| Austral | |
|---|---|
| Reo Tuha‘a pae | |
| Native to | French Polynesia |
| Region | Austral Islands |
| Ethnicity | 6,700 (2017)[1] |
Native speakers | 5,000 (2007 census)[1] L2 speakers: 2,000 (no date)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aut |
| Glottolog | aust1304 |
| ELP | Austral |
Austral (Reo Tuha‘a pae) is anendangeredPolynesian language or adialect continuum that was spoken by approximately 8,000 people in 1987 on theAustral Islands and theSociety Islands ofFrench Polynesia. The language is also referred to as Tubuai-Rurutu, Tubuai, Rurutu-Tupuaʻi, or Tupuaʻi. It is closely related to other Tahitic languages, most notablyTahitian andMāori.[2]
Those who originally spoke Austral were the Tubuaians, the people ofTubuai. The island has been inhabited since at least 1215CE.[3]
The first European to visit Tubuai wasJames Cook in 1777, though he did not land.[4] The next Europeans to arrive were the mutineers ofHMSBounty in 1789. After establishing a fort, the mutineers degenerated into raiding local villages to kidnap women,[5] and left after two months.[6] MutineerJames Morrison recorded the population of Tubuai as "3000 souls".[7] When Christian missionaries arrived thirty years later, the population had been reduced to just 300 people.[8][9][10] One Protestant minister when visiting a congregation on Tubuai on January 3, 1824, wrote that several islanders were still suffering from a devastating illness. He described the symptoms and noted that several hundred had died within the previous four years.[8] As a result, some traditional practices, beliefs, and languages have been lost or have struggled to survive.[11] The languages of the Austral area still lack official recognition, as of 2015.[12]
Austral is anAustronesian language,[13] as are most other languages of the Pacific. Within this family, Austral is classified as part of the Tahitic branch of thePolynesian languages, making it closely related toTahitian andMāori.[1]
The Austral language is classified as "threatened" in theCatalogue of Endangered Languages.[14] With less than 6% of the French Polynesian population speaking Austral, itsEthnologue status is also deemed to be "shifting".[1] This means that the language is staying only within one generation and not being taught to their descendants. Another cause of Austral's dwindling number of speakers has been the community's graduallanguage shift to the more widely spoken (and closely related)Tahitian.[1]
Austral has four defined dialect groups: Ra'ivavae, Rimatara, Rurutu, andextinct Tubuai (also known as Tupuai). Each of these is named for and spoken on its corresponding island:Raivavae,Rimatara,Rurutu andTubuai.[12]
The phonology of the different Austral dialects varies significantly. The Rurutu and Ra'ivavae dialects, for example, have only eight consonant phonemes, making it relatively difficult to understand even for speakers of Tahitian, another Polynesian language. The Ra'ivavae dialect is also unusual in that its rhotic consonant has evolved into avoiced velar stop consonant, similar to the hard "g" sound in English.[12]
| Labial | Alveolar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |
| Plosive | p | t | ʔ |
| Fricative | fv | ||
| Rhotic | r |
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||
| Plosive | p | t | ɡ | ʔ |
| Fricative | v | h |
All dialects have the same five vowels/a,e,i,o,u/, with long variants similar to practically all Polynesian languages.[12]
| English | Austral |
|---|---|
| To say | parau |
| To know | ʔite |
| To choose | maʔiti |
| To see | naanaa |
| To think | manaʔo |
| To work | ʔatapu |
