Moriori language

{{Short description|Extinct Māori-related language of the Chatham Islands}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Moriori

| nativename = {{lang|rrm|Ta Rē Moriori}}

| states = New Zealand

| region = Polynesia

| extinct = 1898, with the death of Hirawanu Tapu

| ref =

| familycolor = Austronesian

| fam2 = Malayo-Polynesian

| fam3 = Oceanic

| fam4 = Polynesian

| fam5 = Eastern Polynesian

| fam6 = Tahitic

| fam7 = Māori

| script = Latin

| iso3 = rrm

| ietf = rrm

| glotto = mori1267

| glottorefname = Moriori

| revived = L2: {{Circa}} 50 (2014){{cite web | url=https://theconversation.com/waking-a-sleeping-language-our-plan-to-revive-the-speaking-of-ta-re-moriori-218023 | title=Waking a sleeping language – our plan to revive the speaking of ta rē Moriori | date=23 November 2023 }}

}}

Moriori, or {{lang|rrm|ta rē Moriori}}{{cite web |title=A mission to wake up the Moriori language |date=2023-11-16 |url=https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2023/11/16/waking-up-the-moriori-language.html |website=www.auckland.ac.nz |publisher=University of Auckland |access-date=30 December 2023}} ('the Moriori language'), is a Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori. It is spoken by the Moriori, the indigenous people of New Zealand's Chatham Islands ({{lang|rrm|Rēkohu}} in Moriori), an archipelago located east of the South Island. Moriori went extinct as a first language at the turn of the 20th century, but revitalisation attempts are ongoing.

Moriori is a Polynesian language that diverged from Māori dialects after centuries of isolation, while still remaining mutually intelligible. The language has a guttural diction and consistent suppression of terminal vowels, meaning that unlike in Māori words may end in consonants.{{cite journal |id={{Project MUSE|716986}} |last1=Richards |first1=Rhys |title=Comparisons of Moriori, Maori, and Easter Island Cognates |journal=Rapa Nui Journal |date=2018 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=38–40 |doi=10.1353/rnj.0.0001 }}

History

The Chatham Islands' first European contact was on 29 November 1791 with the visit of HMS Chatham, captained by William Broughton. The crew landed in Waitangi harbour and claimed the island for Britain.

The genocide of the Moriori people by mainland Māori iwi (tribes) Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama occurred during the autumn of 1835.{{Cite web |last=Mills |first=Keri |date=2018-08-03 |title=The Moriori myth and why it's still with us |url=https://thespinoff.co.nz/atea/03-08-2018/the-moriori-myth-and-why-its-still-with-us |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=The Spinoff}} Approximately 300 were killed, around one-sixth of the original population.{{Cite web |title=Moriori Claims Settlement Bill 238-1 (2020), Government Bill 8 Summary of historical account – New Zealand Legislation |url=https://legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2020/0238/18.0/LMS238062.html |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=legislation.govt.nz}} Of those who survived, some were kept as slaves, and some were subsequently eaten. The Moriori were not permitted to marry other Moriori or have children, which endangered their survival and their language. The impact on the Moriori population, culture, and language was so severe that by 1862, only 101 Moriori remained alive.{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Denise |last1=Davis |first2=Māui |last2=Solomon |title=Moriori: The impact of new arrivals |encyclopedia=Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |date=28 October 2008 |publisher=NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage |url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/MaoriNewZealanders/Moriori/4/en |access-date=7 February 2009}} By the 1870s few spoke the language.{{Cite book |last=King |first=Michael |title=Moriori: A People Rediscovered |publisher=Viking |location =Auckland |year=1989 |page=136}}

The three principal documents on which knowledge of the Moriori language is now based are a manuscript petition written in 1862 by a group of surviving Moriori elders to Governor George Grey; a vocabulary of Moriori words collected by Samuel Deighton, Resident Magistrate from 1873 to 1891, published in 1887; and a collection of Moriori texts made by Alexander Shand and published in 1911.{{cite book |first=Ross |last=Clark |chapter=Moriori: language death (New Zealand) |editor-first1=Stephen A. |editor-last1=Wurm |editor-first2=Peter |editor-last2=Mühlhäusler |editor-first3=Darrell T. |editor-last3=Tryon |title=Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas |volume=I |year=2011 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFW1BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173 |pages=173–175 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-081972-4 |quote=The death of the Moriori language was not documented in any detail...}}

The death of the Moriori language went unrecorded, but Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Baucke (1848–1931) was the last man who could speak it.{{cite book |first=Michael |last=King |title=Moriori: A People Rediscovered |year=2017 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W_acDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120 |page=120 |publisher=Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited |isbn=978-0-14-377128-9 |quote=Baucke was eventually the last man alive to know the Moriori language.}}

Samuel Deighton's vocabulary of Moriori words was republished as an appendix of Michael King's Moriori: A People Rediscovered (1989).

The language was reconstructed for Barry Barclay's 2000 film documentary The Feathers of Peace,{{cite web |title=The Feathers of Peace |url=https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/feathers-peace |website=New Zealand Film Commission |access-date=5 March 2021}} in a recreation of Moriori contact with Pākehā and Māori.

= Revival =

In 2001, as part of a cultural revival movement, Moriori people began attempts to revive the language and compiled a database of Moriori words.{{cite encyclopedia |url= http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/MaoriNewZealanders/Moriori/5/en |title=Moriori: The second dawn |access-date=7 February 2009 |first1=Denise |last1=Davis |first2=Māui |last2=Solomon |date=28 October 2008 |encyclopedia= Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand |publisher=NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage}} There is a POLLEX (Polynesian Lexicon Project Online) database of Moriori words as well.{{cite journal |last=Greenhill |first=SJ |author2=Clark, R |title=POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |date=2011 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=551–559 |doi=10.1353/ol.2011.0014 |doi-access=free |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002B-060E-D |hdl-access=free }} A language app is available for Android devices.{{cite press release |url=https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2103/S00027/ta-re-moriori-language-app-launched.htm |title=Ta Rē Moriori Language App Launched |date=1 March 2021 |author=Hokotehi Moriori Trust}}

The 2006 New Zealand census showed 945 people choosing to include "Moriori" amongst their tribal affiliations, compared to 35 people in the 1901 census.{{cite encyclopedia |url= http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/MaoriNewZealanders/Moriori/6/en |title=Moriori: Facts and figures |accessdate=7 February 2009 |first1=Denise |last1=Davis |first2=Māui |last2=Solomon |date=28 October 2008 |encyclopedia= Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand | publisher=NZ Ministry for Culture and Heritage}} In the 2013 New Zealand census the number of people who identified as having Moriori ancestry declined to 738, however members of the {{lang|rrm|imi}} (Moriori equivalent for {{lang|mi|iwi}}){{Cite journal |first1=Heather |last1=Devere |first2=Kelli |last2=Te Maihāroa |first3=Maui |last3=Solomon |first4=Maata |last4=Wharehoka |title=Friendship and decolonising cross-cultural peace research in Aotearoa New Zealand |journal=AMITY: The Journal of Friendship Studies |url=https://amityjournal.leeds.ac.uk/issues/volume-61-2020/friendship-and-decolonising-cross-cultural-peace-research-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/ |access-date=2022-05-14 |language=en-GB |year=2020 |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=53–87 |doi=10.5518/AMITY/31}} estimate the population to be as many as 3,500.{{Cite web |last1=Wall |first1=Tony |last2=McKeen |first2=Chris |title=Divided Tribe |url=https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2019/01/divided-tribe/ |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=interactives.stuff.co.nz |language=en}}

In 2021 an app called Ta Rē Moriori was launched to teach the Moriori language to as many new people as possible.

In 2023, there was a petition for the establishment of a Moriori Language Week.{{cite news |first=Kelvin |last=McDonald |title=Petition seeks support for official Moriori language week |url=https://www.teaonews.co.nz/2023/09/07/petition-seeks-support-for-official-moriori-language-week/ |publisher=Te Ao News |date=7 September 2023 |access-date=4 August 2024 }}{{cite news |title=Moriori call for official week to celebrate indigenous language |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/497479/moriori-call-for-official-week-to-celebrate-indigenous-language |publisher=RNZ |date=7 September 2023 |access-date=4 August 2024 }}

In 2024, author Kate Preece published a trilingual children's book: Ten Nosey Weka, featuring words in English, Māori and Moriori.{{cite news |title='Ten Nosey Weka', a book helping to revive ta rē Moriori |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018945428/ten-nosey-weka-a-book-helping-to-revive-ta-re-moriori |publisher=RNZ |date=4 July 2024 |access-date=4 August 2024 }}

Alphabet

Like Māori, written Moriori uses the Latin script, with macrons to denote lengthened vowels.

a - {{IPA|[a]}}
e - {{IPA|[ɛ]}}
i - {{IPA|[i]}}
o - {{IPA|[ɔ]}}
u - {{IPA|[u]}}
ā - {{IPA|[aː]}}
ē - {{IPA|[ɛː]}}
ī - {{IPA|[iː]}}
ō - {{IPA|[ɔː]}}
ū - {{IPA|[uː]}}
p - {{IPA|[p]}}
t - {{IPA|[t]}}
k - {{IPA|[k]}}
m - {{IPA|[m]}}
n - {{IPA|[n]}}
ng - {{IPA|[ŋ]}}
wh - {{IPA|[ɸ]}}
h - {{IPA|[h]}}
w - {{IPA|[w]}}
r - {{IPA|[r]}}
tch
ch
v
g

{{div col end}}Note: Shand includes a 'v' in the Moriori language,{{Cite book |last=Shand |first=Alexander |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/books/ALMA1911-9917503443502836-The-Moriori-people-of-the-Chatha |title=The Moriori People of the Chatham Islands: Their Traditions and History |publisher=Polynesian Society of New Zealand |year=1911 |isbn=978-0-908328-52-9 |series=Memoirs of the Polynesian Society |volume=2 |location=Wellington}} however, none of the Moriori words captured by Deighton and Baucke feature a 'v'.{{Cite journal |last=Deighton |first=Samuel |date=1889 |title=A Moriori Vocabulary |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/AJHR1889-I.2.2.5.6 |journal=Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1889 Session I |page=G–5}}{{Cite book |last1=Skinner |first1=H. D. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.31210012105134 |title=The Morioris |last2=Baucke |first2=W. |year=1928 |series=Memoirs of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum |volume=9, No. 5|hdl=2027/uc1.31210012105134 }}

Comparison with Māori

Words in Moriori often have different vowels from their Māori counterparts.

The preposition a in Moriori corresponds to e in Māori, the preposition {{lang|rrm|ka}} to {{lang|mi-NZ|ki}}, {{lang|rrm|eriki}} to {{lang|mi-NZ|ariki}} (lord, chief), {{lang|rrm|reimata}} to {{lang|mi-NZ|roimata}} (tear), {{lang|rrm|wihine}} to {{lang|mi-NZ|wahine}} (woman), and so forth.

Sometimes a vowel is dropped before a consonant such as {{lang|rrm|na}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|ena}}), {{lang|rrm|ha}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|aha}}) and after a consonant like {{lang|rrm|rangat}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|rangata}}), {{lang|rrm|nawen}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|nawene}}), {{lang|rrm|hok}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|hoki}}), {{lang|rrm|or}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|oro}}), and {{lang|rrm|mot}} ({{lang|mi-NZ|motu}}), thus leaving a closed syllable. In this regard, it is similar to the Southern dialects of Māori, in which apocope is occasionally found. A vowel is also sometimes dropped after a vowel in the case the preceding vowel is lengthened and sometimes before a vowel, where the remaining vowel is lengthened.{{Cite web |url=http://www.taiuru.maori.nz/wp-content/uploads/Dictionary-of-Moriori.pdf |title=Word list and analysis of te reo Moriori |last=Taiuru |first=Karaitiana |date=2016 |access-date=18 October 2018}}

The consonants {{IPA|[k]}}, {{IPA|[h]}}, and {{IPA|[t]}} can sometimes be aspirated and palatalised, such as {{lang|rrm|Motchuhar}} instead of {{lang|mi-NZ|Motuhara}}.

Moriori language

History

= Revival =

Alphabet

Comparison with Māori

References

Further reading