The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.
There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austronesian family.. While half of them are spoken in geographical Polynesia (the Polynesian triangle), the other half – known as Polynesian outliers – are spoken in other parts of the Pacific: from Micronesia to atolls scattered in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands or Vanuatu. The most prominent Polynesian languages, by number of speakers, are Samoan, Tongan, Tahitian, Māori and Hawaiian.
The ancestors of modern Polynesians were Lapita navigators, who settled in the Tonga and Samoa areas about 3,000 years ago. Linguists and archaeologists estimate that this first population went through common development over approximately 1,000 years, giving rise to Proto-Polynesian, the linguistic ancestor of all modern Polynesian languages. After that period of shared development, the Proto-Polynesian society split into several descendant populations, as Polynesian navigators scattered around various archipelagoes across the Pacific – some travelling westwards to already populated areas, others navigating eastwards and settling in new territories (Society Islands, Marquesas, Hawaii, New Zealand, Rapa Nui, etc.).
Still today, Polynesian languages show strong similarity, particularly cognate words in their vocabulary; this includes culturally important words such as tapu, ariki, motu, fenua, kava, and tapa as well as Hawaiki (*sawaiki), the mythical homeland for some of the cultures.
Internal classification Phylogenetic classification Polynesian languages fall into two branches, Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Tongan and Niuean constitute the Tongic branch; all the rest are part of the Nuclear Polynesian branch.
Polynesian Nuclear Polynesian Ellicean Ellicean–Outlier Tuvaluan Nukuoro (Nukuoro in the Federated States of Micronesia) Kapingamarangi (on Kapingamarangi in Federated States of Micronesia) Nukuria (Nuguria in eastern Papua New Guinea) Takuu (Takuu Atoll in eastern Papua New Guinea) Nukumanu (Nukumanu in the east of Papua New Guinea) Ontong Java (or Luangiua; Ontong Java, Solomon Islands) Sikaiana (Sikaiana, Solomon Islands) Pileni (Reef Islands, Solomon Islands) Samoic Samoan Tokelauan Eastern Polynesian Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Central–Eastern Polynesian Marquesic Marquesan–Mangareva Marquesan (Marquesas Islands and Puka-Puka, French Polynesia) Mangareva (Gambier Islands, French Polynesia) Hawaiian (Hawaii) Tahitic Tahitian (Society Islands, French Polynesia) Austral (Austral Islands, French Polynesia) Rapa (Rapa Iti, French Polynesia) Tuamotuan (Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia) Greater Māori Eastern Māori Rarotongan (Cook Islands Māori, Cook Islands) Rakahanga-Manihiki (Rakahanga and Manihiki, Northern Cook Islands) Penrhyn (or Tongarevan; Tongareva, Northern Cook Islands) Western Māori-Moriori Māori (New Zealand) Moriori (Chatham Islands, New Zealand) † Futunic (?): Wallisian or East Uvean (Fakaʻuvea) (Wallis Island, Wallis and Futuna) Futunan or East Futunan (Fakafutuna) (Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna) West Uvean or Faga Uvea (Ouvéa off New Caledonia) Pukapukan (Pukapuka, northern Cook Islands) Anuta (Anuta Island, Solomon Islands) Rennellese (Rennell and Bellona island, Solomon Islands) Tikopia (Tikopia Island, Solomon Islands) Vaeakau-Taumako (?) (Reef Islands and Taumako island, Solomon Islands) Futuna-Aniwa or West Futunan (Futuna and Aniwa in Vanuatu) Mele-Fila (Mele Island, Vanuatu) Emae (Emae Island, Vanuatu) Tongic Tongan Niuafoʻou (on Niuafoʻou Island, Tonga) Niuean
History of classification The contemporary classification of the Polynesian languages began with certain observations by Andrew Pawley in 1966 based on shared innovations in phonology, vocabulary and grammar showing that the East Polynesian languages were more closely related to Samoan than they were to Tongan, calling Tongan and its nearby relative Niuean "Tongic" and Samoan and all other Polynesian languages of the study "Nuclear Polynesian".Pawley, Andrew. 1966. Polynesian languages: a subgrouping based upon shared innovations in morphology. Journal of the Polynesian Society 75(1):39–64. .
Previously, there had been lexicostatistical studies that squarely suggested a "West Polynesian" group composed of at least Tongan and Samoan and that an "East Polynesian" group was equally distant from both Tongan and Samoan.
Pawley published another study in 1967.Pawley, Andrew, 1967, The relationships of Polynesian Outlier languages. Journal of the Polynesian Society 76(3):259–296. . It began the process of extracting relationships from Polynesian languages on small islands in Melanesia, the "Polynesian Outliers", whose languages Pawley was able to trace to East Futuna in the case of those farther south and perhaps to Samoa itself in the case of those more to the north.
Except for some minor differentiation of the East Polynesian tree, further study paused for almost twenty years until WilsonWilson, William H., 1985, Evidence for an Outlier source for the Proto-Eastern-Polynesian pronominal system. Oceanic Linguistics 24(1/2):85-133. . . published a study of Polynesian pronominal systems in 1985 suggesting that there was a special relationship between the East Polynesian languages and all other Nuclear Polynesian but for Futunic, and calling that extra-Futunic group the "Ellicean languages". Furthermore, East Polynesian was found to more likely have emerged from extra-Samoan Ellicean than out of Samoa itself, in contradiction to the long assumption of a Samoan homeland for the origins of East Polynesian. Wilson named this new group "Ellicean" after the pre-independence name of Tuvalu and presented evidence for subgroups within that overarching category.
Marck,Marck, Jeff (2000), Topics in Polynesian languages and culture history. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. in 2000, was able to offer some support for some aspects of Wilson's suggestion through comparisons of shared sporadic (irregular, unexpected) sound changes, e. g., Proto-Polynesian and Proto-Nuclear-Polynesian *mafu 'to heal' becoming Proto-Ellicean *mafo. This was made possible by the massive Polynesian language comparative lexicon ("Pollex" – with reconstructions) of Biggs and Clark.Biggs, Bruce (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994) and Bruce Biggs and Ross Clark (1996), Pollex: Comparative Polynesian Lexicon (computer data base). Auckland: Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland.
Internal correspondences Partly because Polynesian languages split from one another comparatively recently, and due also to extensive language contact across Polynesia for centuries, many words in these languages remain similar to corresponding words in others. The table below demonstrates this with the words for 'sky', 'north wind', 'woman', 'house' and 'parent' in a representative selection of languages: Tongan; Niuean; Samoan; Sikaiana; Takuu; North Marquesan; South Marquesan; Mangarevan; Hawaiian; Rapanui language; Tahitian; Māori and Cook Islands Māori (Rarotongan). TonganNiueanSamoanSikaianaTakuuNorth MarquesanSouth MarquesanMangarevanHawaiianRapanuiTahitianMāoriRarotonganskynorth windwoman/vahine/houseparent
Certain regular correspondences can be noted between different Polynesian languages. For example, the Māori sounds , , , and correspond to , , , and in Hawaiian. Accordingly, "person" is tangata in Māori and kanaka in Hawaiian, and Māori roa "long" corresponds to Hawaiian loa. The famous Hawaiian greeting aloha corresponds to Māori aroha, "love, tender emotion". Similarly, the Hawaiian word for kava is awa.
Similarities in basic vocabulary may allow speakers from different island groups to achieve a significant degree of understanding of each other's speech. When a particular language shows unexpectedly large divergence in vocabulary, this may be the result of a name-avoidance taboo situation – see examples in Tahitian, where this has happened often.
European contact with Polynesians in the late 19th century gave birth to Maritime Polynesian Pidgin as a zonal auxiliary or trade medium based mainly on reductions of common characteristics between Tahitian, Māori and Hawaiian. Despite this, many Polynesian languages have been greatly affected by European colonization. Both Māori and Hawaiian, for example, have lost many speakers to English, and only since the 1990s have they resurged in popularity.
Grammatical characteristics Personal pronouns In general, Polynesian languages have three numbers for pronouns and possessives: singular, dual and plural. For example, in Māori: ia (he/she), rāua (they two), rātou (they 3 or more). The words rua (2) and toru (3) are still discernible in endings of the dual and plural pronouns, giving the impression that the plural was originally a trial (threesome) or paucal (a few), and that an original plural has disappeared.Indeed Fijian, a language closely related to Polynesian, has singular, dual, paucal, and plural; and even there we may see the paucal replacing the plural in generations to come, as the paucal currently can be used for a group from 3 up to as many as 10, usually with some family, workgroup or other association. Polynesian languages have four distinctions in pronouns and possessives: first exclusive, first inclusive, second and third. For example, in Māori, the plural pronouns are: mātou (we, exc), tātou (we, inc), koutou (you), rātou (they). The difference between exclusive and inclusive is the treatment of the person addressed. Mātou refers to the speaker and others but not the person or persons spoken to (i.e., "I and some others, but not you"), while tātou refers to the speaker, the person or persons spoken to, and everyone else (i.e., "You and I and others").
a and o possession Many Polynesian languages distinguish two possessives. The a-possessives (as they contain that letter in most cases), also known as subjective possessives, refer to possessions that must be acquired by one's own action (alienable possession). The o-possessives or objective possessives refer to possessions that are fixed to someone, unchangeable, and do not necessitate any action on one's part but upon which actions can still be performed by others (inalienable possession). Some words can take either form, often with a difference in meaning. One example is the Samoan word , which takes the o-possessive in (her breast) and the a-possessive in (her breastmilk). Compare also the particles used in the names of two of the books of the Māori Bible: (The Book of Jeremiah) with (The Book of Joshua); the former belongs to Jeremiah in the sense that he was the author, but the Book of Joshua was written by someone else about Joshua. The distinction between one's birth village and one's village of current residence can be made similarly.
Numerals in Polynesian languages Numerals: