Tongan language

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from Tongan)

This article is about the Polynesian language of the nation of Tonga. For the (unrelated) Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa, see Tonga language (Zambia) and Tonga language (Nyasa). For the (unrelated) language spoken in southeast Asia, see Tonga language (Mon-Khmer).

{{Infobox Language |name=Tongan |nativename=lea faka-Tonga |states=Tonga, also American Samoa, Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand, Niue, USA, Vanuatu |speakers=105,319 |familycolor=Austronesian |fam2=Malayo-Polynesian |fam3=Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian |fam4=Eastern Malayo-Polynesian |fam5=Oceanic |fam6=Central-Eastern Oceanic |fam7=Remote Oceanic |fam8=Central Pacific |fam9=East Fijian-Polynesian |fam10=Polynesian |fam11=Tongic |nation=Tonga |iso1=to|iso2=ton|iso3=ton}}

Tongan (lea fakatonga) is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has 100,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language.

1 Related languages
2 Tongan alphabet
3 Syllabification
4 Use of the definitive accent
5 Divide into 3 types of language
6 Literature
7 Internet
8 External links

[edit]

Related languages

Tongan is one of the many tongues in the Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, along with [[Hawaiian language|HawaiTemplate:Okinaian]], Māori, Sāmoan and Tahitian, for example. Together with Niuean, it forms the Tongic subgroup of Polynesian. Assuming that the Polynesian languages have developed from a (real or imaginary) ancient language referred to as Proto-Polynesian, it seems that in Tongic the phonology has changed the least.

1. Tongan has preserved all the consonants like the 'k' and 'ŋ' and 'f', while at least one of them has disappeared in other Polynesian languages, being replaced by a glottal stop, and of the remainder, some may have changed further (t->k, f->h or v or w, ŋ->n). Examples: 'ŋ': Tongan-tangata (man), HawaiTemplate:Okinaian-kanaka, Sāmoan-tagata, Tahitian-taTemplate:Okinaata; 'k': Tongan-puaka (pig), others-puaTemplate:Okinaa; 'f': Tongan-fafine (women), Māori-wahine, Rarotonga-vaTemplate:Okinaine, and so forth.

2. Tongan does have a glottal stop too, but this is an original one, disappeared in all other languages. Examples: Tonga-tuTemplate:Okinau (stand), elsewhere-tū; Tonga-hāTemplate:Okinaele (go), Tahitian, Māori-haere, HawaiTemplate:Okinaian-hele.

3. The 'r' and 'l' were distinct consonants in proto-polynesian, as they are still in Fijian, but either they all merged into 'r', as in most east-polynesian languages, or 'l' as in most west-polynesian. However Tongan has preserved the 'l' but lost the 'r'. Examples: Fijian-rua (2), Tongan-ua, Sāmoan-lua, Tahitian-rua; Fijian-tolu (3), Tongan-tolu, Sāmoan-tolu, Tahitian-toru. The loss of the 'r' in Tongan might be quite recent. 'Lua' with the meaning of two might still be found in some archaic texts. Marama (light) became thus maama, and the two successive a's are still pronounced separately, not yet contracted to māma (but see below). On the other hand toro (sugarcane) already has become tō (still tolo in Sāmoan).

4. Tongan is one of the very few Polynesian languages where the so called definitive accent still occurs (see below). Rotuman is another example.

[edit]

Tongan alphabet

In the old, missionary alphabet the vowels were put first and then followed by the consonants (a,e,i,o,u,f... etc.) This was still so as of Privy council decision of 1943 on the orthography of the Tongan language. However C.M. Churchward's grammar and dictionary favoured the standard European alphabetical order, and since his time that one has been use exclusively:

a as in father
e as in met
f as in foot
h as in horse
i as in machine
k as in king
l as in lead
m as in man
n as in nest
ng as in singer (IPA: ŋ)(not as in finger, likewise Tonga is definitely not to be pronounced as Tonka); written as g but still pronounced as ŋ before 1943
o as in note
p as in stop, but softer towards the b; written as b before 1943
s as in see; sometimes written as j before 1943 (see below)
t as in time, but slightly softer towards the d
u as in tune
v as in vine
fakauTemplate:Okinaa ( Template:Okina ), the glottal stop, is pronounced like the "break" or "catch" in uh-oh. It should be written with the inverted curly apostrophe (unicode 0x02BB) and not, as many lazy Tongans do, with the single quote open or even worse with a mixture of quotes open and quotes close. See also [[okina|Template:Okinaokina]].

Note that the above order is strictly followed in a proper dictionary. Therefore ngatu follows nusi, Template:Okinaa follows vunga and it also follows z if foreign words occur. Long vowels come directly after short, which in practice means a do not care situation.

The original j used for the sound as in chin, disappeared in the beginning of the 20th century and became s, merging with the few words already having a pure s. By 1943 for sure there was no use of aj any longer. By consequence many ancient words with s nowadays are equivalent to those with a t in other Polynesian languages. For example Masisi (a star name) and Matiti in Tokelauan; siale (Gardenia taitensis) and tiare in Tahitian.

[edit]

Syllabification

Each syllable has exactly one vowel. The number of syllables in a word is exactly equal to the number of vowels it has.

Long vowels, indicated with a toloi (macron) count as one, but may in some circumstances be split up in two short ones, in which case, luckily, they are both written. Toloi are supposed to be written where needed, in practice people are usually too lazy to do it.

Each syllable may have no more than one consonant.

Consonant combinations are not permitted. The ng is not a consonant combination, since it represents a single sound. As such it can never be split, the proper hyphenation of fakatonga (Tongan) therefore is fa-ka-to-nga, against which normal, English oriented wordprocessors always sin.

Each syllable must end in a vowel. All vowels are pronounced, but an i at the end of an utterance is usually not heard.

The fakauTemplate:Okinaa is a consonant. It must be followed (and, except at the beginning of a word, preceded) by a vowel. Unlike the glottal stops in many other Polynesian languages texts, the fakauTemplate:Okinaa is always written. (Only sometimes before 1943.) The Tongan glottal is usually much more distinct than in other Polynesian languages.

Stress normally falls on the next to last syllable of a word with two or more syllables; example: móhe (sleep), mohénga (bed). If however, the last vowel is long, it takes the stress; example: kumā (mouse) (stress on the long ā). The stress also shifts to the last vowel if the next word is an enclitic; example: fále (house), falé ni (this house). Finally the stress can shift to the last syllable, including an enclitic, in case of the definitive accent; example: mohengá ((that) particular bed), fale ní (this particular house). It is also here that a long vowel can be split into two short ones; example: pō (night), poó ni (this night), pō ní (this particular night). Or the opposite: maáma (light), māmá ni (this light), maama ní (this particular night). Of course, there are some exceptions to the above general rules. The stress accent is normally not written, except where it is to indicate the definitive accent or fakamamafa. But here too people are often too lazy to write it, only using it when the proper stress cannot be easily derived from the context.

Although the acute accent has been available on most personal computers from their early days onwards, when Tongan newspapers started to use computers around 1990 to produce their papers, they were unable to find, or too lazy to remember the proper keystrokes, and it grew into a habit to put the accent after the vowel instead on it: not á but a´. But as this distance seemed to be too big, a demand arose for Tongan fonts where the acute accent was shifted to the right, a position halfway in between the two extremes above. Most papers still follow this practice.

[edit]

Use of the definitive accent

English and many other languages only know 2 types of articles:

the indefinite (a) and
the definite (the).

The phenomenon of the definitive accent allows Tongan to have 3 levels of articles, and not only articles, the idea spreads to the possessives as well.

the indefinite accent ha. Example: ko ha pālangi ('a caucasian', but it could have been almost any other human being)
the semi definite accent (h)e. Example: ko e pālangi ('the caucasian' in the sense that it is not a Tongan, not a negro, and so forth, but still rather 'a caucasian' if there several of them)
the definite accent (h)e with the shifted ultimate stress. Example: ko e pālangí ('the caucasian', that particular person there and no one else).

[edit]

Divide into 3 types of language

There are 3 (or rather 5) languages which consist of

ordinary words, also known as the language for the commoners
polite words
honorific words, also known as the language for the chiefs
regal words, also known as the language for the kings
derogatory words

It must be stressed that the term language here is somewhat a misnomer. It would be the same as saying in English that he pissed and he urinated or you and thy are different languages. It is just that some particular words, mostely nouns and verbs, can only be used when talking about or to particular persons.

ordinary: haTemplate:Okinau pea kai (come and eat!); Friends, family members and so forth would say this to each other when invited for dinner.
polite: meTemplate:Okinaatokoni (food, more precise: meTemplate:Okinaa-tokoni: food-thing, i.e. foodstuff); A serious study book or a more elevated surrounding would rather use this word than the ordinary meTemplate:Okinaakai.
honorific: meTemplate:Okinaa mai pea Template:Okinailo (come and eat!); The proper formula towards chiefs, in particular the nobles, but it may also be used by an employee towards his boss, and so on. However when talking about chiefs it must always be used, even if they are not actually present, but for your boss only to be used at formal occasions. A complication to the beginning student of Tongan is that such words very often also have an ordinary meaning: meTemplate:Okinaa (thing) and Template:Okinailo (know, find).
regal: hāTemplate:Okinaele mai pea taumafa (come and eat!); To be used towards the king or God (Lord, Jesus, etc.). The same considerations as for the honorific words apply. HāTemplate:Okinaele is one of the regal words which have become the normal word in other Polynesian languages, where the original ordinary word has disappeared. Some regal words clearly reflect a Sāmoan origin. History tells that sometimes the Tongans really went to Sāmoa to invent a new regal word. The Sāmoans, always eager to play a trick on the Tongans, gave them some, which in their language were very rude words, and the Tongans, not knowing that, used them since that time with the highest respect to their king.
derogatory: mama (eat!); Words which normally would be used for the pigs. As ordinary word mama means to chew (and many other meanings). A speaker would apply this word to himself and the commoners to make the distance between him and the nobles or the king even larger.

[edit]

Literature

Tongan is primarily a spoken, rather than written, language. Only the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and a few other books are written in Tongan. There are not enough people who can read Tongan to commercially justify publishing books in the language. Most reading literature available in Tonga is in English.

There are a few weekly and monthly magazines in Tongan, but there are no daily newspapers.