Polynesian languages

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".

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. 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 Wilson 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, 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.

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).

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 ʻawa.

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.