Rakahanga-Manihiki is a

Cook Islands Maori Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

dialectal variant belonging to the

Polynesian language The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austro ...

family, spoken by about 2500 people on

Rakahanga Rakahanga is part of the Cook Islands, situated in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. The unspoilt atoll is from the Cook Islands' capital, Rarotonga, and lies south of the equator. Its nearest neighbour is Manihiki which is just away. Raka ...

and Manihiki Islands (part of the

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

) and another 2500 in other countries, mostly

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. Wurm and Hattori consider Rakahanga-Manihiki as a distinct language with "''limited intelligibility with Rarotongan''" (i.e. the Cook Islands Maori dialectal variant of

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 13,007 of a total population of 17,434. The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings a ...

). According to the New Zealand Maori anthropologist

Te Rangi Hīroa Sir Peter Henry Buck (ca. October 1877 – 1 December 1951), also known as Te Rangi Hīroa or Te Rangihīroa, was a New Zealand doctor, military leader, health administrator, politician, anthropologist and museum director. He was a prominen ...

who spent a few days on Rakahanga in the years 1920, "''the language is a pleasing dialect and has closer affinities with ew ZealandMaori than with the dialects of Tongareva, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands''""''Ethnology of Manihiki and Rakahanga''", Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1932. This book was the source of Wurm and Hattori Atlas

History

and Manihiki are two different islands but the culture is one. They are two islands 25 miles apart from each other and is located in the South Pacific. The island of Rakahanga was discovered in the year 1521 by

Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the Eas ...

, a Portuguese voyager sailing under Spain under the command of Pedro Fernandes. The two islands were divided into different groups, which were ruled by other rulers. The people of Manihiki and Rakahanga were led by one ruler, a chief, in which he was separated from his community giving up his ritual and economic powers. The people of the two islands organized into “moieties” (one senior and one junior), which both were divided to create four sub-moieties. Twenty-five households were established. The Polynesians not only lived on the islands but also Rarotonga. They migrated to other places like New Zealand and Australia leaving 400 people on the Rakahanga and Manihiki islands. When migrating, they would travel by ship or boat to other islands finding a place to settle. The population moved from one island to another due depleted coconut and paraka supplies. The people would use the Magellan clouds, also known as Na Mahu as guides to get between the two islands. They dedicate themselves to their religious beliefs but also carry on their traditions with culture and language. The Cook Islands have an industry called the Black pearl and is centered around the Manihiki island where it boots the nations rating in black pearls. As of 1998, the population in Rakahanga was 276 and the population in Manihiki was 505. As years went by, technology advanced to another level in which high frequency radios have been invented and used for inter-island communication between the island of Rakahanga for medical and educational purposes. Telecom Cook Islands holds the rights of the medical and educational frequencies linked to the Cook Islands for outer-island communication. Telecom Cook Islands is the sole provider of telephone services in the Cook Islands. The 13 inhabited islands except Rakahanga have a satellite earth station, which enables communication on the island by telephone, email, and Internet. Rakahanga consumes telephone and facsimile services that can be possible by the High Frequency radio link.

The language

The Manihiki-Rakahanga dialect is much closer to Maori than the dialects of Tahiti, Tongareva, and the Cook Islands. "Cook Islands Māori is an indigenous language with several dialects including

Penrhyn Penryn is a Cornish word meaning 'headland' that may refer to: *Penryn, Cornwall, United Kingdom, a town of about 7,000 on the Penryn River **Penryn railway station, a station on the Maritime Line between Truro and Falmouth Docks, and serves the t ...

, Rakahanga-Manihiki,

Atiu Atiu, also known as Enuamanu (meaning ''land of the birds''), is an island of the Cook Islands archipelago, lying in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. Part of the Nga-pu-Toru, it is northeast of Rarotonga. The island's population has dropped b ...

Mitiaro Mitiaro, the fourth island in the Cook Islands group, is of volcanic origin. Standing in water deep it is across at its widest point. Geography Mitiaro, also known as Nukuroa, is part of the Nga-Pu-Toru island group formerly, a volcano that bec ...

Mauke Mauke (Ma'uke also Akatokamanava) is an island of the Cook Islands archipelago, lying in the central-southern Pacific Ocean. Part of the Nga-pu-Toru, it is northeast of Rarotonga. Geography Mauke is a raised coral atoll, with a central volcani ...

Aitutaki Aitutaki, also traditionally known as Araura and Utataki, is the second most-populated island in the Cook Islands, after Rarotonga. It is an "almost atoll", with fifteen islets in a lagoon adjacent to the main island. Total land area is , and the ...

, and Mangaian". The alphabet adopted for Rarotonga was introduced by native pastors, who were educated by the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

. When using H instead of S and WH instead of H. In Tahitian, in retaining K and NG and using WH and a more sounded H. It is shared by the Maori dialect. The consonants that are not presented are H and WH, and the v should be W. The H and Wh sounds have no letters to represent them. An official interpreter to the Cook Islands Administration, Stephen Savage holds that the w should have been embraced for the Rarotongan dialect instead of v. With teaching the alphabetical sounds, the tendency is for the children to adopt and study the v sounds. The Europeans have omitted the obvious H sound in Rakahanga by writing in print “Rakaanga.” The people of the Manihiki Island pronounce their island “Manihiki” but write it because the people are taught when learning the alphabet to not include the H. The word was influenced by Tahiti, where the sound exists as an F and is pronounced as “”. It became evident that the sound was not the Tahitian F but was influenced with the Maori WH sound. The H and Wh have been used in words in which they are sounded. The word variously written as “Iku,” “Hiku,” and “Huku”. Huku who is a human discoverer sailed from Rarotonga on a fishing expedition. Huku is to be believed by the people of the Rakahanga and Manihiki islands which Huku is stated to have sailed from Rarotonga on a fishing expedition.

Language family

This is a list of languages families related to Rakahanga-Manihiki. * Austronesian * Malayo-Polynesian * Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian * Eastern Malayo-Polynesian * Oceanic * Central-Eastern Oceanic * Remote Oceanic * Central Pacific * East Fijian-Polynesian * Polynesian * Nuclear * East * Central * Tahitic

Dialects

This language below is a dialect similar to the Rakahanga-Manihiki language * Rarotongan

Phonology

Manihiki has a rather standard Cook Islands Māori inventory, but is notable for not having any sibilant fricatives.

Consonants

This is similar to Tongareva's phonology, but Manihiki has a glottal stop � and the fricative Tongareva on the other hand has while Manihiki lacks it, making it very uncommon among world languages.

Vowels

This vowel system is also typical of many Polynesian languages. Long vowels are romanized with a macron.

Alphabet

A, E, F, H, I, K, M, N, Ng, O, P, R, T, U, V Vowels a, e, i, o, and u. Consonants k, m, n, ng, p, r, t, and v.

References

Indicative bibliography

* * ''E au tuatua ta'ito no Manihiki'', Kauraka Kauraka, IPS, USP, Suva. 1987. * *

External links

''Te Reo Maori Act (2003)''

{{Austronesian languages Languages of the Cook Islands Languages of New Zealand Tahitic languages Manihiki Rakahanga Polynesian languages