Tongan language
Spoken in
- Austronesian Malayo - Polynesian Central Eastern Malayo -Polynesian Eastern Malayo -Polynesian oceanic Zentralostozeanisch Remote Oceanic languages Zentralpazifisch East Fidschipolynesisch polynesian Sundanese
To
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The Tongan language ( Tongan lea fakatonga ) belongs to the Polynesian languages , which are a branch of the Austronesian languages. It is spoken by the Tongans, and the Tongan islands the national language.
Position within the Polynesian
Among the Polynesian languages the Tongan deserves a special attention. Tonga is located in the Melanesian -Polynesian border area. This means that the Tongan in some respects phonetic and syntactic type differs from the other Polynesian languages and approaches the language of Fiji. This approach to Fiji goes beyond the broad equivalence between this language and the Polynesian and explained by later actions of Tonga to Fiji. Such influence is present for sure, but that does not suffice to explain older forms of speech that are found consistently in both languages.
The Tonga is also another reason for the evolutionary history of Polynesia of concern. Tongans operated a lively colonial policy, in the course of which the surrounding islands were settled. This also explains the large compliance of the languages of Tonga and Uvéa (Valais). From uvea turn the island of the same name was populated in Melanesia. Whether other Polynesian languages are Tongan origin in Melanesia, is not yet decided. Should it be remedied, this would have important implications for evolution of the Tongan would result. The Tongan is one of the oldest identifiable developing layer of the Polynesian. A peculiarity of the Tongan is prefixed by one hour in several words, where the correspondence s or h is missing in the other Polynesian languages , which is due to an earlier Nasalverbindung.
- ' up ': Tg hake / ake Uvea / Futuna ake, sake
- ' down ': Tg Hifo / uvea Ifo / Niue Hifo
- ' Nine ': Tg hiva / uvea hiva / Futuna iva
- ' how much? ': Tg fiha / Niue fiha / Futuna fia
- ' Sea ': Tg tahi / uvea tai / Niue tahi
- ' sleep ': Tg mohe / uvea moe / Niue mohe / Futuna moe
Niuean how the Tongan the definite article he. In contrast, the uvea, which almost coincides with the Tongan vocabulary is missing, both the mentioned h and the equivalent for an original Indonesian h possesses an Article uvea te. On all these points the language of Niue with uveal match.
Language development
After the discovery in 1616 by the Dutchman Jacob Le Maire Tonga was able to preserve its independence to the present day with clever tactics, only from 1900 to 1970 it was under British protection. Today Tonga is ruled by a constitutional monarchy on the British model.
In all that time the Tongan culture could retain their identity in the modern language, however, there were foreign influences, eg by the English. again.
This is demonstrated by the example of a mythological text, which was written in the recent past:
Compared to earlier texts were changing not only single words, but the Tongan such as the spelling, the English language resembled in many areas, at. In the course of this influence changed the language, as the following examples show:
' The child, by whom is this girl? '
- Old: coe tama Ahai he fafine Coia?
- Re: ko e tama a hai hey fefine kó ia?
' It is the child of Matapule fotu. '
- Old: coe tana he mataboole co Fotoo
- Re: ko tama e a e matāpule ko fotu
- Re: dew alu ki fononga Liku
' to see the setting of the sun. '
- Old: ger Mamata hey hey Hifo LAA
- Re: ke Mamata hey hey Hifo LAA
'Let us listen to the chirping of the birds '
- Re: dew fonongo ki hey hey mapu manu
'and the complaints of the pigeons. '
- Old: me hey hey tangi Loobe
- New: e mo tangi hey lupe
Neglecting the particle attribute is also found in later texts, but not as often. In Niue, the with the Tongan has the same article he, the attribute particle falls out regularly. This suggests that these particles are neglected in today's vernacular.