PEOPLE
Tahiti has had a long history, and in this lesson we'll meet some of the famous people of Tahiti, both ancient and modern. In this lesson, we'll also learn about some of the old culture of Tahiti, as well as learn how to use a few possessives (my, your, his, etc).
Famous people of Tahiti include:
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Te Mau Ari'i Pomare | There were 5 rulers (te mau ari'i rahi) of Tahiti called Pomare (Te Ari'i Pómáré). Four were kings, and one was a queen. This picture shows King Pomare II, who fled Tahiti with British missionaries in 1803 after they tried to colonise the island. He returned with them in 1812, having embraced Protestantism and regained power in 1815. He died in 1824. | |
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Te Mau Vahine Pomare | This picture shows Queen Pomare IV (Te Vahine Pómáré), the longest-ruling monarch of Tahiti and the Society Islands. She signed a treaty of eternal friendship with King Louis Philippe of France under threat of military force in 1838, and although she asked Britain's Queen Victoria for help against the French, Tahiti became a French colony during her rule. She ruled from 1827-1877. | |
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Tomb of King Pomare V | This tomb is not far from Pape'ete and is a tourist attraction. | |
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Paul Gauguin | Paul Gauguin visited French Polynesia during his time in the Pacific, and his portraits and pictures of Tahiti and its people are very famous. He stayed in 1891-1892, and returned in 1895 to set up home at Puna'auia, on Tahiti Nui. He then moved to the Marquesas, where he died in 1903. There is a Gauguin Museum on Tahiti in memory of this impressionist painter's visits. |
Here are some words relating to the traditional history of Tahiti....
| te marae | "Temple complex with altar." | te ari'i | "High Chief, King" | ||
| te arioi | "Pre-Christian priest" | te atua | "Pre-Christian God" | ||
| te Atua | "God" | te ahu | "Altar at a marae" | ||
| te mana | "Spiritual power, divine presence" | te himene | "Traditional hymn" | ||
| te manahune | "commoner" | te tatau | "Tattoo (yes, this word comes from Tahitian!)" |
Who?
We've already met the words tei hea roa? ("Where") and eaha? ("what?"). We've also briefly touched on two others:
| no hea (mai)? | "From where?" | i hea? | "Where to?" |
Now lets look at 'O vai? "Who?"....
| 'O vai 'o Pómaré? | "Who is Pomare?" | ||
| 'O Pómáré te ari'i ó Tahiti Nui. | "Pomare is the King of Tahiti Nui." | ||
| 'O vai 'o Guy? | "Who is Guy?" | ||
| 'O Guy te hoa má'ohi á Mary. | "Guy is Mary's Tahitian friend." |
We can see that 'O vai? gets put at the head of the sentence, just like eaha and tei hea roa. Don't forget that the 'o at the head of 'o vai is the name announcer, and as such, it should go before the name in your reply: 'O Guy to'u i'oa. Notice also in the previous lesson "Greetings", we saw that "What's your name?" 'O vai tou i'oa? also uses 'o vai. So Tahitians don't actually say "What's your name?" but "Who is your name?" We'll be looking in more details at question words in another lesson.
Pronouns and Possessives
Lets review all the pronouns we've seen so far and add some new ones. Tahitian has pronouns for the first (me), second (you) and third (him, her) person, as well as pronouns for singular (me), dual (we-two) and plural (all of us).
| Meaning | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||
| (me // me and you // all of us) | 1st inclusive | au, vau | táua | tátou | |||
| us (not you) // all of us (not you) | 1st exclusive | máua | mátou | ||||
| (you // you two // all of you) | 2nd | 'oe | 'orua | 'outou | |||
| (him, her, it // those two // all of them) | 3rd | 'oia, 'ona | ráua | rátou |
Tahitian also has inclusive and exclusive pronouns, as we can see above. Inclusive means that the listener is included in whatever is being said, but exclusive pronouns don't include the listener. So táua means "you and me", but máua means "Me and someone else (not you)". Similarly, tátou means "All of us, including you", but mátou means "All of us (but not you). In Tahitian, when someone is talking about going somewhere, its very clear whether or not you, the listener, is being invited too.
| Haere táua i Pape'ete | "We two (me and you) are going to Pape'ete." | ||
| Haere máua i Pape'ete | "We two (me and someone else, not you) are going to Pape'ete." |
In the first case, you, the listener, have been invited to go to Pape'ete, but in the second case, you haven't been invited. Someone else will be going with the speaker.
Possessives
Tahitian really is a language that doesn't think like English at all. Not only does it have inclusive and exclusive pronouns, but it also has four sets of possessives, called the to-series, the ta-series, the o-series, and the a-series. We're not going to go into much detail here (we'll do that later, in another lesson), but here is a quick list of some of the possessives we'll be using in this lesson and later ones. All you need to know at the moment is what they roughly mean - namely that, for example, to'u, ta'u, o'u and a'u all mean "my".
| My | to'u, ta'u, o'u, a'u | ||
| Your | tou, tau, ou, au | ||
| His, hers, its | óna, ána |
Wow! That was a lot to take in, I think! Let's practice, and revise what we've learned before, but using the new pronouns (which follow the verb or adjective) and the possessives (which precede the noun, just like te does in te fenua "the land"). Translate the following sentences from English to Tahitian, and then try making some sentences of your own!
| My land is good. | Do you sleep (ta'oto) in your bed? | ||
| We-two (not you) want some (te mau) bananas. | Does he see ('ite) your island? | ||
| Who is your friend? | We-all are going to my house. | ||
| What's your name? | Where are my flowers (ta'u mau tiare)? | ||
| You-all are going to Pape'ete. | Those-two are very fed-up. |
Don't worry too much about distinguishing beween the different possessives at this stage. To help you, here are the formulas that we've used so far.
| ADJECTIVE OR VERB | + | PRONOUN | = | "I AM.../YOU ARE..." |
| TE + NOUN 1 | + | I + POSITIONAL | + | O + TE + NOUN 2 |
| HAERE or other verb | + | PRONOUN | + | I + (TE) + (POSITIONAL) + | (O) + TE + NOUN |
Here are some answers for you. The answers aren't in the same order as the questions were. Can you match up the correct answer with the original questions?
| 'Ite 'oia i tou fenua? 'Ite 'oia i tou motu? | 'O vai to'u i'oa? | ||
| Maita'i to'u fenua. | Haere tátou i to'u fare. | ||
| Hina'aro máua i te mau mai'a. | Haere 'outou i Pape'ete. | ||
| Ta'oto 'oe i tau roi? | Fi'u roa ráua. | ||
| Tei hea roa ta'u mau tiare? | 'O vai tau hoa? |
Text 1
Now take a look at this. Guy is talking about his life in Tahiti. How much of it can you understand? Could you write a similar thing for yourself? (New or difficult words are in bold)
| ‘O Guy to’u i’oa. E má'ohi vau, e fa'aeia vau i Pape’ete. I to’u fare, e vahine ta’u e ho’e tamari’i ta’u. 'O Esther te i'oa ó ta'u vahine, 'o Pua te i'oa ó to'u tamari'i. Rave vau i te ‘ohipa i te taote. Here roa vau i te fenua Tahiti, e here vau e faeia i Pape’ete. I Pape’ete, ‘eraverahi te mau tama’ara’a. Inanahi, ua parau vau i Mary i te fare toa, e ua haere máua i te tama’ara’a. Ua maita’i ‘oia! |
Here are some words to help you understand.
| fa'aeia | "to live (residence)" | vahine | "woman, wife" | ||
| ho'e | "one" | taote | "doctor" | ||
| here | "to love" | e | "dependent clause marker (see later lesson)" | ||
| 'eraverahi | "be many, numerous" | ua | "past tense marker (see later lesson)" | ||
| ó | "of (compare ó and 'o!)" | 'o | "name announcer (compare ó and 'o!)" |
| Pua | Pua is a common name in some parts of Polynesia. It means "flower" in Hawaiian (and perhaps in Tahitian too...?) | |
| maa'ohi | Maa'ohi is the Tahitian word for Tahitians of Polynesian descent. It can also be used to refer to other Polynesian peoples, such as Hawaiians and Easter Islanders (Maa'ohi ó Rapanui). |
As a final challenge, why not try writing a short passage, like the one above, about Mary. Go back and look at the conversations for any information about her - such as where she is from. Make up any other details - like her job, or her family. Once you've done that, pat your self on the back and take a break! Make yourself a cup of coffee! (te taofe!)
Once you've done that, click the "Verbs" icon at left to continue learning Tahitian!
The many words of 'e'
Actually, before you do that, you might've noticed that there are a lot of grammatical words in Tahitian which take the form e or 'e. This table below might help to clear any confusion you might have about these, before we move on!
Actually, before you do that, you might've noticed that there are a lot of grammatical words in Tahitian which take the form e or 'e. This table below might help to clear any confusion you might have about these, before we move on!
| E | 1) The indefinite article, similar to English "a", as in: E ratere 'oe "You are a tourist | |
| 2) The imperative marker - we'll look at this in the next lesson. E 'ori! "Dance!" | ||
| 3) A word used to mean "to" or "-ing" in certain phrases: in Hina'aro 'oe e...? "Do you want to...?" or in Maita'i e... "It's good to"/"...-ing is good." | ||
| 4) Vocative particle, used when attracting someone's attention: E Mary! "Mary!" | ||
| 5) "And" - E 'oe? "And you?" or Te Fenua e te moana "The land and the sea." | ||
| 6) Agent of the passive - we'll look at this in the next lesson. Ua 'amu hia te mai'a e te táne. "The banana was eaten by the man." | ||
| 'E | "Yes" - Note the glottal stop at the beginning of the word which differentiates it from e. 'E, e 'ori! "Yes, dance!" |
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