Moriori language

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Moriori
Spoken in: New Zealand 
Region: Polynesia
Total speakers: unknown
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian(MP)
  Central-Eastern MP
   Eastern MP
    Oceanic
     Central-Eastern Oceanic
      Remote Oceanic
       Central Pacific
        East Fijian-Polynesian
         Polynesian
          Nuclear Polynesian
           Eastern Polynesian
            Central E. Polynesian
             Tahitic
              Moriori 
Writing system: Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3:
For the language of the same name spoken in New Guinea, see Moriori language (New Guinea).

Moriori is a Malayo-Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori. It is the native language of the Moriori, the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands which are east of and under New Zealand sovereignty.

The invasion from Taranaki had a heavy impact on Moriori culture and language, with few speaking the language by the 1870s.[1] However, Samuel Deighton, Resident Magistrate on the Chathams from 1873 to 1891, compiled a short vocabulary of Moriori words, with their equivalents in Māori and English. The vocabulary is published as an appendix of King's "Moriori; A People Rediscovered".

The language was reconstructed for parts of the 2000 film "Feathers of Peace"[1], which recreated in documentary style the history of contact between the Moriori people and Pākehā and Māori.

Moriori is an extinct language.[2]

The Moriori name for the Chathams is "Rekohu".

[edit] References

  1. ^ *King, M. (1989), Moriori; A People Rediscovered, Auckland: Viking
  2. ^ Maori: A language of New Zealand. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition.. Retrieved on March 27, 2007.

[edit] Further reading

  • Galbraith, Sarah: A Grammar of the Moriori language.
  • Clark, R. 1994. Moriori and Maori: The Linguistic Evidence. In Sutton, D. (ed) The origins of the First New Zealanders. Auckland: Auckland University Press. pp.123-135.