid
e

o

Low

a


All vowels can be either long or short and are always long when they are stressed in the final position of a word.[7] Most vowel sequences are present, with the exception of *uo. Repetition sequences do not occur except in eee ('yes').[8]



Orthography


Written Rapa Nui uses the Latin script. The Latin alphabet for Rapa Nui consists of 20 letters:


A, Â, E, Ê, G, H, I, Î, K, M, N, O, Ô, P, R, T, U, Û, V, ʻ


The nasal velar consonant /ŋ/ is generally written with the Latin letter ⟨g⟩, but occasionally as ⟨ng⟩. The glottal plosive /ʔ/ is typically written with an okina ⟨ʻ⟩ but frequently with an apostrophe ⟨ʼ⟩.[9] A special letter, ⟨ġ⟩, is sometimes used to distinguish the Spanish /ɡ/, occurring in introduced terms, from the Rapa Nui /ŋ/.[10]



Morphology



Syllable structure


Syllables in Rapa Nui are CV (consonant-vowel) or V (vowel). There are no consonant clusters or word-final consonants.[8]



Reduplication


The reduplication of whole nouns or syllable parts performs a variety of different functions within Rapa Nui.[11] To describe colours for which there is not a predefined word, the noun for an object of a like colour is duplicated to form an adjective. For example:



  • ʻehu (mist) → ʻehu ʻehu = dark grey

  • tea (dawn) → tea tea = white


Besides forming adjectives from nouns, the reduplication of whole words can indicate a multiple or intensified action. For example:



  • hatu (weave) → hatuhatu (fold)

  • kume (undo) → kumekume (take to pieces)

  • ruku (dive) → rukuruku (go diving)


There are some apparent duplicate forms for which the original form has been lost. For example:


  • rohirohi (tired)

The reduplication of the initial syllable in verbs can indicate plurality of subject or object. In this example the bolded section represents the reduplication of a syllable which indicates the plurality of the subject of a transitive verb:


ʻori (dance):

E ʻori ro ʻa (he/she/they is/are dancing)

E ʻoʻori ro ʻa (they are all dancing)



The reduplication of the final two syllables of a verb indicates plurality or intensity. In this example the bolded section represents the reduplication of two final syllables, indicating intensity or emphasis:


Haʻaki (tell):

Ka haʻaki (Tell the story)

Ka haʻakiʻaki (Tell the whole story)




Loanwords


Rapa Nui incorporates a number of loanwords in which constructions such as consonant clusters or word-final consonants occur, though they do not occur naturally in the language. Historically, the practice was to transliterate unfamiliar consonants, insert vowels between clustered consonants and append word-final vowels where necessary.


e.g.: Britain (English loanword)Peretane (Rapa Nui rendering)

More recently, loanwords – which come primarily from Spanish – retain their consonant clusters. For example, "litro" (litre).[12]



Syntax



Word order


Rapa Nui is a VSO (verb–subject–object) language.[13] Except where verbs of sensing are used, the object of a verb is marked by the relational particle i.


e.g.: He hakahu koe i te rama (the relational particle and object are bolded)
"You light the torch"


Where a verb of sensing is used, the subject is marked by the agentive particle e.


e.g.: He tikea e au te poki (the agentive particle and subject are bolded)
"I can see the child"



Pronoun


Pronouns are usually marked for number: in Rapa Nui there are markers for first, second and third personal singular and plural; however, there is only a marker for dual in the first person. The first person dual and plural can mark for exclusive and inclusive. The pronouns are always ahead of the person singular (PRS) 'a' and relational particle (RLT) 'i' or dative (DAT) 'ki'. However, in some examples, they do not have PRS, RLT and DAT.[14]


There is only one paradigm of pronouns for Rapa Nui. They function the same in both subject and object cases.


Here is the table for the pronoun forms in Rapa Nui [15]





















































abbreviations grammatical interpretations Rapa Nui forms
1s 1st-person singular au
2s 2nd-person singular koe
3s 3rd-person singular ia
1de 1st-person dual exclusive maua
1di 1st-person dual inclusive taua
1pe 1st-person plural exclusive matou
1pi 1st-person plural inclusive tatou
2p 2nd-person dual korua
3p 3rd-person dual raua

e.g. (1) [16]






















Ko au e noho mai ena hokotahi no
PFT 1s STA stay TOW PPD alone LIM

'I live here all alone'


e.g. (2) [17]






















He haka ai i a ia he suerkao
ACT CAUS EX RLT PRS 3s ±SPE governor

'They made him governor'



Abbreviations used


ACT – action


CAUS – causative


EX – existential


LIM – limitative


PFT – perfect tense


PPD – postpositive determinant


PRS – person singular


RLT – relational particle


STA – state (verbal)


±SPE – +/- specific


TOW – towards subject



Questions


Yes/no questions are distinguished from statements chiefly by a particular pattern of intonation. Where there is no expectation of a particular answer, the form remains the same as a statement. A question expecting an agreement is preceded by hoki.[18]



Conjunction


Original Rapa Nui has no conjunctive particles. Copulative, adversative and disjunctive notions are typically communicated by context or clause order. Modern Rapa Nui has almost completely adopted Spanish conjunctions rather than rely on this.[9]



Possession



Alienable and inalienable possession


In the Rapa Nui language, there are alienable and inalienable possession. Lichtemberk described alienable possession as the possessed noun being contingently associated with the possessor, and on the other hand inalienable possession as the possessed noun being necessarily associated with the possessor. The distinction is marked by a possessive suffix inserted before the relevant pronoun.
Possessive particles:



  • a (alienable) expresses dominant possession

Alienable possession is used to refer to a person's spouse, children, food, books, work, all animals (except horse), all tools and gadgets (including the fridge), and some illnesses.[19]


e.g. (1) [20]

































E tunu au i te kai mo taʻaku ga poki ko marauki ʻa
STA cook 1sg RLT +SPE food BEN POS.1sg.al GRP child PFT hungry RES

'I must cook dinner for my children who are hungry'


poki 'children' is an alienable possession therefore a is used to indicate that in this sentence.[There is no a is this sentence, just ta and ʻa. Is one of these the same?]


  • o (inalienable) expresses the subordinate possession

It is used with parents, siblings, house, furniture, transports (include, cart, car, scooter, boat, airplane), clothes, feeling, native land, parts of body (include mind), horse and its bridle.


e.g. (2) [21]





















He agi na boʻi he taina
ʻoʻoku
STA true LIM EMP -SPE sibling
POS.1sg.inal.

'It is true apparently, he is my brother.'


Inalienable possession o is used in this example. It is talking about the speaker's brother, which is an inalienable relation.[There is no o is this sentence, just ʻoʻoku. Are these the same?]


There are no markers to distinguish between temporary or permanent possession; the nature of objects possessed; or between past, present or future possession.



A and O possession


A and O possession refer to alienable and inalienable possession in Rapa Nui. a marks for alienable possession and o marks for inalienable possession. a and o are marked as suffixes of the possessive pronouns; however, they are only marked when the possessive pronoun is in the first, second or third person singular. In (2) above, taina 'sibling' is inalienable and the possessor is first person singular ʻoʻoku 'my'. However, for all the other situations, a and o are not marked as a suffix of the possessor.





















He
vanaga
maua
o
te
meʻe
era
ATC
talk
1de
POS
+SPE
thing
PPD

'We'll talk about those matters.'[17]


In the above example, the possessor meʻe 'those' is not a possessive pronoun of the first, second or third person singular. Therefore, o is marked not as a suffix of the possessor but a separate word in the sentence.



Classifiers


There are no classifiers in the Rapa Nui language.



Abbreviations used


BEN- benefactive


EMP-emphasis


GRP- group plural


LIM - limitative


POS1sa- possessive 1st person singular alienable


POS1si - possessive 1st person singular inalienable


POS - possession


PPD- postpositive determinant


PFT - perfect tense


RES - resultativetative


RLT-relational particle


+/- SPE - +/- specific


STA- state (verbal)



Exclamation


Ko and ka are exclamatory indicators.[22]




Ko suggests a personal reaction:
Ko te aroha (Poor thing!)



Ka suggests judgement on external events:
Ka haʻakiʻaki (Tell the whole story!)




Compound words


Terms which did not exist in original Rapa Nui were created via compounding:[23]



patia ika = ('spear fish') = harpoon

patia kai = ('spear food') = fork

kiri vaʻe = ('skin foot') = shoe

manu patia =('bird spear') = wasp

pepe hoi = ('stool horse') = saddle

pepe noho =('stool stay') = chair



Negation


In Rapa Nui, negation is indicated by free standing morphemes.[24]Rapa Nui has 4 main negators:




ʻina (neutral)


kai (perfective)


(e)ko (imperfective)


taʻe (constituent negator)


Additionally there are also two additional particles/ morphemes which also contribute to negation in Rapa Nui:




kore (Existential/noun negator)


hia / ia (verb phrase particle which occurs in combination with different negators to form the meaning 'not yet')


Negation occurs as preverbal particles in the verb phrase,[25] with the clausal negator kai and (e)ko occurring in first position in the verbal phrase, while the constituent negator (taʻe) occurs in second position in the verbal phrase. Clausal negators occur in the same position as aspect markers and subordinators- this means it's impossible for these elements to co-occur.[26]As a result, negative clauses tend to have fewer aspectual distinctions.[27]Hia occurs in eighth position as a post-verbal marker.  Verbal negators precede adjectives.[28] The table below roughly depicts the positions of negators in the Verb Phrase:



Position in the Verb Phrase



























1

2

VERB

8

NEG (kai / eko)
determiner


hia
Aspect marker

CONNEG (taʻe)


subordinator
numeral




Clausal Negators



ʻIna

ʻIna is the neutral negator (regarding aspect).[29] It has the widest range of use in a variety of contexts.[30] It usually occurs in imperfective contexts, as well as habitual clauses and narrative contexts, and is used to negate actions and states.[29]It almost always occurs clause initially and is always followed by the neutral aspectual he + noun or he + verb. [31]

























34) ʻIna

he

maʻeha
mo
uʻi
iga
i
te
kai

NEG

PRED
light
for
see

NMLZ

ACC

ART
food

'There was no light to see the food.' [R352.070][32]


In the example above ʻina is followed by the combination of he+ maʻeha (noun)





















103) ʻIna

he

takeʻa
rahi
i
te
tagata
       NEG

NTR
see
many/much

ACC

ART
man

'He did not see many people.' [R459.003][33]


In this example, ʻina is followed by he + takeʻa (verb)


In addition to negating verbal and nominal clauses, it also functions as the term ʻnoʻas shown below:[34]













27) ¿ʻIna
he
pepe?...
        NEG

PRED
chair…

'There were no chairs?...' [R413.635][35]


Unlike the other two clausal negators (which are preverbal particles), ʻina is a phrase head,[36] thus it can form a constituent of its own. [37]



Kai

Kai negates clauses with perfective aspects. [38]























74) kai
ʻite
a
au
ko
ai
a
ia

NEG.PFV
know

PROP

1SG

PROM
who

PROP

3SG

'I don't know who she is.' [R413.356][39]


It is used to negate past events and narrative events, and is usually combined with ʻina.[38] It is also used to negate stative verbs, and a verb phrase marked with kai may contain various post-verbal particles such as the continuity marker ʻâ / ʻana. This marker occurs when the clause has perfect aspect (often obligatory with the perfect marker ko). When combined with kai, it indicates that the negative state continues. [38]



























45) Kai
haʻamata
a
au

kai
paʻo

ʻâ
e
tahi
miro

NEG.PFV
begin

PROP
1SG

NEG.PFV
chop

CONT

NUM
one
tree

'I haven't yet started to chop down a tree.' [R363.091][40]



(E)ko

(E)ko is the imperfective negator, which (like kai) replaces the aspectual marker in front of the verb, and which can occur with the negator ʻina. [38]



























107) ʻIna

e

ko
kai
i
te
kahi
o
tôʻona
vaka
       NEG

IPFV

NEG.IPFV
eat

ACC

ART
tuna
of

POSS.3SG.O
boat

'(The fisherman) would not eat the tune (caught with) his boat.' [Ley-5-27.013][41]


It marks negative commands in imperatives (usually with ʻina) with the e often excluded in imperatives.[42]





















39) ʻIna

ko
kai
i
te
kai
mata
       NEG

NEG.IPFV
eat

ACC

ART
food
raw

'Don't eat raw food.' (Weber 2003b:610)[43]




In other contexts, especially when ʻina is absent, the e is obligatory. [42]

























132) ¿E

ko
haga
ʻô
koe
mo
ʻori
o
Tâua?

NEG.IPFV

NEG.IPFV
want
really

2SG
for
dance
of

1DU.INCL

'Don't you want to dance with me (lit. us to dance)?' [R315.115][42]



Constituent Negator:



Taʻe

Taʻe is a constituent negator used to negate anything other than a main clause. [44] This can be subordinate clauses, prepositional phrases, possessive predicates and other non-verbal clauses.[45] It also negates nominalised verbs and sub-constituents such as adjectives and quantifiers.[46] It does not negate nouns (this is done by the noun negator kore). It is also used to negate locative phrases, actor emphasis constructions, and is also used to reinforce the preposition mai. [47]

























152) ʻI
au
he
oho

ʻai

mai

taʻe


IMM

1SG

NTR
go

EMPH

SUBS
from

CONNEG
night

'I'm going now, before it gets dark.' [R153.042][48]


Taʻe is an indicator for subordinate clauses, as it can also negate subordinate clauses without subordinate markers (in which case it usually occurs with an aspect marker). [49]

























17) ʻI
te

taʻe
hakarogo,
he
garo

atu
ʻai
at

ART

CONNEG
listen

NTR
lost

EMPH
away

SUBS

'Because (the sheep) did not listen, it got lost.' [R490.005][50]


It also occurs in main clauses with main clause negators and aspect markers i and e, when the clause has a feature of a subordinate clause such as oblique constituents[51]



Noun negator: kore


kore is a verb meaning 'the absence or lack of something'.[52]





















164) He
uʻi
ku

kore
ʻâ
te
tagi

NTR
look

PRF
lack

CONT

ART
cry

'He looked (at his wife); the crying was over.' [Ley-9-55.076][52]


It immediately follows the noun in the adjective position, and is used to indicate that the entity expressed by the noun or noun modifier does not exist or is lacking in the given context.[52]



























166) Te
ʻati
he
matariki

kore
mo
oro
o

hora

ART
problem

PRED
file
lack
for
grate
of

DIST
time

'The problem was the lack of files to sharpen (the fishhooks) at the time.' [R539-1.335][52]



Hia / ia


Hia / ia is a morpheme used immediately after negated verbs and co-occurs with a negator to indicate actions or events which are interrupted or are yet to happen.[53]



























57) kai
oromatuʻa

hia
i
oho

mai
era
ki
nei

NEG.PFV
priest
yet

PFV
go

EMPH
hither

DIST
to

PROX

'When he had not yet become a priest, he came here.' [R423.004][54]



Double negation


In Rapa Nui, double negation is more frequent than single negation (with the negotor ʻina often co-occurring with another clause negator most of the time).[55] It is often used as a slight reinforcement or emphasis.[56]


ʻIna can be combined with negators kai and (e)ko- both of these are main clause negators.























17) ¡ Ka
rua
ʻô
mahana

ʻina

kai
tuʻu
mai!

CNTG
two
really
day

NEG

NEG.PFV
arrive
hither

'She hasn't come for two days.' [R229.132][57]


In the example above we see the negator ʻina co-occurring with the perfective negator kai.


When taʻe occurs in double negation, if the other negator is kai or (e)ko, the negative polarity is cancelled out.[58]































161) kai

taʻe
haka
ʻite
ko
ai
a
ia
hai
meʻe
rivariva
aga

NEG.PFV

CONNEG

CAUS
know

PROM
who

PROP

3SG

INS
thing
good:RED
do

'(God) did not fail to make known who he is, by the good things he did.' (Acts 14:17)[51]


ʻIna only negates main clauses so it never combines with the negator taʻe, which is a subordinate clause negator. When occurring with ʻina, negation may be reinforced.[51]





















162) ….ʻina
e
ko

taʻe
ravaʻa
te
ika
             NEG

IPFV

NEG.IPFV

CONNEG
obtain

ART
fish

'(if the mother does not eat the fish caught by her firstborn son), he will not fail to catch fish.' [Ley-5-27.008][52]


Double negation occurs very frequently in imperatives in particular. [41]





















82) ʻIna

ko
oho
ki
te
têtahi
kona
       NEG

NEG.IPFV
go
to

ART
some/other
place

'Don't go to another place.' [R161.027][59]



Numerals


There is a system for the numerals 1–10 in both Rapa Nui and Tahitian, both of which are used, though all numbers higher than ten are expressed in Tahitian. When counting, all numerals whether Tahitian or Rapanui are preceded by 'ka'. This is not used, however, when using a number in a sentence.[60]



Rapa Nui Numerals 1-10:

(ka) tahi

(ka) rua

(ka) toru

(ka) ha

(ka) rima

(ka) ono

(ka) hitu

(ka) vaʻu/varu

(ka) iva

(ka) agahuru



History


The Rapa Nui language is isolated within Eastern Polynesian, which also includes the Marquesic and Tahitic languages. Within Eastern Polynesian, it is closest to Marquesan morphologically, although its phonology has more in common with New Zealand Maori, as both languages are relatively conservative in retaining consonants lost in other Eastern Polynesian languages.


Like all Polynesian languages, Rapa Nui has relatively few consonants. Uniquely for an Eastern Polynesian language, Rapa Nui has preserved the original glottal stop of Proto-Polynesian. It is, or until recently was, a verb-initial language.


One of the most important recent books written about the language of Rapa Nui is Verónica du Feu's Rapanui (Descriptive Grammar) (.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}ISBN 0-415-00011-4).


Very little is known about the Rapa Nui language prior to European contact. The majority of Rapa Nui vocabulary is inherited directly from Proto–Eastern Polynesian. Due to extensive borrowing from Tahitian there now often exist two forms for what was the same word in the early language. For example, Rapa Nui has Tahitian ʻite alongside original tikeʻa for 'to see', both derived from Proto-Eastern Polynesian *kiteʻa. There are also hybridized forms of words such as hakaʻite 'to teach', from native haka (causative prefix) and Tahitian ʻite.



Language notes from 1770


Spanish notes from a 1770 visit to the island record 94 words and terms. Many are clearly Polynesian, but several are not easily recognizable.[61] For example, the numbers from one to ten seemingly have no relation to any known language. They are compared with contemporary Rapa Nui words, in parenthesis:



  1. cojàna (katahi)

  2. corena (karua)

  3. cogojù (katoru)

  4. quirote (kaha)

  5. majanà (karima)

  6. teùto (kaono)

  7. tejèa (kahitu)

  8. moroqui (kavau)

  9. vijoviri (kaiva)

  10. queromata-paùpaca quacaxixiva (kaangaahuru)


It may be that the list is a misunderstanding, and the words not related to numbers at all. The Spanish may have shown Arabic numerals to the islanders who did not understand their meaning, and likened them to some other abstraction. For example, the "moroqui" for number eight (8) would have actually been "moroki", a small fish that is used as a bait, since "8" can look like a simple drawing of a fish.[62]



Language notes from 1774


Captain James Cook visited the island four years later, and had a Tahitian interpreter with him, who, while recognizing some Polynesian words (up to 17 were written down), was not able to converse with the islanders in general. The British also attempted to record the numerals and were able to record the correct Polynesian words.[61]



Post-Peruvian enslavement


In the 1860s the Peruvian slave raids began. It was at this time that Peruvians were experiencing labor shortages and they came to regard the Pacific as a vast source of free labor. Slavers raided islands as far away as Micronesia. But Easter Island was much closer and became a prime target.


In December of 1862 eight Peruvian ships landed their crewmen and between bribery and outright violence they captured some 1,000 Easter Islanders, including the king, his son, and the ritual priests (one of the reasons for so many gaps in knowledge of the ancient ways). It has been estimated that a total of 2,000 Easter Islanders were captured over a period of years. Those who survived to arrive in Peru were poorly treated, overworked, and exposed to diseases. Ninety percent of the Rapa Nui died within one or two years of capture.


Eventually the Bishop of Tahiti caused a public outcry and an embarrassed Peru rounded up the few survivors to return them. A shipload headed to Easter Island, but smallpox broke out en route and only 15 arrived at the island. They were put ashore. The resulting smallpox epidemic nearly wiped out the remaining population.


In the aftermath of the Peruvian slave deportations in the 1860s, Rapa Nui came under extensive outside influence from neighbouring Polynesian languages such as Tahitian. While the majority of the population that was taken to work as slaves in the Peruvian mines died of diseases and bad treatment in the 1860s, hundreds of other Easter Islanders who left for Mangareva in the 1870s and 1880s to work as servants or labourers adopted the local form of Tahitian-Pidgin. Fischer argues that this pidgin became the basis for the modern Rapa Nui language when the surviving part of the Rapa Nui immigrants on Mangareva returned to their almost deserted home island.[citation needed]



Language notes from 1886


William J. Thomson, paymaster on the USS Mohican, spent twelve days on Easter Island from 19 to 30 December 1886. Among the data Thomson collected was the Rapa Nui calendar.



Language notes from the twentieth century


Father Sebastian Englert,[63] a German missionary living on Easter Island during 1935–1969, published a partial Rapa Nui–Spanish dictionary in his La Tierra de Hotu Matuʻa in 1948, trying to save what was left of the old language. Despite the many typographical mistakes, the dictionary is valuable, because it provides a wealth of examples which all appear drawn from a real corpus, part oral traditions and legends, part actual conversations.[64]


Englert recorded vowel length, stress, and glottal stop, but was not always consistent, or perhaps the misprints make it seem so. He indicated vowel length with a circumflex, and stress with an acute accent, but only when it does not occur where expected. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is written as an apostrophe, but is often omitted. The velar nasal /ŋ/ is sometimes transcribed with a ⟨g⟩, but sometimes with a Greek eta, ⟨η⟩, as a graphic approximation of ⟨ŋ⟩.



Rongorongo




Part of a line of rongorongo script.


It is assumed that rongorongo, the undeciphered script of Easter Island, represents the old Rapa Nui language.[65]



Hispanisation


The island is under the jurisdiction of Chile and is now home to a number of Chilean continentals most of whom speak only Spanish. The influence of the Spanish language is noticeable in modern Rapa Nui speech. As fewer children learn to speak Rapa Nui at an early age, their superior knowledge of Spanish affects the 'passive knowledge' they have of Rapa Nui. A version of Rapa Nui interspersed with Spanish nouns, verbs and adjectives has become a popular form of casual speech.[66][67] The most well integrated borrowings are the Spanish conjunctions o (or), pero (but) and y (and).[68] Spanish words such as problema (problem), which was once rendered as poroborema, are now often integrated with minimal or no change.[69]


Spanish words are still often used within Rapa Nui grammatical rules, though some word order changes are occurring and it is argued that Rapa Nui may be undergoing a shift from VSO to the Spanish SVO. This example sentence was recorded first in 1948 and again in 2001 and its expression has changed from VSO to SVO.[70]



'They both suffer and weep"


1948: he ʻaroha, he tatagi ararua


2001: ararua he ʻaroha he tatagi


Easter Island's indigenous Rapa Nui toponymy has survived with few Spanish additions or replacements, a fact that has been attributed in part to the survival of the Rapa Nui language.[71] This contrasts with the toponymy of continental Chile, which has lost most of its indigenous names.



Footnotes





  1. ^ Rapa Nui at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)


  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Rapanui". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.


  3. ^ Laurie Bauer (2007), The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh


  4. ^ 2002 Chilean census data


  5. ^ Fischer 2008: p. 149


  6. ^ Makihara 2005a: p. 728


  7. ^ Du Feu 1996: p. 184


  8. ^ ab Du Feu 1996: p. 185–186


  9. ^ ab Du Feu 1996: p. 3


  10. ^ Du Feu 1996: p. 4


  11. ^ Du Feu 1996: pp. 176–177, 192–193.


  12. ^ Du Feu 1996: p. 185


  13. ^ Du Feu 1996: pp. 9–10


  14. ^ Du Fu 1996: pp.110


  15. ^ Du Fu 1996: pp.6


  16. ^ Du Fu 1996


  17. ^ ab Du Fu 1996 pp.123


  18. ^ Du Feu 1996: p. 84


  19. ^ Du Fu 1996: pp.102


  20. ^ Du Fu 1996: pp.160


  21. ^ Du Fu 1996: pp. 102-103


  22. ^ Du Feu 1996: p. 110


  23. ^ Du Feu 1996: p. 180


  24. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  25. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 462. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  26. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 314. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  27. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 493. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  28. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  29. ^ ab Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 494. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  30. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. pp. 493, 494. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  31. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 316. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  32. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  33. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  34. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 498. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  35. ^ Kietviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 482. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  36. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 493. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  37. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 499. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  38. ^ abcd Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 500. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  39. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 490. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  40. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 520. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  41. ^ ab Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 497. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  42. ^ abc Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 503. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  43. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  44. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 498. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  45. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 504. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  46. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 506. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  47. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 554. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  48. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  49. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 506. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  50. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 88. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  51. ^ abc Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 507. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  52. ^ abcde Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 508. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  53. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 509. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  54. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  55. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 496. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  56. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 497. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  57. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 155. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  58. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 507. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  59. ^ Kieviet, Paulus (2017). A grammar of Rapa Nui. Berlin: Language Science Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3.


  60. ^ Du Feu 1996: pp. 79–82


  61. ^ ab Heyerdahl, Thor. Easter Island – The Mystery Solved. Random House New York 1989.


  62. ^ See Revista Española del Pacífico. Asociación Española de Estudios del Pacífico (A.E.E.P.). N.º3. Año III. Enero-Diciembre 1993. See also online version.


  63. ^ Online biography of Sebastian Englert Archived 28 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine as hosted by Minnesota State University.


  64. ^ Englert's online dictionary with Spanish translated to English.


  65. ^ Rongorongo connections to Rapa Nui.


  66. ^ Makihara 2005a


  67. ^ Makihara 2005b


  68. ^ Du Feu 1996: pp.84–88


  69. ^ Pagel 2008: p. 175


  70. ^ Pagel 2008: p. 176


  71. ^ Latorre 2001: p. 129




References



  • Chilean Census 2002

  • Du Feu, V., 1996. Rapa Nui. London: Routledge.

  • Fischer, S.R., 2008. Reversing Hispanisation on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). In T. Stolz, D. Bakker, R.S. Palomo (eds) Hispanisation: The Impact of Spanish on the Lexicon and Grammar of the Indigenous Languages of Austronesia and the Americas. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 149–165.


  • Latorre, Guilermo (2001). "Chilean toponymy: "the far-away possession"". Estudios Filológicos (in Spanish). Austral University of Chile. 36: 129–142. Retrieved 10 January 2014.

  • Kieviet, Paulus. 2017. A grammar of Rapa Nui (Studies in Diversity Linguistics 12). Berlin: Language Science Press. http://langsci-press.org/catalog/view/124/303/581-1 (Open Access).
    ISBN 978-3-946234-75-3. doi:10.17169/langsci.b124.303.

  • Makihara, M., 2005a. Rapa Nui ways of speaking Spanish: Language shift and socialization on Easter Island. Language in Society 34, pp. 727–762.

  • Makihara, M., 2005b. Being Rapa Nui, speaking Spanish: Children's voices on Easter Island. Anthropological Theory 5, pp. 117–134.

  • Pagel, S., 2008. The old, the new, the in-between: Comparative aspects of Hispanisation on the Marianas and Easter Island (Rapa Nui). In T. Stolz, D. Bakker, R.S. Palomo (eds) Hispanisation: The Impact of Spanish on the Lexicon and Grammar of the Indigenous Languages of Austronesia and the Americas. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 167–201.

  • Jauncey D. G., 2011, Tamambo: the language of west Malo, Vanuatu, Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Digital Pty Ltd, Canberra



External links








  • Old Rapa Nui dictionary: Internet Archive version from 2007-10-16


  • Rapa Nui Swadesh vocabulary list (Wiktionary)

  • Rapa Nui words from the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database

  • Miki Makihara (Queens College), has several papers on contemporary Rapa Nui language and language revival efforts


  • A grammar of Rapa Nui by Paulus Kieviet (Language Science Press, 2017; free download)











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