Rakahanga-Manihiki | |
---|---|
Native to | Cook Islands |
Region | Rakahanga and Manihiki islands |
Native speakers | 320 in the Cook Islands (2011 census) [1] 2,500 in New Zealand, based on a cited population of 5,000 (1981) being half in Cook Islands and half in New Zealand [2] |
Austronesian
| |
Official status | |
Official language in | Cook Islands |
Regulated by | Kopapa Reo |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | rkh |
Glottolog | raka1237 |
ELP | Rakahanga-Manihiki |
Rakahanga-Manihiki is a Tahitic language belonging to the Polynesian language family, spoken by about 2500 people on Rakahanga and Manihiki Islands (part of the Cook Islands) and another 2500 in other countries, mostly New Zealand and Australia. [3] Wurm and Hattori consider Rakahanga-Manihiki as a distinct language with "limited intelligibility with Rarotongan" [4] (i.e. the Cook Islands Maori dialectal variant of Rarotonga). According to the New Zealand Maori anthropologist Te Rangi Hīroa who spent a few days on Rakahanga in the years 1920, "the language is a pleasing dialect and has closer affinities with [New Zealand] Maori than with the dialects of Tongareva, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands" [3] [5]
Rakahanga and Manihiki are two different islands but the culture is one. They are two islands 25 miles apart from each other and are located in the South Pacific. The island of Rakahanga was discovered in the year 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese voyager sailing under Spain under the command of Pedro Fernandes. [6] The two islands were divided into different groups, which were ruled by other rulers. The people of Manihiki and Rakahanga were led by one ruler, a chief, in which he was separated from his community giving up his ritual and economic powers. The people of the two islands organized into “moieties” (one senior and one junior), which both were divided to create four sub-moieties. [7] Twenty-five households were established. The Polynesians not only lived on the islands but also Rarotonga. They migrated to other places like New Zealand and Australia leaving 400 people on the Rakahanga and Manihiki islands. [6] When migrating, they would travel by ship or boat to other islands finding a place to settle. The population moved from one island to another due depleted coconut and paraka supplies. The people would use the Magellan clouds, also known as Na Mahu as guides to get between the two islands. [6] They dedicate themselves to their religious beliefs but also carry on their traditions with culture and language.
The Cook Islands have an industry called the Black pearl and is centered around the Manihiki island where it boots the nations rating in black pearls. As of 1998 [update] , the population in Rakahanga was 276 and the population in Manihiki was 505. [8]
As years went by, technology advanced to another level in which high frequency radios have been invented and used for inter-island communication between the island of Rakahanga for medical and educational purposes. Telecom Cook Islands holds the rights of the medical and educational frequencies linked to the Cook Islands for outer-island communication. [9] Telecom Cook Islands is the sole provider of telephone services in the Cook Islands. [9] The 13 inhabited islands except Rakahanga have a satellite earth station, which enables communication on the island by telephone, email, and Internet. [9] Rakahanga consumes telephone and facsimile services that can be possible by the High Frequency radio link.
The Manihiki-Rakahanga dialect is much closer to Māori than the dialects of Tahiti, Tongareva, and the Cook Islands. "Cook Islands Māori is an indigenous language with several dialects including Penrhyn, Rakahanga-Manihiki, Atiu, Mitiaro, Mauke, Aitutaki, and Mangaian". [10] The alphabet adopted for Rarotonga was introduced by native pastors, who were educated by the London Missionary Society. When using H instead of S and WH instead of H. In Tahitian, in retaining K and NG and using WH and a more sounded H. [5] It is shared by the Maori dialect. The consonants that are not presented are H and WH, and the v should be W. [5] The H and Wh sounds have no letters to represent them. An official interpreter to the Cook Islands Administration, Stephen Savage holds that the w should have been embraced for the Rarotongan dialect instead of v. [5] With teaching the alphabetical sounds, the tendency is for the children to adopt and study the v sounds. The Europeans have omitted the obvious H sound in Rakahanga by writing in print “Rakaanga.” The people of the Manihiki Island pronounce their island “Manihiki” but write it Maniiki because the people are taught when learning the alphabet to not include the H. The word hala was influenced by Tahiti, where the sound exists as an F and is pronounced as “fara”. It became evident that the sound was not the Tahitian F but was influenced with the Maori WH sound. [5] The H and Wh have been used in words in which they are sounded. The word Huku variously written as “Iku,” “Hiku,” and “Huku”. [5] Huku who is a human discoverer sailed from Rarotonga on a fishing expedition. Huku is to be believed by the people of the Rakahanga and Manihiki islands which Huku is stated to have sailed from Rarotonga on a fishing expedition. [11]
Manihiki has a rather standard Cook Islands Māori inventory, but is notable for not having any sibilant fricatives.[ citation needed ]
labial | alveolar | velar | glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|
nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
plosive | p | t | k | ʔ |
fricative | f v | h | ||
approximant | r |
This is similar to Tongareva's phonology, but Manihiki has a glottal stop [ ʔ ], and the fricative [ f ]. Tongareva on the other hand has [ s ] while Manihiki lacks it, making it very uncommon among world languages.
front | back | |
---|---|---|
close | i iː | u uː |
mid | e eː | o oː |
open | a aː |
This vowel system is also typical of many Polynesian languages. Long vowels are romanized with a macron.
A, E, F, H, I, K, M, N, Ng, O, P, R, T, U, V [12]
Vowels a, e, i, o, and u. Consonants k, m, n, ng, p, r, t, and v. [5]
The Cook Islands are named after Captain James Cook, who visited the islands in 1773 and 1777, although Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendaña was the first European to reach the islands in 1595. The Cook Islands became aligned to the United Kingdom in 1890, largely because of the fear of British residents that France might occupy the islands as it already had Tahiti.
Polynesian mythology encompasses the oral traditions of the people of Polynesia together with those of the scattered cultures known as the Polynesian outliers. Polynesians speak languages that descend from a language reconstructed as Proto-Polynesian – probably spoken in the Tonga and Samoa area around 1000 BC.
The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family.
Penrhyn is an atoll in the northern group of the Cook Islands in the south Pacific Ocean. The northernmost island in the group, it is located at 1,365 km (848 mi) north-north-east of the capital island of Rarotonga, 9 degrees south of the equator. Its nearest neighbours are Rakahanga and Manihiki, approximately 350 kilometres (220 mi) to the southwest. Once one of the most heavily populated atolls, it was almost completely depopulated by Peruvian slavers in 1864.
Cook Islands Māori is an Eastern Polynesian language that is the official language of the Cook Islands. Cook Islands Māori is closely related to New Zealand Māori, but is a distinct language in its own right. Cook Islands Māori is simply called Māori when there is no need to disambiguate it from New Zealand Māori, but it is also known as Māori Kūki ʻĀirani or, controversially, Rarotongan. Many Cook Islanders also call it Te reo Ipukarea, literally "the language of the Ancestral Homeland".
Sir Peter Henry Buck, also known as Te Rangi Hīroa or Te Rangihīroa, was a New Zealand doctor and a prominent anthropologist who served many roles through his life.
Rakahanga is part of the Cook Islands, situated in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. The unspoilt atoll is 1,248 kilometres from the Cook Islands' capital, Rarotonga, and lies 1,111 kilometres south of the equator. Its nearest neighbour is Manihiki which is just 44 kilometres away. Rakahanga's area is 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi). Its highest point is approximately 5 metres above sea level. The population was 83 in the 2016 Census of Population & Dwellings, with a density ratio of 32 people per square kilometer. Since 2014 Rakahanga's electricity has been 100% solar generated. The Rakahanga-Manihiki language differs from Cook Islands Maori.
Manihiki is an atoll in the northern group of the Cook Islands known informally as the "Island of Pearls". It is located in the Northern Cook Island chain, approximately 1,299 kilometres (807 mi) north of the capital island of Rarotonga, making it one of the most remote inhabitations in the Pacific Ocean. Its name has two possible meanings: It is believed that the original name of the island was Manuhiki, or Manuhikitanga inspired by the aboriginal discoverers, Manu coming from the word Rua Manu and Hiki meaning ashore, so the literal translation would be canoe carried ashore. The second interpretation is that the original discoverers were from Manihi, an island in Tuamotus, so the name of the island would mean Little Manihi.
Kauraka Kauraka was a Cook Islands writer. He was born in Avatiu on Rarotonga, the main island of the Cooks, and educated at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He published six collections of poems in the English and Rarotongan languages. When Kauraka died in 1997, he was buried on the atoll of Manihiki, northern Cooks. He was the brother of artist and writer Tepaeru Tereora.
The Penrhyn language is a Cook Islands Maori dialectal variant belonging to the Polynesian language family. It is spoken by about 200 people on Penrhyn Island and other islands in the Northern Cook Islands. It is considered to be an endangered language as many of its users are shifting to Cook Islands Māori and English.
Tauhunu is both the main village on Manihiki atoll in the Cook Islands and the islet on which it is located. The village is the seat of the Manihiki Island Council. Tauhunu Islet is on the western rim of the atoll.
Ui-te-Rangiora or Hui Te Rangiora is a legendary Polynesian navigator from Rarotonga who is claimed to have sailed to the Southern Ocean and sometimes to have discovered Antarctica.
Ngake is one of 43 islands in the Manihiki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is the largest island, making up almost the entire north-eastern side of the atoll. The village of Tukao and Manihiki Island Airport are both located on the island.
Atimono is one of 43 islands in the Manihiki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is a small islet at the southern end of Ngake and to the north of Motu Hakamaru.
Motu Hakamaru is one of 43 islands in the Manihiki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is a small islet and marks the south-eastern corner of the atoll.
Porea is one of 43 islands in the Manihiki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is a small islet which marks the southern edge of the atoll. It is separated from Tauhunu in the west and Motu Hakamaru by a large number of small islets.
Te Puka is one of 43 islands in the Manihiki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is a small islet in the south-west corner of the atoll, just inside the reef from Tauhunu.
Murihiti is one of 43 islands in the Manihiki atoll of the Cook Islands. It is a small island, in the gap in the atoll between Tauhunu and Ngake.
Mangarongaro is an islet in Penrhyn Atoll (Tongareva) in the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean. Mangarongaro makes up most of the southwestern rim of the atoll, south of Moananui Islet and west of Atiati. The islet was once inhabited, and contains the remains of two marae, Rakahanga and Te Vete.
Te Kainga is one of 11 islands in the Rakahanga atoll of the Cook Islands. The island once served as the principal inhabited island of Rakahanga, but the settlement was moved to Rakahanga Island in the missionary era. The single village was shared by the atoll's four tribes, and was surrounded by five marae: Punariku, Avarua, Huku-wananga, Mua, and Variu.