TAHITIAN, HAWAIIAN & OTHER POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES
It's said that all Polynesian people have a common origin dating back perhaps 4 to 5,000 years in South East Asia. From there, the earliest voyagers set out in their outrigger canoes (va'a) to settle the islands of the Pacific. Fiji, Samoa and the islands of the Western Pacific were first, followed by the more eastern islands of Rapa Nui, the Society Islands and Hawaii. Finally around 900AD, the Maoris arrived in New Zealand. Since all these groups of people have had a common ancestry and history, their languages are also quite closely related. In this section, we'll be comparing some Hawaiian and Tahitian words to show that these two languages are part of the same, close family. The wordlists below are set in order of rules of sound changes between them:
| Tahitian word | Hawaiian word |
Rule 1 - Tahitian "t" is Hawaiian "k"
Actually, these are more similar sounds than English "t" or "k", and are both somewhere in between. Early attempts to write Polynesian languages produced different orthographies. On Hawaii, it was decided to record the sound as "k", but on Tahiti, "t" was found to be more suitable. The truth is that neither sound exactly matches "t" or "k" in the English sense, and there can be considerable variation within even the same language - some Tahitians pronounce the name of the island Maupiti as "Maupiki", some Hawaiians use the word Tútú for "Grandfather".
| tátou | "all of us" | kákou | "all of us" | ||
| táne | "man" | káne | "man" | ||
| Tahiti | "Tahiti" | Kahiki | "Tahiti" | ||
| mata | "eye, face" | maka | "eye, face" |
Rule 2 - Tahitian "glottal stop" is sometimes Hawaiian "n"
In many other Polynesian languages, this sound is represented by "ng" - compare Maori maunga "mountain".
| mou'a | "mountain" | mauna | "mountain" | ||
| 'ái'a | "land, homeland" | 'áina | "land, island" | ||
| mata'i | "wind, breeze" | makani | "wind, breeze" |
Rule 3 - Tahitian "r" is Hawaiian "l"
Actually, these too are both closer to each other than the English sounds. Tahitian "r" is slightly trilled, and at times quite similar sounding to "l".
| roa | "long, very" | loa | "long, very" | ||
| ara | "awake" | ala | "wake up" | ||
| ari'i | "high chief" | ali'i | "chief, high chief" | ||
| rá | "sun, day" | lá | "sun, day" |
Rule 4 - Tahitian "f" is sometimes Hawaiian "h"
This change is most common word-initially, especially between the syllables fe- and ho-. In other Polynesian languages, this is often "he-" - compare Marquesan henua "land".
| fenua | "land, island" | honua | "land" | ||
| fetia | "star" | hokua | "star" | ||
| fa'a- | "causative prefix" | ho'o- | "causative prefix" | ||
| fare | "house" | hale | "house" |
Rule 5 - Tahitian "v" is Hawaiian "w"
These two are practically the same sound, just written differently. In Hawaiian, the "w" is pronounced as "v" before a, e and i, but as a "w" before o and u.
| vau | "I, me" | wau | "I, me" | ||
| vahine | "woman" | wahine | "woman" | ||
| táviri | "be entangled, hang off, be entwined" | káwili | "entangled, entwined" | ||
And here are some words that are exactly the same in both languages...
| mai | "directional - come from" | |
| mana | "spritual power, divine presence" | |
| nui | "large, big; very; intensifier" |
Polynesian Numbers
Here, to give you an idea of sound changes across many of the Polynesian languages, are the numbers for Tahitian, Hawaiian, Maori, Rarotongan Maori (Cook Islands), Rapanui (Easter Island), Niuean, and Nukuoro (A Polynesian outlier in Micronesia). I have also included, for comparison, the numbers in the Micronesian language Chamorro, the native language of Guam, which is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian language family of which the Polynesian languages form a sub-group.
| Number | Tahitian | Hawaiian | Maori | Rarotongan | tahi | Niuean | Nukuoro | Chamorro | |||||||||
| 1 | hó'e, tahi | 'ekahi, ho'okahi | tahi | ta'i | tahi | taha | dahi | hacha | |||||||||
| 2 | piti, rua | 'elua | rua | rua | rua | ua | kalua | hugua | |||||||||
| 3 | toru | 'ekolu | toru | toru | toru | tolu | kadolu | tulu | |||||||||
| 4 | maha | 'eha | wha | á | ha | fa | kahá | fatfat | |||||||||
| 5 | pae | 'elima | ima | rima | rima | lima | kalima | lima | |||||||||
| 6 | óno | 'eono | ono | ono | ono | ono | kaono | gunum | |||||||||
| 7 | hitu | 'ehiku | whetu | 'itu | hita | fitu | kahidu | fiti | |||||||||
| 8 | va'u | 'ewalu | waru | varu | va'u | valu | kavalu | gualu | |||||||||
| 9 | iva | 'eiwa | iwa | iva | iva | hiva | kasiva | sigua | |||||||||
| 10 | 'ahuru | 'umi | tekau | nga'uru | angahuru | hongofulu | kahulu | manot |
We can see all different sorts of tendencies here. The most interesting and notable ones seem to be:
1. Looking at the various words for the number 5, we can see that Tahitian is out on its own with a unique word pae, which doesn't seem to fit in with any of the other numbers.
2. Even though Chamorro is spoken more than 3,000 miles away from Polynesia we can still see that it is distantly related to Polynesian languages. Compare hugua, tulu, fatfat, lima, gunum, fiti, and gualu especially.
3. Hawaiian and Nukuoro both like to add prefixes to numbers - perhaps they are number announcers. Hawaiian's is 'e- and Nukuoro's is ka-.
4. Notice that among the Polynesian languages (ie - all those apart from Chamorro), that there is only a limited range of consonants. The exception here seems to be Nukuoro which has both d and s as well as the others.
5. Only Chamorro breaks with the open syllable pattern of the languages, and actually has consonant clusters.
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