| Samoan gagana Samoa |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Samoa, American Samoa | |
| Region: | Spoken as first language on Samoan Islands Samoa and American Samoa, with substantial communities of speakers in New Zealand, Australia and the U.S. | |
| Total speakers: | 370,337 total speakers | |
| Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP Central-Eastern MP Eastern MP Oceanic Central-Eastern Central Pacific East Fijian-Polynesian Samoic Samoan |
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| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | Samoa (199,377 speakers) and American Samoa (56,700 speakers) | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | sm | |
| ISO 639-2: | smo | |
| ISO 639-3: | smo | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands Archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa or sm ''Sāmoa Amelika'' is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands Archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa or sm ''Sāmoa Amelika'' is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers The Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages are a branch of the Austronesian family that are thought to have dispersed from a possible homeland in Sulawesi. The family of Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages. The family of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (EMP languages is a subgroup of the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages The over 200 Central-Eastern Oceanic languages form a branch of the Oceanic Language family within the Austronesian languages. The family of Central Pacific or Fijian-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. The family of East Fijian-Polynesian languages is a subgroup of the Central Pacific languages. The Samoic languages are one of the primary classes of Polynesian languages, encompassing the Polynesian languages of Samoa, Tuvalu, American Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands Archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa or sm ''Sāmoa Amelika'' is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's | ||
The Sāmoan or Samoan language is the traditional language of Samoa and American Samoa and is an official language — alongside English — in both jurisdictions. Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands Archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa or sm ''Sāmoa Amelika'' is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States It is a member of the Austronesian family, and more specifically the Samoic branch of the Polynesian subphylum. The Samoic languages are one of the primary classes of Polynesian languages, encompassing the Polynesian languages of Samoa, Tuvalu, American The Polynesian languages are a Language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia.
There are 370,338 Samoan-speakers worldwide, nearly half of them in the Samoan Islands. Thereafter, the greatest concentration is in New Zealand, where Samoans are the third largest ethnic group after Pākehā and Māori: the 2001 New Zealand census recorded 81,036 speakers of the Samoan language, and 114,435 ethnic Samoans. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island New Zealand European Pākehā are New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry This article discusses the Māori people of New Zealand For their language see Māori language, and for other meanings see Māori (disambiguation. Separate data showed that 71,769 ethnic Samoans in New Zealand could speak Samoan — 62. 7 per cent. The majority of Samoans in New Zealand (76,581 persons or 66. 9 per cent), and by implication the greater proportion of Samoan speakers in the country, reside in the commercial capital, Auckland. The Auckland metropolitan area or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country
According to the 2001 census, there were 22,711 speakers of Samoan in Australia, and 28,091 ethnic Samoans. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.
Contents |
Writing systems
The Samoan alphabet consists of 15 letters, plus three (H, K, R) that are only used in loanwords:
| Aa, Āā | Ee, Ēē | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii, Īī | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo, Ōō | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu, Ūū | Vv | ‘ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ə/, /aː/ | /ɛ/, /eː/ | /f/ | /ŋ/ | (/h/) | /ɪ/, /iː/ | /k/ | /l, ɾ/ | /m/ | /n/, /ŋ/ | /o/, /ɔː/ | /p/ | /l/ | /s/ | /t/, /k/ | /ʊ/, /uː/ | /v/ | /ʔ/ |
In formal Samoan, /k/ is only found in puke! 'catch!'. Encoding and displaying the Polynesian glottal Old conventions In plain ASCII the glottal is sometimes represented by the apostrophe character (' However, in colloquial speech /t/ has come to be pronounced [k], and in addition /n/ has merged with /ŋ/ as [ŋ].
/l/ is pronounced [ɾ] after a back vowel (/a, o, u/) and an /i/. /s/ is less sibilant than in English. A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards
Metathesis of consonants is frequent, such as manu for namu 'scent', lava‘au for vala‘au 'to call', but vowels may not be mixed up in this way.
Phonology
Samoan syllable structure is (C)V. Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course is a branch of Phonology that deals with restrictions in a Language on the Vowels are length-distinct in Samoan.
Grammar
Personal pronouns
Like many Austronesian languages, Samoan has separate words for inclusive and exclusive we, and distinguishes singular, dual, and plural. In Linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person Pronouns and Verbal morphology, In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world The root for the inclusive pronoun may occur in the singular, in which case it indicates emotional involvement on the part of the speaker.
| singular | dual | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First person exclusive | a‘u , ‘ou | mā‘ua, mā | mātou |
| First person inclusive | tā | tā‘ua, tā | tātou |
| Second person | ‘oe, ‘e | ‘oulua | ‘outou, tou |
| Third person | ia / na | lā‘ua | lātou |
In formal speech, fuller forms of the roots mā-, tā-, and lā- are ‘imā-, ‘itā-, and ‘ilā-. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others
Vocabulary
Common phrases and words
| English | Samoan | Pronounce |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | ‘ioe | /ʔɪoɛ/ |
| No | Leai | /lɛaɪ/ |
| Please | Fa‘amolemole | /faʔamolɛmolɛ/ |
| Thank you | Fa‘afetai | /faʔafɛtaɪ/ |
| That's all right | ‘Ua lelei | /ʔʊa lɛlɛɪ/ |
| big - small | tele - la‘itiiti | /tɛlɛ/ - /laʔɪtɪtɪ/ |
| quick - slow | tope - gese | /topɛ/ - /ŋɛsɛ/ |
| early - late | vave - tuai | /vavɛ/ - /tʊaɪ/ |
| cheap - expensive | taugōfie - taugatā | /taʊŋɔːfɪɛ/ - /taʊŋataː/ |
| near - far | latalata - mamao | /latalata/ - /mamao/ |
| hot - cold | vevela - mālūlū | /vɛvɛla/ - /maːluːluː/ |
| full - empty | tumu - gaogao | /tʊmʊ/ - /ŋaoŋao/ |
| easy - difficult | faigoōfie - faigatā | /faɪŋoɔːfɪɛ/ - /faɪŋataː/ |
| heavy - light | mamafa - māma | /mamafa/ - /maːma/ |
| open - shut | tatala - tapuni | /tatala/ - /tapʊnɪ/ |
| right - wrong | sa‘o - sesē | /saʔo/ - /sɛsɛː/ |
| old - new | tuai - fou | /tʊaɪ/ - /foʊ/ |
| old - young | matua - la‘itiiti | /matʊa/ - /laʔɪtɪtɪ/ |
| beautiful - ugly | matagōfie - mataga | /mataŋɔːfɪɛ/ - /mataŋa/ |
| good - bad | lelei / leaga | /lɛlɛɪ/ / /lɛaŋa/ |
| better - worse | feoloolo - leaga tele | /fɛololo/ - /lɛaŋa tɛlɛ/ |
References
- Milner, G. B. 1993, 1966. Samoan Dictionary. Polynesian Press. ISBN 0 908597 12 6
- Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing morphosyntax: a guide for field linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58224-5.
External links
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic