The Rotuman language is the language of the Austronesian family , distributed among the aborigines of the Rotum islands that have been part of Fiji since 1881. The classification of the Rotuman language is difficult for linguists due to the large number of borrowings from Samoan and Tongan as a result of intensive cultural contacts. Andrew Paulie ( en: Andrew Pawley ) showed that the language belongs to the West Fijian sub-branch.
| Rotuman | |
|---|---|
| Self name | Fäeag rotuma |
| Country | Fiji |
| Regions | Rotuma Islands |
| Official status | not |
| Total number of speakers | 9000 |
| Status | |
| Classification | |
| Category | Languages Oceania |
Austronesian family
| |
| Writing | latin |
| Language Codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | map |
| ISO 639-3 | rtm |
| WALS | |
| Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| Ethnologue | |
| Linguasphere | |
| ABS ASCL | |
| IETF | |
| Glottolog | |
The Rotuman language aroused great interest among linguists with such a feature as metathesis: in some cases, the last vowel changes places with the previous consonant.
Unlike neighboring languages, the word order in Rotuman is Subject Verb Object .
Sample Text
The following is the text of the prayer of Our Father , published in 1975 as part of a Bible translation .
- 'Otomis Ö'faat täe' e lạgi,
- 'Ou asa la äf'äk la ma'ma',
- 'Ou pureaga la leum,' ou rere la sok,
- fak ma 'e lạgi, la tape'ma' e rä te '.
- 'Äe la naam se' ạmisa, 'e terạnit e' i,
- ta 'etemis tela'a la taumar,
- Ma 'äe la fạu'ạkia te' ne 'otomis sara,
- la fak ma ne 'ạmis tape'ma re vạhia se iris ne sar' e 'ạmisag.
- Ma 'äe se hoa' 'ạmis se faksara; 'äe la sại'ạkia' ạmis' e raksa'a.
- Ko pureaga, ma ne'ne'i, ma kolori, mou ma ke se 'äeag, se av se' es gataag ne tore. 'Emen
- 'Ou asa la äf'äk la ma'ma',
Notes
Literature
- Blevins, Juliette (1994), "The Bimoraic Foot in Rotuman Phonology and Morphology", Oceanic Linguistics T. 33 (2): 491-516
- Churchward, CM (1940), Rotuman Grammar and Dictionary , Sydney: Methodist Church of Australasia
- Milner, George B. (1971), Fijian and Rotuman, in Thomas A. Sebeok, Current Trends in Linguistics , vol. 8: The Languages of Oceania, The Hague: Mouton, p. 397-425
- Saito, Mamoru (1981), A Preliminary Account of the Rotuman Vowel System , Cambridge: MIT Press
- Schmidt, Hans (2003), "Temathesis in Rotuman" , in John Lynch, Issues in Austronesian Historical Phonology , Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, p. 175-207, ISBN 0 85883 503 7 , < http://www.rotuma.net/os/Temathesis%20in%20Rotuman.pdf >