Rotuman language
Rotuman | ||
---|---|---|
Spoken in |
Fiji | |
speaker | 9,000 | |
Linguistic classification |
|
|
Official status | ||
Official language in | Rotuma | |
Language codes | ||
ISO 639-3 |
rtm |
The Rotuman Language is a Malayo-Polynesian language that the Rotuma Group of the island nation Fiji from those who Rotumanen is spoken. The language contains many loanwords from Tongan and Samoan , which makes precise classification difficult, but the language is often grouped into a language family with Fiji . In contrast to the neighboring languages, the language uses the SVO sentence order.
Phonology
labial | Coronal | Postalveolar | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
stop | p | t | tʃ | k | ʔ |
Fricative | fv | s | H | ||
Liquids | rl |
alphabet
- a - / a /
- e - / e /
- f - / f /
- g - / ŋ /
- h - / h /
- i - / i /
- j - / tʃ /
- k - / k /
- l - / l /
- m - / m /
- n - / n /
- o - / ɔ /
- ö - / ø /
- ü - / y /
Examples
German | Rotuman |
---|---|
Left | sema |
right | ʻAtmại |
go | la'o |
swim | rạpi |
dirty | pearpera |
shoulder | uma |
literature
- Hans Schmidt: Rotuma: Language and History. Edition Barkau, Großbarkau 2000, ISBN 3-928326-25-2 (also dissertation, University, Hamburg 1999) (PDF; 816 kB).
- A new Rotuman dictionary. An English - Rotuman wordlist by Elizabeth K. Inia Sophie Arntsen, Hans Schmidt, Jan Rensel and Alan Howard and C. Maxwell Churchward’s Rotuman - English dictionary of 1940 . Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji 1998, ISBN 982-02-0128-4 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).