Today’s mystery language is a Polynesian one. Can you work out which language it is?
4 thoughts on “Name the language”
is it Maori? perhaps Tahitian or Marquesan. probably not Hawaiian.
Tokelauan or Tuvaluan?
Phones to note there which make a difference are /s,f,l/. Since Polynesian languages were very systematic in their phonological evolution, those three phonemes don’t exist in every language.
Hawaiian’s out because you can hear /t/. Tahitian has /r/ in place of /l/.
I guess Tongan, Samoan or Tuvaluan. Of course it could be any number of others as well, based solely on that extremely brief phonological analysis, but given that those are national languages, I put them forward.
is it Maori? perhaps Tahitian or Marquesan. probably not Hawaiian.
Tokelauan or Tuvaluan?
Phones to note there which make a difference are /s,f,l/. Since Polynesian languages were very systematic in their phonological evolution, those three phonemes don’t exist in every language.
Hawaiian’s out because you can hear /t/. Tahitian has /r/ in place of /l/.
I guess Tongan, Samoan or Tuvaluan. Of course it could be any number of others as well, based solely on that extremely brief phonological analysis, but given that those are national languages, I put them forward.
The answer is Samoan.