Faka'uvea
| Wallisian | |
|---|---|
| Fakaʻuvea | |
| Native to | Wallis and Futuna |
|
Native speakers
|
10,400 (2000) |
|
Austronesian
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | wall1257 |
Wallisian or ʻUvean (Wallisian: Fakaʻuvea) is the Polynesian language spoken on Wallis (also known as ʻUvea). The language is also known as East Uvean to distinguish it from the related West Uvean language spoken on the outlier island of Ouvéa near New Caledonia. Wallisian tradition holds that the latter island was colonised from Wallis Island in ancient times.
Wallisian may be most closely related to Rennellese. It is also closely related to Tongan, though part of the Samoic branch, and has borrowed extensively from Tongan due to the Tongan invasion of the island in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The standard 5 vowels: a, e, i, o, u, with their lengthened variants: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.
The consonants: f, g (always pronounced as ŋ (ng)), h, k, l, m, n, s (rare, usually from foreign words), t, v, '.
The ʻ, representing the glottal stop (see also okina), is known in Wallisian as fakamoga (belonging to the throat). The fakamoga is nowadays taught at schools, and can be written with straight, curly or inverted curly apostrophes. Similarly the macron (Wallisian: fakaloa, 'to lengthen') is now taught in schools to mark long vowels, even though the older generation has never marked the glottal stop or vowel length.
For example: Mālō te ma'uli (hello)
Wallisian may be most closely related to Rennellese. It is also closely related to Tongan, because of former Tonga invasions in Wallis. For instance, the past form "ne'e" comes from Tongan.
Wallisian has been heavily influenced by French. French missionaries arrived at the end of the 19th century; in 1961, Wallis and Futuna became a French oversea territory and French is now the official language. According to many linguists such as K. Rensch French did not affect much the language in the beginning but is now profoundly transforming Wallisian. Many neologisms have been created by transliterating French words into Wallisian, as in the vocabulary of politics. Words such as Falanise (France), Telituale (Territory), politike, (politics), Lepupilika (Republic)..., many technical words (telefoni, televisio...), food that was brought in Wallis by the Europeans (tomato, tapaka (tobacco, from fr tabac, ), alikole (alcohol), kafe (coffee, from fr café)), etc. are borrowings from French.
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