Rapa Nui language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rapa Nui |
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| Vānaŋa Rapa Nui | ||||
| Pronunciation | IPA: [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i] | |||
| Native to | Chile | |||
| Region | Easter Island | |||
| Ethnicity | Rapa Nui | |||
| Native speakers | 1,000 (2016)e18 | |||
| Language family |
Austronesian
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| Writing system | Latin script, possibly formerly rongorongo | |||
| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |  Easter Island (Chile) |
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The Rapa Nui language (also called Rapanui, Pascuan, or Pascuense) is spoken on Easter Island. This island is also known as Rapa Nui. It is a language from the Eastern Polynesian group, which is part of the larger Austronesian language family.
Easter Island is a special territory of Chile and has nearly 6,000 people living there. About 9,399 people, both on the island and in Chile, identify as being of Rapa Nui heritage. However, we don't have exact numbers on how many of them speak the language. In 2008, it was reported that only about 800 people could speak Rapa Nui fluently.
Rapa Nui is a minority language. This means that many adults who speak Rapa Nui also speak Spanish. Most Rapa Nui children today grow up speaking Spanish first. If they learn Rapa Nui, they often start learning it later in life.
The Story of the Rapa Nui Language
The Rapa Nui language is unique among the Eastern Polynesian languages. This group also includes languages like Marquesan and Tahitian. Rapa Nui is most similar to Marquesan in how its words are formed. However, its sounds are more like New Zealand Māori. Both Rapa Nui and Māori have kept some consonant sounds that other Eastern Polynesian languages have lost.
Like all Polynesian languages, Rapa Nui has only a few consonant sounds. It is special because it has kept a sound called a glottal stop. This sound was in the very old Proto-Polynesian language. Until recently, Rapa Nui was a language where the verb came first in a sentence, followed by the subject and then the object.
A very important book about the Rapa Nui language is Rapanui (Descriptive Grammar) by Verónica du Feu.
We don't know much about the Rapa Nui language before Europeans arrived. Most Rapa Nui words come directly from Proto–Eastern Polynesian. Over time, many words were borrowed from Tahitian. This means that for some words, there are now two forms. For example, Rapa Nui has the Tahitian word ʻite alongside its original word tikeꞌa for 'to see'. Both words come from the same old Proto-Eastern Polynesian word. There are also mixed words, like hakaꞌite, which means 'to teach'. This word combines a native Rapa Nui prefix haka (meaning 'to cause something to happen') with the Tahitian word ʻite.
Some words in Rapa Nui are similar to words in the Mapuche language, which is spoken in Chile. For example, toki means 'axe' in both languages. Kuri in Mapuche and uri in Rapa Nui both mean 'black'. And piti in Mapuche and iti in Rapa Nui both mean 'little'.
Challenges for the Rapa Nui Language
In the 1860s, people from Peru began raiding islands to capture workers. They needed people for their mines and farms. Easter Island was a close target.
In December 1862, Peruvian ships captured about 1,000 Rapa Nui people. This included their king, his son, and important religious leaders. It's thought that around 2,000 Rapa Nui people were captured over several years. Those who were taken to Peru faced very harsh conditions. They were overworked and caught many diseases. Sadly, 90% of the captured Rapa Nui people died within one or two years.
Eventually, a religious leader in Tahiti spoke out, causing a public outcry. Peru then gathered the few survivors to send them home. A ship headed back to Easter Island, but smallpox broke out on the journey. Only 15 people made it back to the island. They were put ashore, and the smallpox spread. This caused a terrible epidemic that nearly wiped out the remaining population on the island.
After these events in the 1860s, the Rapa Nui language was greatly influenced by other Polynesian languages, especially Tahitian. Many islanders who went to work on other islands like Mangareva in the 1870s and 1880s started using a Tahitian-based pidgin language. Some experts believe that this pidgin became the foundation for the modern Rapa Nui language when the few survivors returned to their nearly empty home island.
See also
In Spanish: Idioma rapanui para niños
