Samoan language

From Freepedia

The Sāmoan or Samoan language is the traditional language of Samoa and American Samoa and is an official language in both territories. It is a member of the Austronesian family, and more specifically Samoic branch of the Polynesian sub-phylum.

Contents 1 Grammar 1.1 Pronouns 2 Reference 3 External links

Grammar

Pronouns

Samoan has a rather remarkable set of pronouns. Like many Austronesian languages, it has separate words for inclusive we and exclusive we, and distinguishes singular, dual, and plural. Remarkably, the inclusive pronoun may occur in the singular, as ta, in which case it indicates emotional involvement on the part of the speaker.

Samoan pronouns

	singular	dual	plural
Exclusive person	a’u	ma’ua	matou
Inclusive person	ta	ta’ua	tatou
Second person	’oe	’oulua	’outou
Third person	ia	la’ua	latou

The roots ma, ta, and la are ’ima, ’ita, and ’ila in formal speech.

These are equivalent to

	me	we (him/her and me)	we (them and me)
	me*	we (you and I)	we (you all and me)
	thee	you two	you all
	him/her	them two	them

* With the connotations mentioned above.

Reference

• Thomas E Payne, 1997. Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58224-5

External links

• Ethnologue main Samoan page
• Samoan - English Dictionary
• Samoan Dictionary - An online Samoan dictionary. Samoan to English, English to Samoan.