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The Rapa Nui language is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the native people of the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.

The island is home to a population of just under 4000 and is a special territory of Chile. According to census data, there are about 4500 people on the island and on the Chilean mainland who identify as ethnically Rapa Nui. Census data does not exist on the primary known and spoken languages among these people and there are recent claims that the number of fluent speakers is as low as 800. . Rapa Nui is a minority language and many of its adult speakers also speak Spanish; most Rapa Nui children now grow up speaking Spanish and those who do learn Rapa Nui begin learning later in life.

Consonants

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! !! Labial !! Alveolar !! Velar !! Glottal ! Nasal ! Plosive ! Fricative ! Tap
 * align=center| || align=center|  || align=center|  ||
 * align=center| || align=center|  || align=center|  || align=center|
 * align=center| ||  ||  || align=center|
 * || align=center| ||  ||
 * }

Vowels

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! ! Front ! Central ! Back ! High ! Mid ! Low
 * i
 * u
 * u
 * e
 * o
 * o
 * a
 * }
 * }
 * }

All vowels can be either long or short and are always long when they are stressed in the final position of a word. Most vowel sequences are present, with the exception of uo. Repetition sequences do not occur except in eee ('yes').

Orthography
Written Rapa Nui uses the Latin alphabet. The nasal velar consonant is sometimes written as a latin 'g', but occasionally as 'ng'. The glottal plosive is typically written as an apostrophe. A special sign, /ġ/, is sometimes used to distinguish the Spanish /g/, occurring in introduced terms, from the Rapa Nui.

Syllable Structure
Syllables in Rapa Nui are CV (consonant-vowel) or V (vowel). There are no consonant clusters or word-final consonants.

Reduplication
The reduplication of whole nouns or syllable parts performs a variety of different functions within Rapa Nui. To describe colours for which there is not a predefined word, the noun for an object of a like colour is duplicated to form an adjective. For example:


 * • 'ehu (mist) → 'ehu 'ehu = dark grey
 * • ura (flame) → ura ura = red
 * • tea (dawn) → tea tea = white

Besides forming adjectives from nouns, the reduplication of whole words can indicate a multiple or intensified action. For example:


 * • hatu (weave) → hatuhatu (fold)
 * • kume (undo) → kumekume (take to pieces)
 * • ruku (dive) → rukuruku (go diving)

There are some apparent duplicates forms for which the original form has been lost. For example:
 * • rohirohi (tired)

The reduplication of the initial syllable in verbs can indicate plurality of subject or object. In this example the bolded section represents the reduplication of a syllable which indicates the plurality of the subject of a transitive verb:
 * ‘ori (dance):
 * E ‘ori ro ‘a (he/she/they is/are dancing)
 * E ‘o‘ori ro ‘a (they are all dancing)

The reduplication of the final two syllables of a verb indicates plurality or intensity. In this example the bolded section represents the reduplication of two final syllables, indicating intensity or emphasis:
 * 'ha‘aki' ''(tell):
 * Ka ha‘aki (Tell the story)
 * Ka ha‘aki‘aki (Tell the whole story)

Loanwords
Rapa Nui incorporates a number of loanwords in which constructions such as consonant clusters or word-final consonants occur, though they do not occur naturally in the language. Historically, the practice was to transliterate unfamiliar consonants, insert vowels between clustered consonant sounds and append word-final vowels where necessary.


 * eg: Britain (English loanword) → Paratane (Rapa Nui rendering)

More recently, loanwords - which come primarily from Spanish - retain their consonant clusters. For example, "litro" (litre).

Word Order
Rapa Nui is a VSO ("verb-subject-object") language. Except where verbs of sensing are used, the object of a verb is marked by the relational particle i.


 * eg: He hakahu koe i te rama (the relational particle and object are bolded)
 * "You light the torch"

Where a verb of sensing is used, the subject is marked by the agentive particle e.
 * eg: He tikea e au te poki (the agentive particle and subject are bolded)
 * "I can see the child"

Questions
Yes/no questions are distinguished from statements chiefly by a particular pattern of intonation. Where there is no expectation of a particular answer, the form remains the same as a statement. A question expecting an agreement is preceded by 'hoki'.

Conjunction
Original rapanui has no conjunctive particles. Copulative, adversative and disjunctive notions are typically communicated by context or clause order. Modern Rapa Nui has almost completely adopted Spanish conjunctions rather than rely on this.

Possession
Possession is divided between the alienable and the inalienable. The distinction is marked by a possessive particle inserted before the relevant pronoun.


 * Possesive particles:
 * • a (alienable)
 * • o (inalienable)

There are no markers to distinguish between temporary or permanent possession; the nature of objects possessed; or between past, present or future possession.

Exclamation
"Ko' and 'Ka' are exclamatory indicators.
 * 'Ko' suggests a personal reaction:
 * Ko te ‘aroha (Poor thing!)
 * 'Ka' suggests judgement on external events:
 * Ka ha‘aki‘aki (Tell the whole story!)

Compound Words
Terms which did not exist in original Rapa Nui were created via compounding:
 * patia ika = (‘spear fish’) = harpoon
 * patia kai = (‘spear food’) = fork
 * kiri va’e = (‘skin foot’) = shoe
 * manu patia =(‘bird spear’) = wasp
 * pepe hoi = (‘stool horse’) = saddle
 * pepe noho =(‘stool stay’) = chair

Numerals
There is a system for the numerals 1-10 in both Rapa Nui and Tahitian, both of which are used, though all numbers higher than ten are expressed in Tahitian. When counting, all numerals whether Tahitian or Rapanui are preceded by 'ka'. This is not used, however, when using a number in a sentence.


 * Rapa Nui Numerals 1-10:
 * (ka) tahi
 * (ka) rua
 * (ka) toru
 * (ka) ha
 * (ka) rima
 * (ka) ono
 * (ka) hitu
 * (ka) va’u/varu
 * (ka) iva
 * (ka) aŋahuru

Academic History
Accounts of the language of varying depth have been recorded since European contact, with voyagers such as Captain James Cook and William Judah Thomson of the USS Mohican recording some early data. . William Churchill published a dictionary in 1912, Father Sebastian Englert published a a grammar in 1948, Jordi Fuentes published a dictionary and grammar in 1960 and a 1982 survey of Polynesian languages by Krupa included structural information on Rapa Nui. The most complete and up-to-date published work on Rapa Nui is Veronica Du Feu's 'Rapa Nui' in Routledge's 'Descriptive Grammar' series (ISBN 0-415-00011-4).

Rongorongo Script
There is debate over whether the un-deciphered glyph-based script of Easter Island, Rongorongo is related to the Rapa Nui language. Stephen Fischer has argued that the script is a pictographic genealogy record rather than a written language and that its development was post-colonial, having begun in imitation of Spanish writing shown to the inhabitants after European contact. If this is the case it is unlikely to be related to the spoken language of Rapa Nui.

Hispanisation
The island is under the jurisdiction of Chile and is now home to a number of Chilean continentals most of whom speak only Spanish. The influence of the Spanish language is noticeable in modern Rapa Nui speech. As fewer children learn to speak Rapa Nui at an early age, their superior knowledge of Spanish affects the 'passive knowledge' they have of Rapa Nui. A version of Rapa Nui interspersed with Spanish nouns, verbs and adjectives has become a popular form of casual speech. The most well integrated borrowings are the Spanish conjunctions o (or), pero (but) and y (and). Spanish words such as problema (problem), which was once rendered as poroborema, are now often integrated with minimal or no change.

Spanish words are still often used within Rapa Nui grammatical rules, though some word order changes are occurring and it is argued that Rapa Nui may be undergoing a shift from VSO to the Spanish SVO. This example sentence was recorded first in 1948 and again in 2001 and its expression has changed from VSO to SVO.


 * 'They both suffer and weep"
 * 1948: he ‘aroha, he tatangi ararua
 * 2001: ararua he, ‘aroha he tatangi