| Also Known As: Rutuman,Rotuna
Description:
Rotuman, also referred to as Rotunan, Rutuman or Fäeag Rotuma, is an Austronesian 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 may be grouped with it in a West Fijian–Rotuman branch of the Central Pacific sub-group of Oceanic languages.
The Rotuman language has sparked much interest with linguists because the language utilises metathesis to invert the ultimate vowel with the immediately preceding consonant, resulting in a vowel system characterized by umlaut, vowel shortening or extending and diphthongisation.
Unusual compared to its Pacific neighbours, Rotuman is typically considered an AVO (Agent Verb Object) Language.
Rotuman has no phonemic vowel length and is underlyingly a language of open syllables. Thus, only consonant + vowel syllables..... full article at Wikipedia |
