Austral language

Those who originally spoke Austral were the Tubuaians, the people of Tubuai. The island has been inhabited since at least 1215CE.{{cite journal |title=The Atiahara site revisited: An early coastal settlement in Tubuai (Austral Islands, French Polynesia) |last1=Hermann |first1=Aymeric |last2=Boltt |first2=Robert |last3=Conte |first3=Eric |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=51 |issue=1 |year=2015 |pages= 31–44|doi=10.1002/arco.5070}}

The first European to visit Tubuai was James Cook in 1777, though he did not land.{{cite book|author=Greg Dening|title=Mr Bligh's Bad Language: Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qjRuCRGdOEYC&pg=PA89|access-date=27 November 2011|date=1 March 1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-46718-6|pages=88–92}} The next Europeans to arrive were the mutineers of HMS Bounty in 1789. After establishing a fort, the mutineers degenerated into raiding local villages to kidnap women,{{cite book|author=Caroline Alexander|title=The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty|url=https://archive.org/details/bounty00caro|url-access=registration|access-date=27 November 2011|date=1 May 2004|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-200469-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bounty00caro/page/13 13]–14}} and left after two months.{{cite book|author=David Stanley|title=South Pacific Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xgIVgyBc1UIC&pg=PA116|access-date=25 November 2011|year=1985|publisher=David Stanley|isbn=978-0-918373-05-2|pages=116–}} Mutineer James Morrison recorded the population of Tubuai as "3000 souls".{{Cite web |url=http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/morrison/morrisonGTubuai.html |title=Detailed description of Toobouai by James Morrison |access-date=2011-12-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160407153955/http://fatefulvoyage.com/morrison/morrisonGTubuai.html |archive-date=7 April 2016}} When Christian missionaries arrived thirty years later, the population had been reduced to just 300 people.{{cite book|author1=Daniel Tyerman|author2=George Bennet|author3=London Missionary Society|title=Journal of voyages and travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, esq: Deputed from the London Missionary Society, to visit their various stations in the South sea islands, China, India, &c., between the years 1821 and 1829|url=https://archive.org/details/b29330798_0001|access-date=29 December 2011|year=1831|publisher=Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis|pages=[https://archive.org/details/b29330798_0001/page/75 75]–}}{{Cite book|title=Fragile Paradise: The Discovery of Fletcher Christian, Bounty Mutineer|year=2005|page=222|isbn=978-1-59048-250-6 |last1=Christian |first1=Glynn |publisher=Long Riders' Guild Press }}{{Cite book|title=Landfalls of Paradise: Cruising Guide to the Pacific Islands |author=Hinz, Earl R. |author2=Howard, Jim|year=2006|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|page=108|isbn=978-0-8248-3037-3}} One Protestant minister when visiting a congregation on Tubuai on January 3, 1824, wrote that several islanders were still suffering from a devastating illness. He described the symptoms and noted that several hundred had died within the previous four years. As a result, some traditional practices, beliefs, and languages have been lost or have struggled to survive.{{Cite web|url=https://welcome-tahiti.com/tubuai-the-island-of-contrasts/|title=Tubuai: The Island of Contrast|last=Bacchet|first=P.|date=6 March 2017|access-date=2 October 2018}} The languages of the Austral area still lack official recognition, as of 2015.

Austral is an Austronesian language,{{Cite web|url=http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Austronesian.html|title=Austronesian|website=www.languagesgulper.com|language=en|access-date=2018-09-28}} as are most other languages of the Pacific. Within this family, Austral is classified as part of the Tahitic branch of the Polynesian languages, making it closely related to Tahitian and Māori.

The Austral language is classified as "threatened" in the Catalogue of Endangered Languages.{{Cite web|url=https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blog.nus.edu.sg/dist/d/3920/files/2015/02/Lee-and-Van-Way-2016-21kp5hr.pdf|title=Assessing levels of endangerment in the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat) using the Language Endangerment Index (LEI)|last=Lee|first=Nala Huiying|date=17 March 2015|access-date=3 October 2018}} With less than 6% of the French Polynesian population speaking Austral, its Ethnologue status is also deemed to be "shifting". This means that the language is staying only within one generation and not being taught to their descendants. Another cause of Austral's dwindling number of speakers has been the community's gradual language shift to the more widely spoken (and closely related) Tahitian.

Austral has four defined dialect groups: Ra'ivavae, Rimatara, Rurutu, and extinct Tubuai (also known as Tupuai). Each of these is named for and spoken on its corresponding island: Raivavae, Rimatara, Rurutu and Tubuai.{{cite book |last1=Charpentier |first1=Jean-Michel |first2=Alexandre |last2=François |author-link2=Alexandre François (linguist) |year=2015 |title=Atlas Linguistique de Polynésie Française — Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia |language=|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie Française |isbn=978-3-11-026035-9 |url=http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-Atlas-blurbs_e.htm }}

The phonology of the different Austral dialects varies significantly. The Rurutu and Ra'ivavae dialects, for example, have only eight consonant phonemes, making it relatively difficult to understand even for speakers of Tahitian, another Polynesian language. The Ra'ivavae dialect is also unusual in that its rhotic consonant has evolved into a voiced velar stop consonant, similar to the hard "g" sound in English.

All dialects have the same five vowels {{IPA|/a, e, i, o, u/}}, with long variants similar to practically all Polynesian languages.

{{Reflist}}

{{Polynesian languages}}

{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages}}

{{Languages of French Polynesia}}

Category:Languages of French Polynesia

Category:Tahitic languages

Language

Category:Endangered Austronesian languages