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Rapa
Enhanced Satellite image of Rapa Iti Reo Rapa; Reo Oparo
Native to	French Polynesia
Native speakers	300 (2007 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Eastern Polynesian Central Eastern Rapa
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ray
Glottolog	rapa1245

Rapa (or Rapan; autonym Reo Rapa or Reo Oparo) is the language of Rapa, in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia. It is an East Central Polynesian language, along with the Marquesic and Tahitic languages. There are three current versions on the Rapa Language currently being spoken; Old Rapa, Reo Rapa, and New Rapa. Old Rapa is not a language commonly spoken and has been replaced Reo Rapa. The Reo Rapa language is a mix of the more commonly spoken Tahitian language and Old Rapa. While, New Rapa is commonly spoken amongst middle aged and the younger community. Rapa in general is a critically endangered language with around 300 speakers of Reo Rapa and only 15% of those speakers are able to speak Old Rapa.

Classification

While Reo Rapa is a mix of Tahitian and Old Rapa, speakers can generally tell if the words they are speaking is sourced from Tahitian or Old Rapa due to phonemes absent in one language and present in the other. For instance, velar nasal sounds such as /ng/ and velar stop sounds like /k/ are not present in Tahitian but are in Old Rapa.

History

The loss of the indigenous Old Rapa began with an enormous population decrease due to disease brought by foreigners mainly europeans. Within the span of five years the population decreased by 75%. By 1867 the population was at 120 residents from its estimated original of two thousand. This made the island of Rapa Iti susceptible to outside influences. Of the islands of French Polynesia, Tahiti had become a large influence and had become a filter for Western influence. Meaning before anything had entered the islands it would have to pass through Tahiti. Therefore, being the powerful influence it was, its ways of religion, education, government, were easily adopted by the people of Rapa Iti and the language of Tahiti followed. The language we know as Reo Rapa was not created by the combination of 2 languages but through the introduction of Tahitian to the Rapa monolingual community. Reo Rapa is not a completely different language from Old Rapa or Tahitian but more of a Creole type of language. Old Rapa words are still used for the grammar and structure of the sentence of phrase but most common context words were replaced be Tahitian.

Geographic Distribution

The Rapa Language over the years with a strong Tahitian sociocultural influence has resulted in speech varieties in the Rapa Language. The three speech varieties are known as Old Rapa, Reo Rapa, and New Rapa. French influence has also brought the french language to the island of Rapa Iti.

Speech Varieties	Definition	Speaker Base
Old Rapa	Indigenous language of Rapa Iti	Some elders and very few speakers
Reo Rapa	Variety based on Tahitian and Old Rapa. Tahitian is dominant source of the language.	Everyone in the community
New Rapa	Based on Reo Rapa but includes new terminology to sound “more Rapa”	Middle aged and younger community members
Tahitian	Tahitian Language	Middle aged community members and elders in certain domains
French	French Language	Almost everyone, except for the oldest members of the community

The most commonly spoken language on the island of Rapa Iti is Reo Rapa. It was created from a culmination of Tahitian and Old Rapa and was developed due to language shift. However, this shift has stopped and from it a shift-break language has occured known as the New Rapa. New Rapa is a variety of Reo Rapa and it illustrates the attempt to reverse the shift to the Tahitian language.

Life in Rapa Iti

Geographic Description

On the Island of Rapa Iti there are two villages, Area and Ahurei. More than half of the population live in the village of Ahurei and it is considerably larger than Area. Most of the transportation done on the island is usually by sea, because the roads become more dangerous in unstable weather. Both villages have a church, however, only the village of Ahurei contains the Post Office, Elementary School, Gymnasium, Health Clinic, and Mayor's Office.The government does not control markets or grocery stores on Rapa and households generally build small stores from their homes.

Government

From most families at least one adult is employed by the French Polynesian government. Which include school teachers, school caretakers, cafeteria workers, and head of service technique also known as technical services. The government on Rapa Iti also includes firemen and women, the mayor, the postman, deputy mayors, policemen, weather station monitors etc. Many jobs listed above are taken on by one individual, e.g. the mayor is also the postman. The jobs listed above are also very limited in manpower with numbers no larger than five.

Sounds and Phonology

As Reo Rapa is a combination of the Tahitian Language and Old Rapa, Reo Rapa contains content words from both Tahitian and Old Rapa. With Tahitian being the more dominant language of the 2 that make up Reo Rapa, it makes sense that majority of common Reo Rapa words come from Tahitian, while words for traditional activities and practices originate from Old Rapa words. Unlike the more Tahitian dominant content words, grammar words are more evenly derived from both languages.

Numerical Comparison

Common Words

Number Reo Rapa Tahitian Old Rapa % similarity one hō’ē ta’i hō’ē 70% two piti rua piti 70%* three toru toru toru14 100% four maha ā maha 78% five pae rima pae 95%* six ono ono ono 100% seven hitu ’itu hitu 52%* eight va’u varu va’u 98% nine iva iva iva 100% ten ’ahuru rongouru ’ahuru 89% hundred hānere rau hānere 95% thousand tauatini mano tauatini 95%

Number Reo Rapa Tahitian Old Rapa % similarity come/go haere naku haere 61% eat ’amu kai kai 70%* parent metua karakua metua 70% brother tu’āne tungāne tu’āne 86% sister tuahine tua’ine tuahine 86% grandparent rū’au ’ina’ina ’ina’ina 72% sky ra’i rangi ra’i 72%* day mahana ao mahana 75%* sun rā pake pake 81% moon, month ’āva’e kāvake ’āva’e 100% fresh water vai kōta’e kōta’e 100% river ’ānāvai mangavai mangavai 98% sea water miti kara miti 100% taro taro mīkaka mīkaka 100% good/well maita’i maitaki maitaki 100% calm sea mania karamate mania 89% tear (n) roimata karavai karavai 92% name i’oa eingoa eingoa 100% mountain mou’a mounga mou’a 81% hill ’āivi taratika taratika 83% talk paraparau ’akaero paraparau 72%

Consonant Phonemes

Consonant Phonemes of Old Rapa

		Bilabial	Labiodental	Denti - Alveolar	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosives	Voiceless	p		t		k	ʔ
	Voiced
Nasal		m			n	ŋ
Fricatives	Voiceless
	Voiced		v
Tap or Flap					ɾ

Similar to other languages that fall within the Eastern Polynesian language family, the consonant phoneme inventory of Old Rapa is relatively small. Consisting of only nine distinct consonants, Old Rapa is constructed of eight voiceless phonemes and one voiced phoneme.

Of the nine phonemes, four are a result of a Stop - /p/, /t/, /k/, and /ʔ/. While /p/ is constantly bilabial and /t/ is dento-alveolar, the place where /k/ is articulated can range anywhere from pre-velar to uvular. When spoken, the place of articulation of /k/ depends on the succeeding vowel segment. Mary Walworth uses the following examples to demonstrate these differing occurrences:

• Before a high-fronted [i]: in the word kite ‘know’, /k/ is pre-velar
• Before a mid-fronted [e]: in the word kete ‘basket’, /k/ is velar
• Before a low-back [ɑ]: in the word karakua ‘parent’, /k/ is distinguishably more backed
• Before a mid-back [o]: in the word komo ‘sleep’, /k/ is uvular

The alveolar and post-alveolar stops, while distinguishable in the linguistic study of Old Rapa, are often misinterpreted as the phoneme /k/ to native speakers. This observation was noted multiple times in Walworth’s conversations with native speakers; for example, the difference between Tākate and Kākake was not perceived by the native speaker.

In the study of velar stops, there are instances in which lenition, the weakened articulation of a consonant,  occurs. In the first case, the velar stop /k/ transitions more into a velar fricative when placed in the unstressed syllables. In Walworth’s example in the word kōta'e ‘water’, the /k/ phoneme is pronounced as [k]; however in the word eipoko ‘head’, the /k/ is pronounced as [x]. The second case is very similar to the first, but on a “phrase-level”. In this sense, when placed in a word that is not stressed, lenition occurs.

When referring to the Rapa usage of the phoneme /ɾ/, there is a distinct difference between the alveolar tap and a trill. When pronounced in words where it is located at the beginning of the stressed syllable, the alveolar tap becomes better defined as a trill. The usage of this phoneme and its variants is evident in the Walworth’s examples:

Examples where a trill is perceived:

• /rapa/ ‘name of island’ > [‘ra.pa]
• /roki/ ‘taro-bed’ > [‘ro.xi]
• /ra:kau/ ‘plant-life’ > [‘ra:.xao]

Examples where a tap is retained:

• /karakua/ ‘parent’ > [ka.ɾa.’ku.a]
• /ʔare/ ‘house’ > [‘ʔa.ɾe]
• /taratika/ ‘ridge’ > [ta.ɾa.’ti.xa]

While currently indeterminable, it is plausible that in Old Rapa the /ɾ/ phoneme existed closer resembling the lateral approximant /l/. In an article published by John Stokes in 1955, what is now taken to be the /ɾ/ phoneme was approximated to be mix between, “a clear l as in English and soft r.” However, Walworth states that even in the oldest of her consultants, there was no recollection of the /l/ phoneme, leading her to make the assumption that the /ɾ/ phoneme has come about as a result of the Tahitian influence.

When observing the usage of the labiodental fricative /v/, the shift period away from Old Rapa becomes more evident. In the older generations of native speakers, this phoneme is articulated moreso like that of the labiodental approximant [[[Labiodental approximant|ʋ]]]. The usage of the labiodental fricative is almost always used by the newer generations of native speakers, whereas the approximant is almost never used. This change is directly attributed to the Tahitian influence of the labiodental fricative.

Grammer

Grammatical Words

• Perfective TAM (Tense - Aspect - Mood) /ka/
  • ka rahi¹⁷ para te taofe
    • ka (Perfective Aspect) + rahi¹⁷ (Much) + para (Ripe) + te (Article) + taofe (coffee)
      • 'Some coffee was really ripe.'

• Definite word /tō/
  • e hina’aro na vau tō mei’a ra
    • e (Imperfective Aspect) + hina’aro (like) + na (Deictic) + vau (Singular) + tō (Definitive) + mei’a (Banana) + ra(Deictic)
      • 'I would like those you bananas (you mentioned).'
• Question words
  • /a'a/ (What)
  • /'ea/ (Where)
  • /a'ea/ (When)
  • /nā ’ea/ (How)
  • /'ia/ (How many)
    • ex. e a’a tō-koe huru
      • e (Imperfective Aspect) + a’a (What) + tō-koe (Article)(Possessive marker [o])-(Plural) + huru (state)
        • 'How are you' (literal translation - 'What is your state?')
• Past negative /ki’ere/
  • ki’ere vau i haere i te fare
    • ki’ere (Negative) + vau (Singular) + i (Prefective Aspect)) + haere (Go) + i (Prepositional) + te (Article) + fare(House)
      • 'I did not go to a house'
• Non-past negative (Regular negative) /kāre/
  • kāre tā-koe puta
    • kāre (Negative) + tā-koe (Article)(Possive marker [a])-(Plural) + puta (book)
      • 'You don't have your book.' (Literal translation - 'your book doesn't exist')
• Adverbial /ake/
  • me rahi ake teie eika i
    • me (Thing) + rahi (Big) + ake (Complement word, Adverbial) + teie (Demonstrative) + eika (Fish) + i (Prepositional)
      • 'This fish is bigger than my fish the other day'

The language [Jasper Working. . .]

The language is sufficiently different from the rest of the Austral languages as to be considered a separate language. It is assumed to have developed in relative isolation for nearly 700 years.

It is not to be confused with the Rapa Nui language.

References

• Charpentier, Jean-Michel; François, Alexandre (2015). Atlas Linguistique de Polynésie Française — Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia (in French and English). Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie Française. ISBN 978-3-11-026035-9.
• Walworth, Mary E. The Language of Rapa Iti: Description of a Language In Change. Diss. U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Honolulu: U of Hawaii at Manoa, 2015. Print.
• Richards, Rhys. "The Earliest Foreign Visitors and Their Massive Depopulation of Rapa-iti from 1824 to 1830." Jso.revues.org. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://jso.revues.org/67?file=1>. 
• Walworth. Mary E. (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact, 10(1), 98-141. DOI: 10.1163/19552629-01001006.  

External links

• Box of 283 index cards of plant and animal names from Australs Island including local language archived with Kaipuleohone