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Tongan (English pronunciation: / ˈ t ɒ ŋ (ɡ) ə n / TONG-(g)ən; [3] [4] [5] [a] lea fakatonga) is an Austronesian language of the Polynesian branch native to the island nation of Tonga. It has around 187,000 speakers. [6] It uses the word order verb–subject–object.
Polynesian languages are all members of the family of Oceanic languages, a sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. Polynesian languages show a considerable degree of similarity. The vowels are generally the same—/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/, pronounced as in Italian, Spanish, and German—and the consonants are always followed by a vowel.
Tongan is the official language, [7] along with English. Tongan is a Polynesian language of the Tongic branch so is closely related to other languages of the Tongic branch, those being: Niuean and Niuafoʻouan. Tongan is more distantly related to other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian, Samoan, Māori, and Tahitian, among others.
Proto-Polynesian language – the reconstructed ancestral language from which modern Polynesian languages are derived. ʻOkina – a glyph shaped like (but distinct from) an apostrophe: used to represent the glottal-stop consonant in some Polynesian Latin-based scripts. Rongorongo – the undeciphered script of Easter Island .
The Tongic languages are a small group of Polynesian languages, which consists of at least two languages, Tongan and Niuean, and possibly a third, Niuafoʻouan. See also [ edit ]
Tongan is the official language, along with English. Tongan is a Polynesian language of the Tongic branch so is closely related to other languages of the Tongic branch, those being: Niuean and Niuafoʻouan. Tongan is more distantly related to other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian, Samoan, Māori, and Tahitian, among others. [2]
The history of Tonga is recorded since the ninth century BC, when seafarers associated with the Lapita diaspora first settled the islands which now make up the Kingdom of Tonga. [1] Along with Fiji and Samoa, the area served as a gateway into the rest of the Pacific region known as Polynesia . [ 2 ]
The word Pulotu breaks down to "pulo" in the Proto-Austronesian language means "island" or "to land," and "tu" means "sacred" or "high rank." The exact meaning in the Polynesian region goes for the word Motu, which means island or to land, and Riki, which means a word of respect for the Fijian westerners used to address kings, chiefs (momo), or ...