Rapa Nui language
From Freepedia
| Rapanui () | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Easter Island |
| Region: | |
| Total speakers: | 4650 (ethnic Rapa Nui, 2002) |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | - |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | - |
| SIL | - |
| See also: Language – List of languages | |
The Rapa Nui language (also Rapanui) is the Eastern Polynesian language of Easter Island, forming its own subgroup of that classification. Within this group, it shares the most in comm on with Marquesan morphologically, although its phonology is much closer to that of New Zealand Maori. It is spoken by the Rapanui, the inhabitants of Easter Island.
Rapanui has the distinction of being the only language in Oceania to have been committed to writing prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 17th century, albeit some (including Jared Diamond) believe the idea of writing to have spread there earlier through European contact. The unique (to date undeciphered) pictographic script is called Rongorongo.
Together with Marquesic, Rapan and Tahitic, Rapa Nui comprises the whole of the "eastern" Polynesian languages. A Tahitian man brought by Captain James Cook was said to be able to communicate with the locals.
Features
Rapanui has a predominance of vowel sounds, and uses a glottal stop. It is a VSO language.
Books
The most important recent book written about the language of Rapa Nui is Verónica du Feu's Rapanui (Descriptive Grammar) (ISBN 0415000114).
External links
- An online Rapanui-English/English-Rapanui dictionary from Rongorongo.org
- Rapanui legends and traditions, both in Rapanui and in English, also from Rongorongo.org
- Easter Island Foundation's Rapanui Glossary
