TONGAN LANGUAGE

'Tongan' (''lea fakatonga'') is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has around 100,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language.

Contents

Related languages

Tongan alphabet

Syllabification

Use of the definitive accent

Registers

Pronouns

Cardinal pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Other pronouns

Counting

Literature

External links

Notes

References

Related languages

Tongan is one of the many languages in the Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, along with Hawaiian, Māori, Sāmoan and Tahitian, for example. Together with Niuean, it forms the Tongic subgroup of Polynesian.
By comparing Tongic to the other subgroup, Nuclear Polynesian, it is possible to reconstruct the phonology of Proto-Polynesian, the theoretical source of the Polynesian languages.
Tongan is unusual among Polynesian languages in that it has a so-called ''definitive accent''. Like all Polynesian languages, Tongan has adapted the phonological system of proto-Polynesian.
# Tongan has retained the original proto-Polynesian
★ h, but has merged it with the original
★ s as . (The found in modern Tongan derives from
★ t before high front vowels). Most Polynesian languages have lost the original proto-Polynesian glottal stop ; however, it has been retained in Tongan and a few other languages including Rapa Nui.^[1]
# In proto-Polynesian,
★ r and
★ l were distinct phonemes, but in most Polynesian languages they have merged, represented orthographically as r in most East Polynesian languages, and as l most West Polynesian languages. However, the distinction can be reconstructed because Tongan kept the
★ l but lost the
★ r.^[2]

	Polynesian sound correspondences
Phoneme	Proto-Polynesian	Tongan	Niuean	Sāmoan	Rapa Nui	Tahitian	Māori	Cook Is. Māori	Hawaiian	English
	★ taŋata	tangata	tangata	tagata	tangata	taata	tangata	tangata	kanaka	man
	★ sina	hina	hina	sina	hina	hinahina	hina	ina	hina	grey-haired
	★ kanahe	kanahe	kanahe	anae		anae	kanae	kanae	anae	mullet
	★ tiale	siale	tiale	tiale	tiare	tiare	tīare	tiare	kiele	Gardenia
	★ waka	vaka	vaka	vaa	vaka	vaa	waka	vaka	waa	canoe
	★ fafine	fafine	fifine	fafine	hahine	vahine	wahine	vaine	wahine	woman
	★ matuqa[3]	motua	motua	matua	matua	metua	matua	metua, matua	makua	parent
	★ rua	ua	ua	lua	rua	rua[4]	rua	rua	lua	two
	★ tolu	tolu	tolu	tolu	toru	toru	toru	toru	kolu	three

Tongan alphabet

In the old, "missionary" alphabet, the vowels were put first and then followed by the consonants (a, e, i, o, u, f... etc.). This was still so as of the Privy Council decision of 1943 on the orthography of the Tongan language. However, C.M. Churchward's grammar and dictionary favoured the standard European alphabetical order, and since his time that one has been in use exclusively:

★ 'a' -

★ 'e' -

★ 'f' -

★ 'h' -

★ 'i' -

★ 'k' -

★ 'l' -

★ 'm' -

★ 'n' -

★ 'ng' - (written as 'g' but still pronounced as [ŋ] (as in Samoan) before 1943}

★ 'o' -

★ 'p' - unaspirated; written as 'b' before 1943

★ 's' - sometimes written as 'j' before 1943 (see below)

★ 't' - unaspirated

★ 'u' -

★ 'v' -

★ ''''(fakaua'') - the glottal stop. It should be written with the inverted curly apostrophe (unicode 0x02BB) and not with the single quote open or with a mixture of quotes open and quotes close. See also okina.
Note that the above order is strictly followed in proper dictionaries. Therefore ''ngatu'' follows ''nusi'', ''a'' follows ''vunga'' and it also follows ''z'' if foreign words occur. Words with long vowels come directly after those with short vowels. Improper wordlists may or may not follow these rules. (For example the Tonga telephone directory for years now ignores all rules.)
The original 'j', used for , disappeared in the beginning of the 20th century, merging with . By 1943, 'j' was no longer used. Consequently, many words written with 's' in Tongan are cognate to those with 't' in other Polynesian languages. For example, ''Masisi'' (a star name) in Tongan is cognate with ''Matiti'' in Tokelauan; ''siale'' (Gardenia taitensis) in Tongan and ''tiare'' in Tahitian. This seems to be a natural development, as in many Polynesian languages derived from Proto-Polynesian .

Syllabification

★ Each syllable has exactly one vowel. The number of syllables in a word is exactly equal to the number of vowels it has.

★ Long vowels, indicated with a 'toloi' (macron), count as one, but may in some circumstances be split up in two short ones, in which case, luckily, they are both written. Toloi are supposed to be written where needed, in practice this may be seldom done.

★ Each syllable may have no more than one consonant.

★ Consonant combinations are not permitted. The 'ng' is not a consonant combination, since it represents a single sound. As such it can never be split, the proper hyphenation of fakatonga (Tongan) therefore is fa-ka-to-nga, against which normal, English-oriented wordprocessors always sin.

★ Each syllable must end in a vowel. All vowels are pronounced, but an 'i' at the end of an utterance is usually unvoiced.

★ The 'fakaua' is a consonant. It must be followed (and, except at the beginning of a word, preceded) by a vowel. Unlike the glottal stops in many other Polynesian languages texts, the fakaua is always written. (Only sometimes before 1943.)

★ Stress normally falls on the next to last syllable of a word with two or more syllables; example: móhe (sleep), mohénga (bed). If however, the last vowel is long, it takes the stress; example: kumā (mouse) (stress on the long ā). The stress also shifts to the last vowel if the next word is an enclitic; example: fále (house), falé ni (this house). Finally the stress can shift to the last syllable, including an enclitic, in case of the definitive accent; example: mohengá ((that) particular bed), fale ní (this particular house). It is also here that a long vowel can be split into two short ones; example: pō (night), poó ni (this night), pō ní (this particular night). Or the opposite: maáma (light), māmá ni (this light), maama ní (this particular light). Of course, there are some exceptions to the above general rules. The stress accent is normally not written, except where it is to indicate the definitive accent or 'fakamamafa'. But here, too, people often neglect to write it, only using it when the proper stress cannot be easily derived from the context.
Although the acute accent has been available on most personal computers from their early days onwards, when Tongan newspapers started to use computers around 1990 to produce their papers, they were unable to find, or failed to enter, the proper keystrokes, and it grew into a habit to put the accent after the vowel instead on it: not 'á' but 'a´'. But as this distance seemed to be too big, a demand arose for Tongan fonts where the acute accent was shifted to the right, a position halfway in between the two extremes above. Most papers still follow this practice.

Use of the definitive accent

English and many other languages only provide two article types:

★ the indefinite (a) and

★ the definite (the).
The phenomenon of the definitive accent allows Tongan to have three article levels, and not only articles, the idea spreads to the possessives as well.

★ the indefinite accent 'ha'. Example: ko ha pālangi ('a white person', or any other person from somewhere other than Tonga)

★ the semi-definite accent '(h)e'. Example: ko e pālangi ('the white person' in the sense that the person does not belong to some other race, but still rather 'a white person' if there are several of them)

★ the definite accent '(h)e' with the shifted ultimate stress. Example: ko e pālangí ('the white person', that particular person there and no one else).

Registers

There are three registers which consist of

★ ordinary words (the normal language)

★ polite words

★ honorific words (the language for the chiefs)

★ regal words (the language for the king)

★ derogatory words
For example, the phrase "Come and eat!" translates to::

★ ordinary: ''hau 'o kai'' (come and eat!); Friends, family members and so forth may say this to each other when invited for dinner.

★ polite: ''meatokoni'' (food, or more precisely: ''mea-tokoni'': food-thing, i.e. foodstuff); This would be used in serious study books or in more formal situations, rather than the ordinary ''meakai''.

★ honorific: ''mea mai pea ilo'' (come and eat!); The proper used towards chiefs, particularly the nobles, but it may also be used by an employee towards his boss, or in other similar situations. When talking about chiefs, however, it is always used, even if they are not actually present, but in other situations only on formal occasions. A complication to the beginning student of Tongan is that such words very often also have an alternative meaning in the ordinary register: ''mea'' (thing) and ''ilo'' (know, find).

★ regal: ''hāele mai pea taumafa'' (come and eat!); Used towards the king or God. The same considerations as for the honorific register apply. ''Hāele'' is one of the regal words which have become the normal word in other Polynesian. Some regal words clearly reflect a Sāmoan origin. History tells that sometimes the Tongans really went to Sāmoa to invent a new regal word. The Sāmoans, instead gave them words with vulgar meanings in their language, and the Tongans, not knowing that, used them to their king. Example 1: māimoa = labour of the king, either physical or mental (like the poems of Queen Sālote) from the Sāmoan maʻimoa = chicken illness, meaning: insane. Example 2: lakoifie = good health of the king, probably from the Fijian lako-i-vē = walk to where?

★ derogatory: ''mama'' (eat!); Words which normally would be used for the pigs. The word ''mama'' means "to chew" (along with various other meanings) in the ordinary register. A speaker would apply this word to himself and the commoners to make the distance between him and the nobles or the king even larger.

Pronouns

The Tongan language distinguishes 3 numbers: singular, dual, and plural. They appear as the 3 major columns in the tables below.
The Tongan language distinguishes 4 persons: First person exclusive, first person inclusive, second person and third person. They appear as the 4 major rows in the tables below.
This gives us 12 main groups. In every group the pronoun can be subjective (reddish) or objective (greenish). This marks a distinction that has been referred to, in some analyses of other Polynesian languages, as ''a-possession'' versus ''o-possession'' respectively.^[5]

Cardinal pronouns

The cardinal pronouns are the main personal pronouns which in Tongan can either be preposed (before the verb, light colour) or postposed (after the verb, dark colour). The first are the normal subjective pronouns, the latter the stressed subjective pronouns, which sometimes implies reflexive pronouns, or with ''kia te'' in front the objective pronouns. (There are no possesions involved in the cardinal pronouns and therefore no subjective and objective forms to be considered).

Cardinal pronouns	position	singular	dual	plural
1st person (exclusive) (I, we, us)	preposed	u, ou, ku	ma	mau
	postposed	au	kimaua	kimautolu
1st person (inclusive) (one, we, us)	preposed	te	ta	tau
	postposed	kita	kitaua	kitautolu
2nd person (you)	preposed	ke	mo	mou
	postposed	koe	kimoua	kimoutolu
3rd person (he, she, it, him, her)	preposed	ne	na	nau
	postposed	ia	kinaua	kinautolu

Manatuʻi:

★ all the preposed pronuns of one syllable only (ku, u, ma, te, ta, ke, mo, ne, na) are enclitics which never can take the stress, but put it on the vowel in front of them. Example: ''ʻoku naú'' versus ''ʻokú na'' (not: ''ʻoku ná'').

★ first person singular, ''I'' uses 'u' after ''kuo'', ''te'', ''ne'', and also ''ka'' (becomes ''kau''), ''pea'', ''mo'' and ''ʻo''; but uses 'ou' after ''ʻoku''; and uses 'ku' after ''naʻa''.

★ first person inclusive (I and you) is of course somewhat a misnomer. The meanings of ''te'' and ''kita'' can often rendered as ''one'', that is the modesty ''I''.
Examples of use.

★ Naʻa 'ku' fehuʻi: I asked

★ Naʻe fehuʻi (ʻe) 'au': I(!) asked (stressed)

★ ʻOku 'ou' fehuʻi 'au': I ask myself

★ Te 'u' fehuʻi kia te 'koe': I shall ask you

★ Te 'ke' tali kia te 'au': You will answer me

★ Kapau te 'te' fehuʻi: If one would ask

★ 'Tau' ō ki he hulohula?: Are we (all) going to the ball?

★ Sinitalela, 'mau' ō ki he hulohula: Cinderella, we go to the ball ->(said the evil stepmother and she went with at least two of her daughters, but not Cinderella)
Another archaic aspect of Tongan is the retention of preposed pronouns. They are used much less frequently in Sāmoan and have completely disappeared in East Polynesian languages, where the pronouns are cognate with the Tongan postposed form minus ''ki-''. (We love you: ʻOku ʻofa kimautolu kia te kimoutolu; Māori: e aroha nei mātou i a koutou).

Possessive pronouns

The possessives for every person and number (1st person plural, 3rd person dual, etc.) can be further divided into normal or ordinary (light colour), emotional (medium colour) and emphatic (bright colour) forms. The latter is rarely used, but the two former are common and further subdivided in definite (saturated colour) and indefinite (greyish colour) forms.

Possessive pronouns	definite or not	type	singular		dual		plural
			subjective	objective	subjective	objective	subjective	objective
1st person (exclusive) (my, our)	definite	ordinary	''he''ʻeku	hoku	''he''ʻema	homa	''heʻ''emau	homau
	indefinite		haʻaku	haku	haʻama	hama	haʻamau	hamau
	definite	emotional	siʻeku	siʻoku	siʻema	siʻoma	siʻemau	siʻomau
	indefinite		siʻaku	siʻaku	siʻama	siʻama	siʻamau	siʻamau
	emphatic		haʻaku	hoʻoku	haʻamaua	hoʻomaua	haʻamautolu	hoʻomautolu
1st person (inclusive) (my, our)	definite	ordinary	''he''ʻete	hoto	''he''ʻeta	hota	''he''ʻetau	hotau
	indefinite		haʻate	hato	haʻata	hata	haʻatau	hatau
	definite	emotional	siʻete	siʻoto	siʻeta	siʻota	siʻetau	siʻotau
	indefinite		siʻate	siʻato	siʻata	siʻata	siʻatau	siʻatau
	emphatic		haʻata	hoʻota	haʻataua	hoʻotaua	haʻatautolu	hoʻotautolu
2nd person (your)	definite	ordinary	hoʻo	ho	hoʻomo	homo	hoʻomou	homou
	indefinite		haʻo	hao	haʻamo	hamo	haʻamou	hamou
	definite	emotional	siʻo	siʻo	siʻomo	siʻomo	siʻomou	siʻomou
	indefinite		siʻao	siʻao	siʻamo	siʻamo	siʻamou	siʻamou
	emphatic		haʻau	hoʻou	haʻamoua	hoʻomoua	haʻamoutolu	hoʻomoutolu
3rd person (his, her, its, their)	definite	ordinary	''he''ʻene	hono	''he''ʻena	hona	''he''ʻenau	honau
	indefinite		haʻane	hano	haʻana	hana	haʻanau	hanau
	definite	emotional	siʻene	siʻono	siʻena	siʻona	siʻenau	siʻonau
	indefinite		siʻane	siʻano	siʻana	siʻana	siʻanau	siʻanau
	emphatic		haʻana	hoʻona	haʻanaua	hoʻonaua	haʻanautolu	hoʻonautolu

Notes:

★ the ordinary definite possessives starting with ''he'' (in italics) drop this prefix after any word except ''ʻi, ki, mei, ʻe''. Example: ''ko ʻeku tohi'', my book; ''ʻi heʻeku tohi'', in my book.

★ all ordinary subjective possessives contain a fakauʻa, all objective do not.

★ the emphatic forms are not often used, but if they are, they take the definitive accent from the following words (see below)

★ first person inclusive (me and you) is of course somewhat a misnomer. The meanings of ''heʻete, hoto'', etc. can often rendered as ''one's'', that is the modesty ''me''.

★ the choice between a subjective or objective possessive is completely determined by the word or phrase it refers to. For example: ''ko hoʻo tohi, ko ho fale'', (it is) your book, your house.
★ ''Ko ho tohi, ko hoʻo fale''
★ are just plainly wrong. Some words can take either, but with a difference in meaning: ''ko ʻene kahoa'', his/her garland (which he/she is stringing probably for someone else); ''ko hono kahoa'', his/her garland (which he/she is wearing probably given by someone else).
Examples of use.

★ ko haʻaku/haku kahoa: my garland, -> any garland from/for me

★ ko ʻeku/hoku kahoa: my garland, it is my garland

★ ko ʻeku/hoku kahoá: my garland -> that particular one and no other

★ ko heʻete/hoto kahoa: one's garland -> mine in fact, but that is not important

★ ko siʻaku kahoa: my cherished garland, -> any cherished garland from/for me

★ ko siʻeku/siʻoku kahoa: my cherished garland, it is my cherished garland

★ ko haʻakú/hoʻokú kahoa: garland (mine)-> that particular garland is mine(!) and not someone else's at all

★ ko homa kahoa: our garlands, -> you and I are wearing them, but not the person we are talking to

★ ko hota kahoa: our garlands, -> you and I are wearing them, and I am talking to you

Other pronouns

These are the remainders: the pronomial adjectives (mine), indirect object pronouns or pronomial adverbs (for me) and the adverbial posssessives (as me).

other pronuns	type	singular		dual		plural
		subjective	objective	subjective	objective	subjective	objective
1st person (exclusive) (my, our)	pronomial adjective	''ʻa''ʻaku	''ʻo''ʻoku	ʻamaua	ʻomaua	ʻamautolu	ʻomautolu
	pronomial adverb	maʻaku	moʻoku	maʻamaua	moʻomaua	maʻamautolu	moʻomautolu
	adverbial possessive	maʻaku	moʻoku	maʻama	moʻoma	maʻamau	moʻomau
1st person (inclusive) (my, our)	pronomial adjective	''ʻa''ʻata	''ʻo''ʻota	ʻataua	ʻotaua	ʻatautolu	ʻotautolu
	pronomial adverb	maʻata	moʻota	maʻataua	moʻotaua	maʻatautolu	moʻotautolu
	adverbial possessive	maʻate	moʻoto	maʻata	moʻota	maʻatau	moʻotau
2nd person (your)	pronomial adjective	''ʻa''ʻau	''ʻo''ʻou	ʻamoua	ʻomoua	ʻamoutolu	ʻomoutolu
	pronomial adverb	maʻau	moʻou	maʻamoua	moʻomoua	maʻamoutolu	moʻomoutolu
	adverbial possessive	maʻo	moʻo	maʻamo	moʻomo	maʻamou	moʻomou
3rd person (his, her, its, their)	pronomial adjective	''ʻa''ʻana	''ʻo''ʻona	ʻanaua	ʻonaua	ʻanautolu	ʻonautolu
	pronomial adverb	maʻana	moʻona	maʻanaua	moʻonaua	maʻanautolu	moʻonautolu
	adverbial possessive	maʻane	moʻono	maʻana	moʻona	maʻanau	moʻonau

Notes:

★ the first syllable in all singular pronomial adjectives (in italics) is reduplicated and can be dropped for somewhat less emphasis

★ the pronomial adjectves put a stronger emphasis on the possessor than the possessive pronouns do

★ the use of the adverbial possessives is rare
Examples of use.

★ ko hono valá: it is his/her/its clothing/dress

★ ko e vala ʻona: it is his/her/its (!) clothing/dress

★ ko e vala ʻoʻona: it is his/her/its (!!!) clothing/dress

★ ko hono valá ʻona: it is his/her/its own clothing/dress

★ ko hono vala ʻoná: it is his/her/its own clothing/dress; same as previous

★ ko hono vala ʻoʻoná: it is his/her/its very own clothing/dress

★ ʻoku ʻoʻona ʻa e valá ni: this cloting is his/hers/its

★ ʻoku moʻona ʻa e valá: the clothing is for him/her/it

★ ʻoange ia moʻono valá: give it (to him/her/it) as his/hers/its clothing

Counting

★ noa, taha, ua, tolu, fā, nima, ono, fitu, valu, hiva (0 … 9)

★ hongofulu, taha-noa (10), uongofulu, uofulu, ua-noa (20), tolungofulu, tolu-noa (30), … The 'full-style' numbers and 'telephone-style' numbers are equally common in use

★ hongofulu ma taha, taha-taha (11), uongofulu ma fā, ua-fā (24), …; exceptions: uo-ua (22), nime-nima (55), hive-hiva (99) The 'telephone-style' numbers are almost exclusively in use

★ teau (100), teau taha (101), … teau hongofulu (110), teau-ua-noa (120), uongeau (200), tolungeau (300), … But for more 'complex' numbers: taha-taha-taha (111), … uo-uo-ua (222), fā-valu-ua (482), …

★ afe, taha-afe (1000), ua-afe (2000), …

★ mano (10000)

★ kilu (100000)

★ miliona (1000000)
ʻOku fiha ia? (how much (does it cost)?) Paʻanga ʻe ua-nima-noa (T$ 2.50)
In addition there are special, traditional counting systems for fish, coconuts, yams, etc.

Literature

Tongan is primarily a spoken, rather than written, language. Only the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and a few other books are written in Tongan. There are not enough people who can read Tongan to commercially justify publishing books in the language . Most reading material available in Tonga is in English .
There are several weekly and monthly magazines in Tongan, but there are no daily newspapers.
Weekly newspapers, some of them twice per week:

★ ''Ko e Kalonikali ʻo Tonga''

★ ''Ko e Keleʻa''

★ ''Taimi ʻo Tonga''

★ ''Talaki''

★ ''Ko e Tauʻatāina''
Monthly or two-monthly papers, mostly church publications:

★ ''Taumuʻa lelei'' (Catholic)

★ ''Tohi fanongonongo'' (Wesleyan)

★ ''Liahona'' (Latter-Day Saints)

★ ''Tonga star'' (Tokaikolo)

External links

★ Planet Tonga

★ Ethnologue on Tongan

★ Omniglot on Tongan

★ Ten Minute Guide to Tongan

★ Basic Tongan-English and English-Tongan Dictionary

Notes

1. The glottal stop in most other Polynesian languages are the reflexes of other consonants of proto-Polynesian; for example, the glottal stop of Samoan and Hawaiian is a reflex of the original
★ k; the glottal stop of Cook Islands Māori represents a merger of the original
★ f and
★ s. Tongan does not show changes such as the
★ t to and to of Hawaiian; nor has Tongan shifted
★ f to . Although Tongan, Samoan and other Western Polynesian languages are not affected by a change in Central Eastern Polynesian languages (such as New Zealand Māori) involving the dissimilation of to , Tongan has vowel changes (as seen in ''monumanu'' from original ''manumanu'') which are not a feature of other languages.
2. This loss may be quite recent. The word "lua", meaning "two", is still found in some placenames and archaic texts. "Marama" (light) thus became "maama", and the two successive "a"s are still pronounced separately, not yet contracted to "māma". On the other hand "toro" (sugarcane) already has become "tō" (still "tolo" in Sāmoan).
3. Glottal stop is represented as 'q' in reconstructed Proto-Polynesian words.
4. Archaic: the usual word in today's Tahitian is 'piti'.
5. These ''a'' and ''o'' refer to the characteristic vowel used in those pronouns. In Tongan, however, this distinction is much less clear, and rather a characteristic for the indefinite and definite forms respectively. Use of the ''a'' & ''o'' terms therefore is not favoured. Further, some linguists equate ''a-possession'' with alienable possession and ''o-possession'' with inalienable possession.

References

★ C.M. Churchward, ''Tongan grammar''. ISBN 0-908717-05-9

★ C.M. Churchward, ''Tongan dictionary''