Talk:Polynesian languages

Untitled

"For example, the Maori sounds T and Ng both correspond to K in Hawaiian"

I'd like to post a comparative arrays of phonems, but I found it in a book so I wonder if it's copyrighted. Apokrif 02:46, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I'm not an expert, but I think it probably depends on how much you copy. Basic information itself can't be copyrighted, but if the amount of information is large, their work in compiling the information probably can. Or something like that. I would actually recommend bringing this up somewhere where it's more likely to be found by those with a better understanding than me, such as at the "Village Pump". -- Vardion 20:46, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Are you perhaps referring to volume 9 of "Current Trends in Linguistics"? It's an interesting array, although I've noticed that it's far from exhaustive. Anyways, there is more on the history of /t/ in Hawaiian on Hawaiian language, cf also the TALK page there. Usually, /ng/ in north-island maori corresponds to /n/ in Hawaiian, not /k/, although it is often realized as /k/ on the south island of NZ, a realization of */ng/ that's only found elsewhere in Polynesia in North Marquesan. TShilo12 20:32, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

No, I was referring to Krupa's book cited in the article. Apokrif 08:28, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

comparative linguistic ambiguities

does what I wrote sound too much like original research? It's an amalgamated conclusion from reading a number of sources, but I'm not certain how to mention such inconsistencies, without it sounding amateurish... TShilo12 04:57, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

"There are a few indications that proto-Austronesian influence existed until quite recently in Polynesian linguistics"--I'm not sure what it could mean for a proto-language to influence one of its daughter languages. Could you elaborate? I also think the discussion of *kenanda et al. might be a little over-detailed for a general overview. Thanks for getting some work done on this page, though, TShilo12! Rodii 02:46, 16 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The goal was to give an introduction to a the Proto-Polynesian language article, which has yet to be written, of course. The paragraph was admittedly weak. Hopefully you'll agree it's better in its current form (sorry it took me a whole month to get to it...) Tomer ^TALK 20:32, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)

Looks good. Thanks for your work! Rodii 18:44, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

The "a" and "o" possessives

( I hope it will be understandable in english - sorry guys i'm french :) Interesting discussion. As fas as i know this double system of possession in "a" and "o" is relevant for all polynesian languages. I am sure of it for hawai'ian, tahitian, rapa nui, tuvaluan, wallisian, futunian, tongan, niuean and of course maori. I had some light doubts with samoan cause the Pratt grammar do not mention it but i found this article, so it seems to be the case too http://www2.ling.su.se/staff/niki/501ver-d.pdf (see page 43). Concerning polynesian outliers languages, I don't know if it exists for all of them but what is certain is that this is the case in faga uvea (Ouvea-Loyalty Islands). It would be interesting to check it for other languages. There would probably be a better explanation of it than the mere opposition between "alienable" and "inalienable", or "weak" and "strong". I don't feel myself to be able to do it (above all in english) but it would be interesting to dicuss upon it.

Your English is pretty good actually. I have restored and amended the section on possessives. I used 'many' rather than 'all' because as you admit, you don't know that it exists for all of the outlier languages. Also I have inserted examples from Māori: examples from 'esperanto Polynesian' are not, in my view, acceptable in an encyclopedia; indeed their use can only serve to confuse the issue. I also removed the references to Fijian which I thought were potentially confusing also (as there are not a few articles on this Wikipedia that mistakenly include Fiji in discussions about Polynesia; they might be more useful in the article about Proto-Polynesian or about Fijian itself Kahuroa 00:42, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

language or dialect ?

How far do we go? There is even no article whatsoever about, for example, ʻUvean and Futunan languages, yet the 'genealogical' language tree already makes separate entries for east and west for both of them. It only adds to the confusion. Would it not be wiser to leave such refinements out, at least for the moment being until there is an article about it? The writer of such an article can make refinments if needed. Perhaps it will then turn out that it are only dialectic variants. (When do you call a dialect another language, anyway?) --Tauʻolunga 23:25, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Ah, thank you 81.48.49.115 that was exactly the update I needed. --Tauʻolunga 06:15, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Recent edits

Tau'olunga, may I ask what is the basis for your edits to Components - which linguist's work are you following here in deciding where these outlier languages should be placed in relation to the other Polynesian languages for instance? I have restored the diagram you deleted by the way. Kahuroa 10:55, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure what you mean. The major change in layout of the components was done on 23 March at 19:49 by Kwamikagami, using the Marck classification. Or do you mean the naming on 28 March 2006 20:44 by 81.48.49.115? None of both was by me. In fact I am anxiously awaiting myself what this Marck-in-press is about, because at this moment the list is quite different from what we find under Samoic languages. I only added some stubs for Uvean & Futunan languages in order to avoid bungling links and in the hope that not different, tentative links would be made on other pages to the same topic. I cannot find in the history that I destroyed a diagram. But if I did, my excuses for that, it was not intended. --Tauʻolunga 04:43, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for that - I just wanted to try and understand what was happening. Appreciate your reply Kahuroa 09:18, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

wh-w-v- a - h-'-f -ine

What about adding 'woman' to the list? Also an interesting word to show variations. to: fefine (dual:fafine), sa: fafine, rn: vie, ta: vahine, ra: vaʻine, nm:..., sm:..., mā: whahine, ha: wahine. Who knows the missing? --Tauʻolunga 19:54, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I think it would make the table a bit too complex if we start adding in the plurals as well, and besides they are such a small feature of the languages and only occur in nine or so people-nouns. This table is about sound correspondences rather than rare morphological changes. I added 'outside' instead of 'woman' since it shows the same changes in the consonants as wahine etc, and because I couldn't find a source that was clear about what the Marquesan forms are. The Tongan form is -fafo since it only occurs in compounds apparently. BTW The Māori word for woman is wahine, never whahine. Kahuroa 00:44, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

Tau'olunga has pointed out that Tongan -fafo is possibly a Samoan loan, so I have reverted to using 'woman' - I think the Marquesan forms are correct, but if anyone knows for sure, please edit. Kahuroa 12:24, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

I reckon you know your own language best, but still are you absolutely sure? I once found 'whawhine' in an old book (19th century), but that was probably an error. Still 'whahine' was often found in mid 20th century books. (Unfortunately I do not have those books anymore, so I cannot tell their titles). Were they all wrong or is it a recent sound shift? --Tauʻolunga 20:41, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

DEFINITELY wahine and definitely not a recent sound shift. I cannot ever recall having seen whahine so I don't know what books you were looking at - you do get a bit of orthographical confusion in 19th C books tho. w would be the normal reflex in Maori in such words. Kahuroa 00:24, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

Standards of transcription in older sources are usually abysmal. Until the dissemination of the IPA in the early 20th century, you had mostly rather impressionistic trascriptions, and then for a while after the the IPA got going, you often had insanely overdetailed transcriptions (I've worked with transcriptions by J.R. Harrington that captured so much incidental phonetic detail that the same word is rarely transcribed the same way twice). Missionary grammars are the worst--they often represent the life work of poorly-trained field workers who just miss basic stuff. Somewhere I have a long grammar that represented years of work on Kipsigis, I think, that totally failed to notice it's a tone language. An error like transcribing [w] as "wh" seems almost negligible by comparison. · rodii · 02:20, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

i don't think the case is anything as bad as that in the case of Māori. By the the 1820s or 30s the orthography had been settled pretty much as it is now apart from the marking of vowel length, and not by missionaries but by scholars at Cambridge or Oxford who worked with Māori who visited England. I have never come across confusion of whahine for wahine that I particularly remember, and I have done a lot of work with 19th century texts Kahuroa 05:05, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

I know, I'm just ranting. :) But, as I say, given the general lack of sophistication about transcription, and variability of spelling in general, a random error shouldn't be surprising. The problem is when an error creeps into a text that is otherwise taken as authoritative, and then later scholars have to determine whether it's an error or a hitherto unknown phenomenon. Sounds like it's just an error in this case. · rodii · 12:34, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

If I ever can lay my hands on a text with that error again, I shall ley you know --Tauʻolunga 19:59, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

It doesn't really matter tho. An error, just an error. BTW ProtoPolynesian *fafV- always goes to wahV- in Māori. Isn't that one of the diagnostic things about Eastern Polynesian? the f's in *fafV- dissimilate. Or is it Eastern Polynesian apart from Rapa Nui? Too lazy to go to bookcase and check it out... Kahuroa 04:59, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

the *faf to *wah sound change only applies to Central Eastern Polynesian. Rapa Nui does not undergo *faf to *wah hence why I have deleted the entry vahine in the table since vahine is a borrowed word. Vi'e is considered to be the 'Rapa Nui' word for 'woman'.Maori rahi 11:11, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

The word for vahine in mangareva is "va'ine" not "vaine" (a lot of ancient and recent french/spanish sources don't write down glottal stops) Stefjourdan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.100.77.68 (talk) 20:20, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

Greetings

A suggestion has been made on the Talk:Maori language page that a table of greetings in various representative language might be a good way to give an idea of vocab and also to show relationships between the languages 11:34, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

In my opinion greetings are too much idiomised to be useful as a comparison. I do not think we should them include in this article. The house of woman in the windy sky is sufficient. But having greetings as the top entry of every language page itself, cliché as it might be, that would be still nice. Who makes a suitable table/template/.. ? --Tauʻolunga 20:41, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Internal correspondences: two Polynesian Outliers and Niuean added

I have added the cognate words from two outlier languages, Sikaiana and Takuu, and from the other member of the Tongic subgroup, Niuean. I've also added the words for parent from PN *matu?a which show the retention of the Proto-Polynesian glottal stop in Tongan and Easter Island (this is distinct from the glottal stop which arose in various languages later, eg in Samoan and in Hawaiian, independently, from Proto-Polynesian /k/, in Tahitian from /ŋ/ and in Rarotongan from /h/). Kahuroa 10:29, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Component languages list

Should we look at making this into a table that would convey the same information but take up less vertical screen space? Kahuroa 10:03, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Components

I question the validity of these statements:

1. "A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database[2] also supported Eastern Polynesian but not the other groups, including Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian."

2. "Not included in the database were Niuafoʻouan and Pukapuka, both of uncertain classification."

The main article only seems to be relying on the data in the figure template found on the research page of the Database. However, the ABVD does have the data that the article claims it doesn't. Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian are included in the Classification search of the Database; Niuafo'ouan and Pukapuka are as well (See here).

In addition to this, Niuafo'ouan and Pukapuka are both classified as Samoic-Outlier Polynesian. The same kind of mistakes that I noticed were also found on the Hawaiian language article and the Eastern Polynesian languages article as well, which I have critiqued. A revision of the article should be made to mention these classification issues in regards to the Database. -Ano-User (talk) 01:48, 24 May 2010 (UTC)

I think a good approach might be to have a section in three parts giving (1) the "traditional" analysis of the subgroups of Polynesian, (2) the Marck reanalysis, and (3) the 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database. The latter is pretty weak IMHO because it is just an analysis of basic vocab and doesn't seem to have taken grammatical innovations into account, which is probably why it has surprisingly lumped Tongan and Samoan together and put Hawaiian into Tahitic. Such a section would also give a valuable bit of history of linguists' work on Polynesian. I have some material I could start this with, no promises of early start tho Kahuroa (talk) 20:15, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm largely to blame for the undue weight given to the database. I've merged the Polynesian articles as part of an effort to return to mainstream sources. — kwami (talk) 16:16, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

Using old sources

Sorry Teinesavaii. I took out your material quoting Buck's The Vikings of the Sunrise. It was first published in 1938 and linguistics has come a long way since then. It is not correct to say there is one Polynesian language with dialects in the various islands. Besides, the essentail similarities of the languages was already alluded to in the lead with the communalities comment further down.Kahuroa (talk) 21:21, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

The Comparative Method

From the article:

The comparative method of historical linguistics (identification of demonstrable shared innovations) uses 100 or 200 words from Swadesh lists.

This is simply wrong, if this is supposed to be a description of the Comparative Method. The Comparative Method was well established long before Swadesh introduced his flawed methodology and lists. His lists have the curious property, that the shorter they get, the more accurate results they seem to yield - one of the few examples where less evidence supplies more "accurate" results. This alone should be enough to make anyone suspicious. All the best. 85.220.22.139 (talk) 17:01, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

All of the edits by the editor who added the above need checking

The article was heavily edited by an author last April in a somewhat pov/OR fashion.[1] Thus we have "Returning to lexicostatistics, it must be emphasised that the method does not make the best possible use of its short word lists of 100 or 200 words" which even if correct (who says this?) is pov. The IP above points out another problem. The editor has added unsourced material elsewhere. Wilson's 'forthcoming' work was added and still shows up as forthcoming but needs to be checked. It's here.[2]. Again, " Wilson's new work brings the matter to the approximate limits of current data available, incorporating much data unknown to most other researchers." is clearly original research. I'm tempted just to remove everything added by this editor as frankly I don't trust it. Note that "Classifying the languages according to sporadic sound changes in the various languages, Marck (2000)<ref>Marck, Jeff (2000), ''Topics in Polynesian languages and culture history''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.</ref> broke up the Futunic group, and placed those languages outside the Samoic and Eastern Polynesian languages." was changed to "Marck, in 2000, was able to offer some support for some aspects of Wilson's suggestion through comparisons of shared sporadic (irregular, unexpected) sound changes..." It looks to me as though is a relationship between the editor and Wilson which may have skewed the article and might explain what looks like OR and some of the language used. Dougweller (talk) 10:16, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Given that Gafarelmuzaffar hasn't edited Wikipedia for over a year, it looks increasingly unlikely that he will return to clarify the gibberish sentences he left and it is pointless to wait. Nobody else seems to be able to guess what the hell he meant, so the clarify tags are useless. A rewrite by a reasonably competent editor would be the ideal solution, but I'd prefer a second-best solution to simply leaving the gibberish in, so please, do remove or revert to an older state whatever strikes you as unacceptable. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 19:41, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

References

Maps

Not sure if this is the right place to raise this, but why does the map show "Polynesian" (presumably NZ Maori) as only being spoken in (parts of) the North Island of Aotearoa/NZ?

There were/are some small differences in dialect, but the whole of Aotearoa was inhabited, if sparsely in parts, and everyone spoke essentially the same language.

Also, the map in the article on NZ Maori is quite different, but what is it supposed to mean? Conceivably it could indicate varying concentrations of Maori speakers, but there is another map showing that, and the distribution is quite different. A large chunk of the South Island is coloured just the same as Australia.. so maybe it is intended to differentiate dialects, with Kai Tahu being a variant of the dialect spoken on Bondi Beach.. or vice versa?

Sorry guys, but I think that those unfamiliar with the local situation will be even more confused than this non-expert. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wreader (talk • contribs) 22:11, 29 November 2018 (UTC)