Niuean language
| Niuean language (ko e vagahau Niuē) | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
Niue , Cook Islands , New Zealand , Tonga | |
| speaker | 1500, second language 6000 | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in |
 Niue
|
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
niu |
|
| ISO 639-3 | ||
The Niue language (own name ko e vagahau Niuē ) is the language of the inhabitants of the Pacific island of Niue , which is closely related to Tongan .
It has over 1,500 speakers on Niue, where it is spoken by over 95% of the population, and a further 6,000 speakers in the Cook Islands , New Zealand and Tonga . Almost all speakers are bilingual and also speak English .
The Niuean language is one of the Polynesian languages , which is a branch of the Austronesian languages .
Dialects
Niuean is made up of two main dialects, the older Motu dialect spoken on the north side of the island and the Tafiti dialect in the south.
The differences between the dialects are mainly in the vocabulary and in the formation of some words. Examples of the differences in the dialects are volu (tafiti) and matā (motu) for "spatula" or lala (tafiti) and kautoga (motu) for "guava"; Examples of educational differences are: hafule (T) / afule (M), nai / nei , ikiiki / likiliki and malona / maona .
alphabet
The traditional alphabet order is assigned the traditional letters ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, fā, gā, hā, kā, lā, mō, nū, pī, tī, vī, rō, sā . rō and sā are adopted letters that are at the end of the alphabet.
Sperlich (1997) used the alphabetical order, based on English, for his dictionary: a, ā, e, ē, f, g, h, i, ī, k, l, m, n, o, ō, p, s, t, u, ū, v ( r was left out because no word starts with r). He recommends naming the consonants as follows: fā, gā, hā, kā, lā, mā, nā, pā, tā, vā, rā, sā .
The vowel length is indicated with a line above the vowels. However, this is not always done.
numbers
A few numbers in Niuean are:
| 1 | taha | 10 | tahafulu | 100 | taha e teau | 1000 | taha e afe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | among others | 20th | uafulu | 200 | ua (e) teau | 2000 | ua (e) afe |
| 3 | tolu | 30th | tolugofulu | 300 | tolu (e) teau | 3000 | tolu (e) afe |
| 4th | fa* | 40 | fagofulu | Etc. | Etc. | Etc. | Etc. |
| 5 | lima | 50 | limagofulu | ||||
| 6th | ono | Etc. | Etc. | ||||
| 7th | fitu | ||||||
| 8th | valu | ||||||
| 9 | hiva |
Tens and ones are combined with ma , for example the number 44 is fagofulu ma fa , the number 84 valugofulu ma fa or 666 ono teau onogofulu ma ono .
The prefix toko - indicates a number of people: toko lima are 5 people.