User:Keleka11/sandbox

There are 2 current versions on the Rapa Language currently being spoken; Old Rapa and Reo 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. 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.

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.

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 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.

grammar

Old Rapa grammar words:

(1S) - Singular (I)

(2S) - You
 * 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 (1S) + 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])-(2S) + 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 (1S) +  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])-(2S) + 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'