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Tahitian language threatened | ||
Tags: Pacific Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7222 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 1 of 14 28 May 2014 at 9:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I have read up on how close Tahitian is to Hawaiian and Maori. In comparison between the three, Tahitian is very scarce on resources. I even saw this video on youtube here. It is easy defaulting to French in places like French Polynesia. Similar to defaulting to English in Hawaii and New Zealand. Are there enough resources with audio for anyone interested in learning the Tahitian language? Any contributions are appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 2 of 14 28 May 2014 at 10:51am | IP Logged | ||
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There's a vibrant Tahitian community here on the island of Oahu, and a range of Tahitian courses at Hawai'i University too. I'd love to register for a course, but I've already signed up for its close cousin Hawaiian in the Fall instead.
There are also lots of opportunities to take part in or learn about Tahitian culture here. For example, I spent the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center a short while back, and the Tahitian village was great fun and very educational. I also enjoyed chilling out at the big Tahitian Dance Festival a couple of months ago ("Heiva i Honolulu 2014", organized by Tahiti Nui International). I'll try to get in contact with our Tahitian instructor at the university next semester, and see what he recommends for audio resources, and then share what I find out with the Forum. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 3 of 14 28 May 2014 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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(Wikipedia) Maybe Tahitians find French language charming and are abandoning their own language for the language of love? Edited by Medulin on 28 May 2014 at 12:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| morinkhuur Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 4678 days ago 79 posts - 157 votes Speaks: German*, Latin, English Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi) | Message 4 of 14 28 May 2014 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
The reason why they're abandoning their language is most likely not that they think French is "charming", but rather has more to do with perceived economic advantages and government promotion of speaking French and i don't think we should be amused about it. Languages are dying out everywhere at an alarming rate and with them cultures and other ways of looking at the world, different approaches to problem-solving, knowledge about the natural world and windows into the human mind. If things continue this way, HALF of all the world's languages will disappear in the next 100 years. The "language of love" (or rather "the language of colonialism" for Polynesians) already has about 338 million speakers and is in no way threatened. It doesn't need more speakers. That's not to say people shouldn't be learning French, but they should not cast aside their own languages, especially if they're in such a critical condition. Edited by morinkhuur on 28 May 2014 at 7:05pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 5 of 14 28 May 2014 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tahitian has simple phonology, it is phonetic, has regular grammar.
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| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 6 of 14 28 May 2014 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||
It has some exotic features that make it difficult for some or many Europeans: 1) dual (difficult unless you're Slovenian) 2) inclusive and exclusive we (difficult unless you're South Indian) 3) weird word order VSO 4) articles (difficult for speakers of most Slavic and Indian languages) 5) aspect (difficult for speakers of many Germanic languages) 6) glottal stop as a full consonant (difficult for speakers of languages that don't have it) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5229 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 7 of 14 28 May 2014 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | ||
Really? So, let's say I'm a Tahitian. I think about it, and I decide, you know what, I don't really like Tahitian. It's not very useful to me, and I just don't dig it. I really like French. I'm going to speak that from now on. You're saying I've done something morally wrong? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 14 29 May 2014 at 12:00am | IP Logged | ||
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It's easy to make these hypothetical claims as a native speaker of English.
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