User:19dakota19/Mangareva Language

Mangareva (the floating island/mountain) or the Mangarevan language is an endangered Polynesian language spoken by fewer than 900 people. This island is secluded geographically & has been isolated for decades. Native Mangareva speakers reside in the Gambier Islands of the Pacific Ocean; an island highly populated with French speakers. This language is spoken mostly by the French Polynesian, and by people residing in Ma'ohi Nui & New Zealand. Rikitea is one of Mangareva's main villages, which contains the sacred Mangarevan cathedral (Mawyer, 2016). The Mangarevan language was first identified on May 25th, 1797 by Captain William of the Duff. Later on, Duff had a mountain named after him. (Tregear, 1899). This language is a written language & has a dictionary available. Mangarevan is currently classified as an endangered language because younger generations stopped speaking it, & the older generations stopped teaching it to their children & the younger generations (Ena, 2014). Mangareva is located about 1,000 miles southeast from Tahiti & is the largest & most central island in the Gambier Islands. It takes 4 & a half hours to walk around the entire island of Mangareva, proving how small Mangareva really is.

Polynesia is made up of over 1,000 islands & is located on the Pacific Ocean. The people of Polynesia are typically indigenous & all share cultures, religions, & languages with one another in these islands. It is about a 4 day boat ride, or 4 hour flight from Mangareva to Tahiti; another Polynesian island.

History
The island of Mangareva was discovered by Captain James Wilson in 1797. However, it is controversial whether he was the first one to have discovered it. Captain James Wilson was the first one to have documented it (Manuireva, 2014). In 1825, Captain Beechy came to Mangareva on a boat named the Blossom. Beechy also discovered parts of Mangareva. Beechy named islands after some of his officers, & Wilson named mountains after himself. Captain Beechy is also controversial because he was accused of abusing cultural traditions & values of the Mangareva land & people. Beechy accused the Mangarevan's of being theives, which made the Mangarevan reputation suffer. The first settlers to come to Mangareva were called Tangata Mangerva, & these people were typically fisherman or pearl divers that came in tiny groups from the Tuamotuan atolls (Mawyer). Mangareva is home to the first colonists of the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (Kirch, 2010). During the 13th century, captains, chiefs, and tribes began to reside in Mangareva. Havaiki and Hava, two islands to the west of Mangareva housed these captains, chiefs, & tribes at first. The reason these settlers came to Mangareva was due to a loss in war. These settlers arrived on double canoes that were typically used for transport, hunting, & fishing (Carlson, 1999). These notable settlers documented traditions, religions, & language of the people of Mangareva & the Gambier Islands. The Acteon Group of the Tuamotu Archipelago is located northwest of Mangareva, & the Pitcairn-Henderson Islands are located southeast of Mangareva. The main religion of Mangareva speakers was Catholicism which became customary when French-Catholic missionaries came to the island in 1834. After this, the king & his people converted to Catholicism, along with the residents following right after. Even though Catholicism is the prevalent religion, they follow more of a Polynesian lifestyle and traditions. Along with religion, these people also followed a mythology of the island. Atu-motua (Father-lord), Atu-moana (Ocean-lord), Atea (Space), and Tangaroa were the main concepts that were believed in & studied (Buck, 1938). The mythology of Mangareva also consists of believing in that Mangareva was lifted up from the oceanic floor by a demi-God; Maui. Piercings, tattoos, tooth extractions, & circumcision were some of the historical traditions of traditional Mangarevan's. Today, only tattooing and circumcision are still practiced. Traditional Mangarevan's were tattooed from head to toe. The king, or any member of royalty were tattooed on their feet only, and the warriors & tribe leaders had a band tattooed across their face. This was a huge part of their culture.

In the past, Mangareva used to produce, farm, & export vegetables of all sorts to Moururoa & Hao. Decades ago, Mangareva suffered from severe deforestation, which affected their farming.

Present Day
Today, the Mangareva economy is centered around the mother-of-pearl culture (Carlson, 1999). Mangareva & the Gambier Islands export pearls to other islands & places such as Tahiti. There are a grand total of 47 farms on the land that all produce & observe nutrients. One of the most sacred & appreciated objects to Mangareva speakers is the black pearl. Mangareva no longer exports crops to Moururoa, but they still do to Hao.

Mangareva has a huge lagoon, which is 15 miles in length, that contains coral reefs, & fish for fishing & consumption by residents (Manuireva, 2014). Most shellfish & fish are harmless & sufficient enough to eat. This lagoon contains cooler water & higher planktons, making it the ideal place for pearls to thrive.

Education
On the Gambier Islands, there is only one school which consists of both elementary and primary courses. There are only 3 kindergarten courses with 76 students enrolled, & 5 primary courses with 124 students enrolled. In order for students to continue on to higher education, they must move to Tahiti or Hao.

Language
Currently the youngest fluent speaker of this language is 46 years old, meaning there is not much hope for the younger generations of Mangareva. In fact, the language was taken out of the school's curriculum in 2014 due to a lack of inspiration to speak it by younger students. Mangarevan is currently at risk for language extinction.

The Mangarevan language comes from two different dialects: the Maori and Rarotongan dialects. Many of these words were influenced by other languages in the Polynesian area as well.

Mangarevan has 9 consonants: p, t, k, m, n, ŋ, v, r and 5 vowels: a, e, i, o, u. These consonants go hand in hand with languages of the Cook Islands, Paumotu, Tuamotoan, & New Zealand. This alphabet was derived from the Occidental model, which has an absence of the "h" or "f" sounds. Also, instead of a comma, Mangarevan's use the inverted comma which to English speakers looks like the apostrophe: ('). These logistics prove that the Mangarevan alphabet was influenced by the Tahitian alphabet (Manuireva, 2014).

Some of the commonly used words/phrases of the Mangarevan language are:


 * "Hello" - "Kia purotu koe!" ("May you remain beautiful!")
 * "There you are" -  Ena koe! 
 * "You indeed" -  A koe noti 
 * "Breadfruit" - "Mei"
 * "Coconut" - "Ere'i"