Rapa Nui language

The Rapa Nui language is isolated within Eastern Polynesian, which also includes the Marquesic and Tahitic languages. Within Eastern Polynesian, it is closest to Marquesan morphologically, although its phonology has more in common with New Zealand Māori, as both languages are relatively conservative in retaining consonants lost in other Eastern Polynesian languages. One of the most important recent books written about the language of Rapa Nui is Verónica du Feu's Rapanui (Descriptive Grammar) (). Very little is known about the Rapa Nui language prior to European contact. The majority of Rapa Nui vocabulary is inherited directly from Proto–Eastern Polynesian. Due to extensive borrowing from Tahitian there now often exist two forms for what was the same word in the early language. For example, Rapa Nui has Tahitian alongside original for 'to see', both derived from Proto-Eastern Polynesian *kitea. There are also hybridized forms of words such as 'to teach', from native (causative prefix) and Tahitian . According to archaeologist José Miguel Ramírez "more than a dozen Mapuche - Rapa Nui cognates have been described", chiefly by Sebastian Englert. Among these are the Mapuche/Rapa Nui words toki/toki (axe), kuri/uri (black) and piti/iti (little). For example, the numbers from one to ten seemingly have no relation to any known language. They are compared with contemporary Rapa Nui words, in parentheses: • cojána ( ) • corena ( ) • cogojú ( ) • quirote ( ) • majaná ( ) • teúto ( ) • tejéa ( ) • moroqui ( ) • vijoviri ( ) • queromata-paúpaca quacaxixiva ( ) It may be that the list is a misunderstanding, and the words not related to numbers at all. The Spanish may have shown Arabic numerals to the islanders who did not understand their meaning, and likened them to some other abstraction. For example, the "moroqui" for number eight would have actually been , a small fish that is used as a bait, since "8" can look like a simple drawing of a fish. A British expedition led by Captain James Cook visited the island four years later, and had a Tahitian interpreter with him, who, while recognizing some Polynesian words (up to 17 were written down), was not able to converse with the islanders in general. The British also attempted to record the numerals and were able to record the correct Polynesian words. a German missionary living on Easter Island during 1935–1969, published a partial Rapa Nui–Spanish dictionary in his La Tierra de Hotu Matua in 1948, trying to save what was left of the old language. Despite the many typographical mistakes, the dictionary is valuable, because it provides a wealth of examples which all appear drawn from a real corpus, part oral traditions and legends, part actual conversations. Englert recorded vowel length, stress, and glottal stop, but was not always consistent, or perhaps the misprints make it seem so. He indicated vowel length with a circumflex, and stress with an acute accent, but only when it does not occur where expected. The glottal stop is written as an apostrophe, but is often omitted. The velar nasal is sometimes transcribed with a , but sometimes with a Greek eta, , as a graphic approximation of . Rongorongo It is assumed that rongorongo, a possible undeciphered script once used on Rapa Nui, transcribes the old Rapa Nui language if it is indeed a formal writing system. ==Hispanisation==

The island has been under the jurisdiction of Chile since 1888 and is now home to a number of Chilean continentals. The influence of the Spanish language is noticeable in modern Rapa Nui speech. As fewer children learn to speak Rapa Nui at an early age, their superior knowledge of Spanish affects the "passive knowledge" they have of Rapa Nui. A version of Rapanui interspersed with Spanish nouns, verbs and adjectives has become a popular form of casual speech. The most well integrated borrowings are the Spanish conjunctions (or), (but) and (and). Spanish words such as (problem), which was once rendered as , are now often integrated with minimal or no change. Spanish words are still often used within Rapanui grammatical rules, though some word order changes are occurring and it is argued that Rapanui may be undergoing a shift from VSO to the Spanish SVO. This example sentence was recorded first in 1948 and again in 2001 and its expression has changed from VSO to SVO. ::'They both suffer and weep' :1948: :2001: Rapa Nui's indigenous Rapanui toponymy has survived with few Spanish additions or replacements, a fact that has been attributed in part to the survival of the Rapa Nui language. This contrasts with the toponymy of continental Chile, which has lost many of its indigenous names. ==Phonology==

Rapa Nui has ten consonants and five vowels. Consonants Like all Polynesian languages, Rapa Nui has relatively few consonants. Rapa Nui is the only Eastern Polynesian language to have preserved the original glottal stop *ʔ of Proto-Polynesian. As present generation Rapa Nui speak Spanish as their first language in younger years and learn Rapa Nui later in life, flap in word-initial position can be pronounced alveolar trill . Vowels : All vowels can be either long or short and are always long when they are stressed in the final position of a word. Most vowel sequences are present, with the exception of *uo. The only sequence of three identical vowels is , also spelled ('yes'). Syllable structure Syllables in Rapa Nui are CV (consonant-vowel) or V (vowel). There are no consonant clusters or word-final consonants. ==Orthography==

Written Rapanui uses the Latin script. The Latin alphabet for Rapanui consists of 20 letters: : A, Ā, E, Ē, H, I, Ī, K, M, N, Ŋ, O, Ō, P, R, T, U, Ū, V, The nasal velar consonant is generally written with the Latin letter , but occasionally as . In electronic texts, the glottal plosive may be written with a (always lower-case) saltillo to avoid the problems of using the punctuation mark . A special letter, , is sometimes used to distinguish the Spanish , occurring in introduced terms, from the Rapa Nui . Similarly, has been written to distinguish it from Spanish . The IPA letter is now also coming into use. ==Morphology==

Reduplication The reduplication of whole nouns or syllable parts performs a variety of different functions within Rapa Nui. To describe colours for which there is not a predefined word, the noun for an object of a like colour is duplicated to form an adjective. For example: :* (mist) → (dark grey) :* (dawn) → (white) Besides forming adjectives from nouns, the reduplication of whole words can indicate a multiple or intensified action. For example: :* (weave) → (fold) :* (undo) → (take to pieces) :* (dive) → (go diving) There are some apparent duplicate forms for which the original form has been lost. For example: :* (tired) The reduplication of the initial syllable in verbs can indicate plurality of subject or object. In this example the bolded section represents the reduplication of a syllable which indicates the plurality of the subject of a transitive verb: : (dance): :: (he/she/they is/are dancing) :: (they are all dancing) The reduplication of the final two syllables of a verb indicates plurality or intensity. In this example the bolded section represents the reduplication of two final syllables, indicating intensity or emphasis: : (tell): :: (Tell the story) :: (Tell the whole story) Borrowed words Rapa Nui incorporates a number of loanwords from other languages. Most of them have been adapted to the phonology of Rapa Nui. In particular, vowel epenthesis is used to break consonant clusters (normally forbidden in Rapa Nui) and paragoge to append a word-final vowel to a final consonant: :e.g.: ' (English loanword) → ' (Rapa Nui rendering) More recently, loanwords – which come primarily from Spanish – retain their consonant clusters. For example, (litre). Word classes Rapa Nui is, or until recently was, a verb-initial language. Rapa Nui can be said to have a basic two-way distinction in its words, much like other Polynesian languages. That is between full words, and particles. Rapa Nui speakers hence distinguish between entities that are close to the speaker (proximal), something at a medium distance or close to the hearer (medial), and something far away, removed from both the speaker and hearer (distal). This is called a person-oriented system, in which one of the demonstratives denotes a referent in proximity of the hearer. For Rapa Nui speakers, that is the medial distinction, //. This system of spatial contrasts and directions is known as spatial deixis, and Rapa Nui is full of ways to express this, be it through locationals, postverbal or postnominal demonstratives, or directionals. These four classes that function as demonstratives are similar in form, but differ in syntactic status and have certain differences in functions. Postnominal demonstratives The postnominal demonstratives are used to indicate different degrees of distance. They always occur on the right periphery of the noun phrase. As a result, negative clauses tend to have fewer aspectual distinctions. }}Hia}} occurs in eighth position as a post-verbal marker. Verbal negators precede adjectives. The table below roughly depicts the positions of negators in the Verb Phrase: Position in the verb phrase Clausal negators is the neutral negator (regarding aspect). It has the widest range of use in a variety of contexts. It usually occurs in imperfective contexts, as well as habitual clauses and narrative contexts, and is used to negate actions and states. In the example above is followed by the combination of (noun) In this example, is followed by (verb) In addition to negating verbal and nominal clauses, it also functions as the term ꞌnoꞌas shown below: Unlike the other two clausal negators (which are preverbal particles), is a phrase head, ========== negates clauses with perfective aspects. It is used to negate past events and narrative events, and is usually combined with . In other contexts, especially when is absent, the is obligatory. It also negates nominalised verbs and sub-constituents such as adjectives and quantifiers. It does not negate nouns (this is done by the noun negator ). It is also used to negate locative phrases, actor emphasis constructions, and is also used to reinforce the preposition . is an indicator for subordinate clauses, as it can also negate subordinate clauses without subordinate markers (in which case it usually occurs with an aspect marker). Noun negator: is a verb meaning 'the absence or lack of something'. It immediately follows the noun in the adjective position, and is used to indicate that the entity expressed by the noun or noun modifier does not exist or is lacking in the given context. Double negation In Rapa Nui, double negation is more frequent than single negation (with the negator often co-occurring with another clause negator most of the time). It is often used as a slight reinforcement or emphasis. == Syntax ==

Word order Rapa Nui is a VSO (verb–subject–object) language. Except where verbs of sensing are used, the object of a verb is marked by the relational particle . Where a verb of sensing is used, the subject is marked by the agentive particle . Directionals Spatial deictics is also present in Rapa Nui, in the form of two directionals: and . They indicate direction with respect to a specific deictic centre or locus. • indicates movement towards the deictic centre, hence the gloss 'hither'. • indicates movement away from the deictic centre, and is as such glossed as 'away'. They are both reflexes of a larger system in Proto-Polynesian. Postverbal demonstratives The postverbal demonstratives (PVDs) have the same form as the postnominal demonstratives, and they have the same meaning: • : proximity, close to the speaker • : medial distance, close to the hearer • : default PVD; farther distance, removed from both speaker and hearer. How they differ from postnominal demonstratives is their function/where they can appear, as it is quite limited. They can only appear in certain syntactic contexts, listed here: • PVDs are common after imperfective e to express a progressive or habitual action. • The contiguous marker is often followed by a PVD, both in main and subordinate clauses. • With the perfect , era is occasionally used to express an action which is well and truly finished. • PVDs also appear in relative clauses Overall, their main function is to provide nuance to the aspectual marker they are being used alongside. == Sample text ==

Lord's Prayer E te Matuꞌa o mātou o te raŋi ē, te meꞌe haŋa he moꞌa o te taŋata taꞌatoꞌa i tuꞌu ꞌīŋoa, ꞌe he haka rē atu mo haka tere ōꞌou i a rāua, ki haka tano ai i taꞌa meꞌe haŋa ꞌi te ao nei pa he haka tano iŋa atu o taꞌa meꞌe haŋa ꞌi te raŋi. E vaꞌai mai koe ꞌarīnā to mātou o te kai. E haka kore koe i te mātou hara, pa he haka rehu iŋa o mātou i te meꞌe ꞌino aŋa mai e te rua. ꞌE, ꞌi te hora o te haka ꞌatu mai, ꞌina koe ko haka rē i a mātou mo viri ki roto i te hara; e haka eꞌa koe i a mātou mai roto i te rima o Rukifero. ==References==