Tuamotuan language
Tuamotuan, Paʻumotu or Paumotu (Tuamotuan: Reʻo Paʻumotu or Reko Paʻumotu) is a Polynesian language spoken by 4,000 people in the Tuamotu archipelago, with an additional 2,000 speakers in Tahiti.[3]: 76
Pa‘umotu
15,600 (2007 census?)[1]
The Pa‘umotu people today refer to their islands as Tuamotu while referring to themselves and their language as Pa‘umotu (or Paumotu). Pa‘umotu is one of six Polynesian languages spoken in French Polynesia, the other five languages being Tahitian, Marquesan, Mangarevan, Rapa, and Austral.[3]
The Pa‘umotu alphabet is based on the Latin script.[4]
About the language[edit]
History and culture[edit]
Little is known regarding the early history of the Tuamotus. It is believed that they were settled c. 700 AD by people from the Society Islands. Europeans first arrived in the islands in 1521, when Ferdinand Magellan reached them while sailing across the Pacific Ocean. Subsequent explorers visited the islands over the centuries, including Thor Heyerdahl, the famous Norwegian ethnographer who sailed the Kon-Tiki expedition across the Pacific in 1947.
The effects of early European visits were marginal as they had no political effects. The language, however, was ultimately affected by the Tahitian language, which was itself affected by European expansion. The eventual arrival of European missionaries in the 19th century also led to loanwords, including the creation of new vocabulary terms for the Pa‘umotu new-found faith, and the translation of the Bible into Pa‘umotu.[5]
The original religion of the Tuamotus involved the worship of a higher being, Kiho-Tumu or Kiho. Religious chants have been preserved and translated that describe the attributes of Kiho and how he created the world.[6]
In more recent times, the Tuamotus were the site of French nuclear testing on the atolls of Moruroa and Fangataufa.
Classification[edit]
Paumotu is a member of the Polynesian group of Oceanic languages, itself a subgroup of the Austronesian family.[2]
Some foreign influence is present.[7]