| Rotuman | |
|---|---|
| Fäeag Rotuạm | |
| Native to | Fiji |
| Region | Rotuma |
| Ethnicity | Rotumans |
Native speakers | 7,500 (2002)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Rotuma,Fiji |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | rtm |
| Glottolog | rotu1241 |
 Rotumans distribution in Fiji (2017 census) | |
 Rotuman is classified as Vulnerable by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Rotuman, also referred to asRotunan,Rutuman orFäeag Rotuạm (citation form:Faega Rotuma), is anAustronesian language spoken by the IndigenousRotuma people in theSouth Pacific. Linguistically, as well as culturally, Rotuma has had aPolynesian influence in its culture and was incorporated as a dependency into the Colony ofFiji in 1881. Contemporary Rotuman is a result of significant Polynesian borrowing, following Samoan and Tongan migrations into Rotuma.[2]
The Rotuman language has sparked much interest withlinguists because the language usesmetathesis to invert the ultimate vowel in a word with the immediately preceding consonant, resulting in a vowel system characterized byumlaut, vowel shortening or extending anddiphthongization.
Unlike its Pacific neighbors, Rotuman is typically considered anAVO (agent–verb–object) language.
| Labial | Coronal | Post- alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Stop | p | t | tʃ | k | ʔ |
| Fricative | fv | s | h | ||
| Liquid | rl |
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a |
Rotuman has no phonemic vowel length and is underlyingly a language of open syllables. Thus, only consonant + vowel syllables exist in the underlying syllable structure, although phonological processes provide for more variation. A minimal word constraint that disallows words of less than twomoras also alters this underlying representation. Except for words from non-lexical categories, a word like/ka/ ('tomorrow') is realized as[kaa]. That constraint applies before word compounding (includingreduplication as well):/fu/ ('coral reef') +/liʔu/ ('deep sea') →[fuuˈliʔu] ('deep sea pool').[5] Vowels are also lengthened when both final and stressed.[6]
Non-high vowels are raised when they are followed by a syllable with a high vowel.[7]
Generally speaking, when/a/ is followed by/ɛ/ within a metricalfoot, it is fronted to[æ].[8]
| complete | incomplete | gloss |
|---|---|---|
| [tuˈturu] | [tuˈtur] | 'post...' |
| [ˈmosɛ] | [ˈmøs] | 'to sleep...' |
| [ˈpikɔ] | [ˈpiɔk] | 'lazy' |
An important aspect of Rotuman morphonology is what could be called the "incomplete" and "complete" phases although they have also been referred to as "long" and "short" forms, "primary" and "secondary" forms, "absolute" and "construct" cases, and "proper and original" and "altered or construct" forms.[9] The complete phase applies to semantically-definite or specific terms. Otherwise, in normal conversation (excluding song, poetry and chant), the incomplete phase applies to all but the last morpheme of a word and all but the last word of a phrase.[10] That can lead to syllable-final consonants in the language, which has an underlying all-open syllable system.
| i | ɛ | a | ɔ | u | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | iC | jɛC | jɔC | juC | iC |
| ɛ | eC | ɛC | jaC | ɛC | ɛC |
| a | æC | æC | aC | aC | ɔC |
| ɔ | øC | œC | waC | ɔC | oC |
| u | yC | wɛC | wɔC | wɔC | uC |
The above table (C indicates any consonant) shows that metathesis and deletion are important parts of incomplete phase formation. The final vowel and the immediately-preceding consonant metathesize from V1CV2#, to V1V2C# where V1 is any underlying penultimate vowel, V2 is any underlying ultimate vowel, C is any consonant, and # is the word, phrase, or morpheme boundary.[12]
After metathesis, "V2 is deleted if V1 is not further back than V2 and if V2 is not lower than V1" or if the two vowels are identical.[13] Further processes of elision result in coalescence or spreading of features: back vowels arefronted before front vowels of equal or greaterheight (/ɛ/ and/or/i/ affect/ɔ/ and just/i/ affects/u/) before the latter are deleted.
In addition, the/a/ →[æ] rule takes effect again, now outside of the moraic foot, and can occur with a following/i/ and both/ɛ/. Also,/a/ becomes[ɔ]after a syllable with a high vowel (/i/ or/u/).[14] When V1 is higher than V2, it is devocalized to the correspondingsemivowel;[j] forfront vowels and[w] forback vowels.[15]
Word stress is associated with left-dominant bimoraic feet. The penultimate mora of nonderived words carries the stress. Other than the nominalizing suffix⫽-ŋa⫽ and the causative suffix⫽-ʔaki⫽, stress is assigned before additional morphemes are affixed[16] and before incomplete phase morphonology.[17]
Upon missionary contact, various orthographies were used on the island of Rotuma. TheFrenchCatholicmissionaries devised an orthography based on their own alphabet, and the primarily-EnglishWesleyan Methodist preachers developed their own orthography to write in Rotuman. The prevalent one used today is one from the Australian Methodist Reverend C. M. Churchward, whose knowledge of linguistics helped him to devise theTongan orthography as well. Here is the alphabet, as it appears in Churchward's seminal work,Rotuman Grammar and Dictionary:
For the variations to the vowelsa,o andi, Churchward's dictionary treats these letters as if no variation between the species occurred within the base letter: the wordpäega, meaningseat, appears beforepạri meaningbanana, which, in turn, appears beforepau, meaning very much.
In addition, there are instances of all original vowels above appearing with a macron, indicatingthat they are longer, although vowel length is arguably a phonological process.
Because Churchward's alphabet was created before a sufficient analysis of Rotuman phonology, it is not purelyphonemic. George Milner[18] proposed a more phonemic spelling without diacritics, which incorporates the understanding of vowel allophony as having to do with metathesis (see above)
| Churchward | IPA | Milner | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| complete | incomplete | incomplete | ||
| mose | mös | [møs] | moes | 'sleep' |
| futi | füt | [fyt] | fuit | 'pull' |
| a+su | ạ+s | [ɔs] | aus | 'steam' |
| a+ti | ȧt | [æt] | ait | 'gather (shellfish)' |
This is the Rotuman language version of theLord's Prayer, as found in the translation of the Bible published in 1975 (Matthew 6:9–13).[19] It is written using the diacritics of Churchward's orthography:
