Home  •  Galleries  •  Projects  •  Commissions  •  Prints  •  About  •  Contact  •  Back Door

PLACES

Lets have a look at a map of Tahiti, showing many of the towns and famous places. We'll also be looking at some words describing places, and talking about how to say where something is, or where you are going.


Te Fenua Tahiti

Famous places in Tahiti include:

Tahiti The island of Tahiti is divided into two parts, Tahiti Nui ("Big Tahiti") is the centre and north west, and Tahiti Iti ("Little Tahiti") in the south east.
Pape'ete In the north west of the Tahiti Nui, this is the capital city of French Polynesia. Its name means basket ('ete) of fresh water (pape).
Point Venus On 5th March, 1797, the first missionaries arrived in Tahiti, sailing to Point Venus and coming ashore. Every year, on this anniversary, people gather on the beach at Point Venus to celebrate the coming of Christianity to the island with songs (te mau himene tarava) and dancing (te mau 'ori)
'Orohena Te Mou'a 'o 'Orohena is the tallest mountain on Tahiti Nui, and is famed for its beauty in many songs of the island.
Vaihiria Te Roto 'o Vaihiria is on Tahiti Nui, and like 'Orohena, is famed for its beauty.
Te Marae Arahurahu A Marae is a stoned altar and temple complex which pre-Christian Tahitians used to worship their gods and ancestors. Te Marae Arahurahu is the best preserved of these, and during the July festival (Te Heiva o Tahiti, or simply Tiurai), there are dances and celebrations here, along with traditional drumming performances and conch shells blowing.

Here are words for various places and natural things....

mou'a mountain roto lake
fenua land, island moana open sea, ocean
mata'i wind miti sea, coastal sea
pae tahatai beach motu islet on the reef
mou'a mountain roto lake
fenua land, island moana open sea, ocean
teata theatre, cinema va'a outrigger canoe
fare toa shop, store ra'i sky

Name and noun announcers

We saw in the previous lesson how all names of places and people must be preceded by 'o. This tells whoever is listening that what follows is a name:

'o Mary 'o Guy 'o Tahiti 'o 'Orohena 'o Vaihiria

Now there is another word which precedes all other nouns, and which tells the listener that what follows is a noun. That word is te, and is roughly equivalent to the English word "the":
te mou'a te moana te roto te ra'i te fare toa

But note that te is used in situations where English wouldnt use "the" before a noun.
te here "(the) love"
te maita'i "(the) goodness"
te ora "(the) life"
te maru "(the) calmness, (the) calm"
te ni'a "(the) above"

Did you notice te maita'i and te maru? We've already seen these two words as adjectives, meaning "good" (maitai') and "calm" (maru). Words are much more mobile in Tahitian than they are in English. maita'i can be an adjective meaning "good, well, fine", and it can be a noun meaning "goodness, wellness". That's why we need name and noun announcers ('o and te), so that we can tell when a word is being used as an adjective or a noun!

Where is it?

Look at the words below:

te ni'a (the) above i ni'a above, on top of, on, over
te raro (the) below i raro below, beneath, under
te uta (the) inland area i uta inland, towards inland
te roto (the) middle, centre i roto in the middle, in the centre
i aui left of, left i atau right of, right

Now i in the words above is a very useful marker with a wide range of functions. Here it means "at" or "in", so when you say "above", you're actually saying "at above..." Here is the formula for how to use these words, which are called positionals:
TE + NOUN 1 + I + POSITIONAL + Ó + TE + NOUN 2

Now, be careful here. The ó in the formula above (Ó + TE + NOUN 2) is not the same as 'o the name announcer:
ó This has no glottal stop (') at the front of the vowel, is a long vowel and it means, roughly, "of"
'o This does have a glottal stop (') at the front of the (short) vowel, and it is the name announcer.   Note: the name announcer is removed when a name follows the particle i "in, at". So we have i Pape'ete "In Pape'ete".

te mou'a i roto ó te fenua "The mountain (is) in the middle of the island"
te táne i ni'a ó te mou'a "The man (is) on (top of) the mountain"
te motu iti i te miti "The islet (is) in the sea"
te tamari'i i raro ó te roi "The child (is) under the bed"
Tei hea roa te fare toa? I aui ó te fare rata "Where is the store? (It is) left of the post office."

Tei hea roa?

Take a look at this map. Ask yourself some questions about the things you can see. Ask where things are.

Tei hea roa te....? "Where is the...?" Tei hea roa? "Where?"

Answer these questions:

Where is the woman (te vahine)? Where is the person (te ta'ata)?
Where is the mountain? Where is the store?
Where is the islet (te motu)? Where is the house (te fare)?
Tei hea roa te vahine? Te vahine i te fare toa.
Tei hea roa te ta'ata? Te ta'ata i ni'a ó te mou'a.
Tei hea roa te mou'a? Te mou'a i roto ó te fenua.
Tei hea roa te fare toa? Te fare toa i atau te motu.
Tei hea roa te motu? Te motu i te moana.
Tei hea roa te fare? Te fare i aui ó te motu.

You could try other questions with different answers too.

Conversation 2

Read this conversation. Guy sees ('ite) Mary at the store. Can you find the new words in their conversation?

'Ite 'o Guy i 'o Mary i te fare toa.

Guy: E Mary, ia orana ‘oe!
Mary: E Guy, eaha te huru?
Guy: Maita’i roa. Hina'aro vau i te mau mai'a. Tei hea roa rátou?
Mary: I ni'a ó te mau tuvava.
Guy: 'Ite au. E tei hea roa te pata?
Mary: Te pata i te raro ó te faraoa.
Guy: Maurúru, 'o Mary!
Mary: 'Aita e pe'ape'a.

Now look at the English translation. Can you tell what the new words mean?

Guy sees Mary at the store.

Guy: Hello, Mary!
Mary: Guy, how are you?
Guy: Very well. I want some bananas. Where are they?
Mary: Above the guavas.
Guy: I see. And where is the butter?
Mary: The butter is below the bread.
Guy: Thanks, Mary!
Mary: No problem.

Did you spot the new words? Can you tell what they mean? Here they are, though I'm sure you got them all right!!

'ite "to see" mau "plural marker"
mai'a "banana" tuvava "guava"
pata "butter" faraoa "bread, flour"
rátou "all of them, they (many)"

Under the bed

What can you see under the bed? Eaha 'ite 'oe i raro ó te ro'i?

Here are some words to help you.....

eaha "what?" ro'i "bed"
tamari'i"child"te mau mai'a "bananas"
mereni "melon" tiare "flower"

Now that we know about the positionals ni'a, raro, roto, aui and atau, we can use the following formula to saying where we are going, using the word haere, meaning "to go".

HAERE + PRONOUN + I + (TE) + (POSITIONAL) + (Ó) + TE + NOUN

Haere vau i ni'a ó te mou'a. "I am going to the top of the mountain."
Haere 'oe i te moana? "Are you going to the ocean?"
Haere 'orua i roto ó te fenua? "Are you two going to the centre of the island?"
Haere vau i Pape'ete. "I'm going to Pape'ete."
Haere táua i uta, i te mou'a 'o 'Orohena "We two are going inland, to Mt. Orohena."

Now you can replace haere "to go" with other verbs too!
Ta'oto vau i te roi. "I'm sleeping in my bed."
'Ite 'o Guy i Mary. "Guy sees Mary."

Remember, in the sentence 'Ite 'o Guy i Mary, the name announcer 'o has been dropped from 'o Mary because it follows the particle i. Similarly, you'd say Haere vau i Pape'ete, not Haere vau i 'o Pape'ete ("I'm going to Tahiti").

Conversation 3

Now have a look at this lesson's second conversation. Mary is about to leave the shop when Guy asks her where she is going. The following new words might be useful.

reva "to leave" i hea? "Where to?"
i teie nei "now" tama'ara'a "feast, party"
hina'aro "want, want to" hina'aro 'oe e...? "Do you want to...?"
roa "very, very much"

Reva 'o Mary i te fare toa.
Mary: Párahi, 'o Guy.
Guy: I hea haere 'oe, i teie nei?
Mary: Haere vau i Pape'ete, i te tama'ara'a. Hina'aro 'oe e haere?
Guy: 'E, hina'aro roa vau!
Mary: E haere taua!
Guy: Maita'i!

Use all the above words and any more that you know to tell what is i raro ó te ro'i! Also, can you tell me Eaha i ni'a ó te ro'i?

Now, here's a challenge - can you make a translation into English of the above conversation, using the words that you know and the ones in the list? Go on! Give it a go!

Once you've done that, click the "People" icon at left to continue learning Tahitian!

 

Copyright (c) 2002-2008 Bruce Rimell : All images, artwork, writings, texts and other information on this site
are copyrighted to Bruce Rimell and may not be reproduced in any form unless stated otherwise.