- Also spoken in
- French Polynesia
- Script
- Latin
- Speakers
- 68K (2007)
Where it's spoken
Tahitian is spoken in French Polynesia, mainly in the Society Islands. French Polynesia's organic statute makes French the sole official language: Article 57 states that French is the official language of French Polynesia and that its use is mandatory for public bodies and for anyone carrying out a public-service role, as well as for the public in their dealings with government administrations. The same article does not give Tahitian this status; instead it calls Tahitian "a fundamental element of cultural identity" that is recognized and must be preserved, like the other Polynesian languages, alongside French. A ruling of France's Conseil d'État applied this directly to Tahitian, striking down a French Polynesian Assembly rule that had allowed representatives to use Tahitian or another Polynesian language during official sessions, because it conflicted with French's mandatory official use. A census found tens of thousands of Tahitian speakers in French Polynesia.
Sources
- Conseil d'État, 10ème et 9ème sous-sections réunies, 29 mars 2006, n° 282335 — Quotes Article 57 of loi organique n° 2004-192 du 27 février 2004 portant statut d'autonomie de la Polynésie française; "Sur la légalité de l'article 15 du règlement intérieur"
- Omniglot — "Tahitian (Reo Tahiti)" — Society Islands, speaker count
Script & pronunciation
Tahitian is written in the Latin alphabet. Every syllable ends in a vowel, there are no consonant clusters, and where vowels stand next to each other, each is pronounced as its own syllable. A macron placed over a vowel (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū) marks it as long. Tahitian also has a distinct consonant sound, described in an early-20th-century grammar of the language as a "break" — comparable to the French coup de glotte — that "usually takes the place of a dropped consonant"; this app's cards write it as an apostrophe, as in the greeting 'Ia ora na ("Hello / Greetings"). Both conventions appear together in this app's card E fa'a'ite mai i tā'oe passeport ("Please show your passport"), whose romanization, E fa-'a-'i-te mai i tā-'oe passeport, keeps both the apostrophe (fa'a'ite) and the macron (tā'oe).
Sources
- Omniglot — "Tahitian (Reo Tahiti)" — Latin alphabet, syllable structure, macron
- Rossiter, Ernest C. (1919). A New Grammar of the Tahitian Dialect of the Polynesian Language. Papeete, Tahiti: Ernest C. Rossiter — §12, the "break" (glottal stop)
Grammar essentials
Tahitian's basic word order places the verb before its subject: a 19th-century grammar of the language states that "the nominative case commonly follows the verb," giving O vai? ("who?") and eaha? ("what?") as questions that identify it. This app's cards follow the same order, as in E hina'aro vau i teie ("I would like this one"), where the verb hina'aro comes first, then the subject vau ("I"), then the object. Adjectives instead come after the noun they describe: the same grammar gives taata maitai ("a good man") as an example, and this app's card Tei hea te fare inu maita'i? ("Where is a good bar?") places maita'i ("good") after te fare inu ("the bar"). Negation uses a small set of particles; the same grammar lists aore and aita among them, and this app's card 'Aita te piha i mā ("The room is not clean") opens with the negative particle 'Aita, placed before the word it negates.
Sources
- Davies, John (1851). A Tahitian and English Dictionary, with introductory remarks on the Polynesian language, and a short grammar of the Tahitian dialect. Tahiti: London Missionary Society's Press — Grammar section: nominative case and the verb; the adjective; of negation
Politeness & etiquette
Tahitian can turn a command into a polite request by adding the particle na after the verb. A 19th-century grammar of the language notes this in its section on the imperative mood, giving A taoto na ("sleep") as an example and stating that na is "often added to the verb." This app's cards use the same particle, framing it together with the imperative prefix 'A as '… na, glossed as "please … (polite imperative)," as in 'A fa'a'ite mai na i tō 'oe vāhi nohora'a ("Please tell me your address").