Wallisian language

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This article deals with the language of Wallis Island, "Wallisian," also known as "Fakauvea" or "East Uvean." For the similarly named language of Ouvéa, New Caledonia, see West Uvean (Fagauvea).

Wallisian or ʻUvean (Wallisian: Fakaʻuvea) is the Polynesian language spoken on Wallis Island (also known as ʻUvea). The language is also known as East Uvean to distinguish it from the related West Uvean spoken on the outlier island of Ouvéa (near New Caledonia). Wallisian tradition holds that the latter island was colonised from Wallis Island in ancient times.

Classified by linguists as a Nuclear Polynesian language, Wallisian has borrowed heavily from Tongan, the island having been a part of the Tu'i Tongan empire for many centuries. It is closely related to the Niuafo'ou language.

[edit] Alphabet

The standard 5 vowels: a, e, i, o, u, with their lengthened variants: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū.

The consonants: f, g (always pronounced as ŋ (ng)), h, k, l, m, n, s (rare, usually from foreign words), t, v, '.

The ʻ, representing the glottal stop (see also okina), is known in Wallisian as fakamoga (belonging to the throat). The fakamoga is nowadays taught at schools, and can be written with straight, curly or inverted curly apostrophes. Similarly the macron (Wallisian: fakaloa, 'to lengthen') is now taught in schools to mark long vowels, even though the older generation has never marked the glottal stop or vowel length.

For example: Mālō te ma'uli (hello)