Rotuman, also referred to as Rotunan, Rutuman or Faeag Rotuma, is a language spoken by the indigenous people of the South Pacific island group of Rotuma, an island with a Polynesian-influenced culture that was incorporated as a dependency into the Colony of Fiji in 1881. Classification of Rotuman is difficult due to the large number of loan words from Samoan and Tongan, as a result of much cultural exchange over the history of the Pacific. Research by Andrew Pawley seems to indicate however that the language is related to the West Fijian languages, and so thus is therein grouped. Rotuma is a Fijian Dependency, consisting of the island of Rotuma and the nearby islets of Hatana, Hofliua, Solkope, Solnohu and Uea. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages used by some 351 million speakers. ... The family of Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. ... The family of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a subgroup of the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. ... The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages. ... The family of Central-Eastern Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Oceanic languages. ... The family of Remote Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. ... The family of Central Pacific languages is a subgroup of the Remote Oceanic languages. ... West Fijian-Rotuman languages are a language group that includes the West Fijian languages and the Rotuman language. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... World map exhibiting a common interpretation of Oceania; other interpretations may vary. ... Rotuma is a Fijian Dependency, consisting of the island of Rotuma and the nearby islets of Hatana, Hofliua, Solkope, Solnohu and Uea. ... Polynesian culture refers to the aboriginal culture of the Polynesian-speaking peoples of Polynesia and the Polynesian outliers. ... Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... Andrew Pawley is Head of the Department of Linguistics at the Australia National University, Australia. ... The West Fijian languages are a language family that is part of the West Fijian-Rotuman languages. ...

The Rotuman language has sparked much interest with linguists due to the fact that the language utilises metathesis to invert the ultimate vowel with the immediately preceding consonant, resulting in a vowel system full of umlaut-ing, vowel shortening or extending and dipthongisation. The following is a list of linguists, those who study linguistics. ... Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (in Greek δίφθογγος) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...

Unusual compared to its Pacific neighbours, Rotuman is typically considered an AVO (Agent Verb Object) Language. In linguistic typology, subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence subject verb object in neutral expressions: Sam ate oranges. ...

Rotuman alphabet

Upon missionary contact, various orthographies abounded on the island of Rotuma. The French Catholic Missionaries built an orthography based on their own alphabet, while the primarily English Wesleyan Methodist preachers developed their own orthography to write in Rotuman. The prevalent one used today is one from the English Methodist Reverend C. M. Churchward, in whose knowledge of linguistics the Tongan orthography was also devised. The alphabet, as it appears in Churchward's seminal work, "Rotuman Grammar and Dictionary": A missionary is a propagator of religion, often an evangelist or other representative of a religious community who works among those outside of that community. ... The Wesleyan Church in America (formerly Wesleyan Methodist) was officially formed in 1843 at an organizing conference in Utica, New York, as a group of ministers and laymen splitting from the Methodist Episcopal Church, primarily over the issue of slavery, though they had secondary issues as well. ...

• a - /ʌ/

• å or ä - /a/
• ạ - /ɔː/

• e - /ɛ/
• f - /f/
• g - /ŋ/
• h - /h/
• i - /i/
• j - /tʃ/
• k - /k/
• l - /l/
• m - /m/
• n - /n/
• o - /ɒ/

• ö - /əː/

• p - /p/
• s - /s/
• t - /t/
• u - /u/
• v - /v/
• ʻ - /ʔ/ the glottal stop

In the cases of the variations to the vowels a, o and i, Churchwards dictionary treats these letters as though there is no variation between the species within the base letter. Hence the word päega, meaning seat, appears before pạri meaning banana, which in turn appears before pau, meaning very much. An old SEAT 600 SEAT is a Volkswagen subsidiary and one of the leading car makers in Spain. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In addition, there are instances where all original vowels above appear with a macron, indicating length (that is, they are longer).

Text examples

This is the Rotuman language version of the Our Father, as found in the translation of the Bible published in 1975 (Matthew 6:9-13) [1]. It is in the now commonly accepted Churchward's orthography. This Gutenberg Bible is displayed by the United States Library of Congress. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... // Matthew is a male given name. ...

'Otomis Ö'faat täe 'e lạgi,

'Ou asa la äf'äk la ma'ma',

'Ou pureaga la leum, 'ou rere la sok,

fak ma 'e lạgi, la tape'ma 'e rä te'.

'Äe la naam se 'ạmisa, 'e terạnit e 'i,

ta 'etemis tela'a la taumar,

Ma 'äe la fạu'ạkia te' ne 'otomis sara,

la fak ma ne 'ạmis tape'ma re vạhia se iris ne sar 'e 'ạmisag.

Ma 'äe se hoa' 'ạmis se faksara; 'äe la sại'ạkia 'ạmis 'e raksa'a.

Ko pureaga, ma ne'ne'i, ma kolori, mou ma ke se 'äeag, se av se 'es gataag ne tore. 'Emen

External links

Rotuman language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Rotuma Website Rotuman Language Page
• Rotuma Website Bibliography of Rotuman Language Studies
• "Rotuman" Page on Metathesis Site of Ohio State University's Language Department
• Rotuman language at Ethnologue