There are 2 current versions on the Rapa Language currently being spoken; Old Rapa and Reo Rapa. Old Rapa is not a language commonly spoken and has been replaced Reo Rapa. The Reo Rapa language is a mix of the more commonly spoken Tahitian language and Old Rapa.[1] Rapa in general is a critically endangered language with around 300 speakers of Reo Rapa and only 15% of those speakers are able to speak Old Rapa.[2]

As Reo Rapa is a combination of the Tahitian Language and Old Rapa, Reo Rapa contains content words from both Tahitian and Old Rapa. With Tahitian being the more dominant language of the 2 that make up Reo Rapa, it makes sense that majority of common Reo Rapa words come from Tahitian, while words for traditional activities and practices originate from Old Rapa words. Unlike the more Tahitian dominant content words, grammar words are more evenly derived from both languages.

come/go haere naku haere 61%
eat ’amu kai kai 70%*
parent metua karakua metua 70%
brother tu’āne tungāne tu’āne 86%
sister tuahine tua’ine tuahine 86%
grandparent rū’au ’ina’ina ’ina’ina 72%
sky ra’i rangi ra’i 72%*
day mahana ao mahana 75%*
sun pake pake 81%
moon, month ’āva’e kāvake ’āva’e 100%
fresh water vai kōta’e kōta’e 100%
river ’ānāvai mangavai mangavai 98%
sea water miti kara miti 100%
taro taro mīkaka mīkaka 100%
good/well maita’i maitaki maitaki 100%
one hō’ē ta’i hō’ē 70%
two piti rua piti 70%*
three toru toru toru14 100%
four maha ā maha 78%
five pae rima pae 95%*
six ono ono ono 100%
seven hitu ’itu hitu 52%*
eight va’u varu va’u 98%
nine iva iva iva 100%
ten ’ahuru rongouru ’ahuru 89%
calm sea mania karamate mania 89%
tear (n) roimata karavai karavai 92%
name i’oa eingoa eingoa 100%
hundred hānere rau hānere 95%
thousand tauatini mano tauatini 95%
mountain mou’a mounga mou’a 81%
hill ’āivi taratika taratika 83%
talk paraparau ’akaero paraparau 72%

While Reo Rapa is a mix of Tahitian and Old Rapa, speakers can generally tell if the words they are speaking is sourced from Tahitian or Old Rapa due to phonemes absent in one language and present in the other. For instance, velar nasal sounds such as /ng/ and velar stop sounds like /k/ are not present in Tahitian but are in Old Rapa.

history

The language we know as Reo Rapa was not created by the combination of 2 languages but through the introduction of Tahitian to the Rapa monolingual community. Reo Rapa is not a completely different language from Old Rapa or Tahitian but more of a Creole type of language. Old Rapa words are still used for the grammar and structure of the sentence of phrase but most common context words were replaced be Tahitian.

grammar

Old Rapa grammar words:

(1S) - Singular (I)

(2S) - You

  • Perfective TAM (Tense - Aspect - Mood) /ka/
    • ka rahi17 para te taofe
      • ka (Perfective Aspect) + rahi17 (Much) + para (Ripe) + te (Article) + taofe (coffee)
        • 'Some coffee was really ripe.'
  • Definite word /tō/
    • e hina’aro na vau tō mei’a ra
      • e (Imperfective Aspect) + hina’aro (like) + na (Deictic) + vau (1S) + (Definitive) + mei’a (Banana) + ra (Deictic)
        • 'I would like those you bananas (you mentioned).'
  • Question words
    • /a'a/ (What)
    • /'ea/ (Where)
    • /a'ea/ (When)
    • /nā ’ea/ (How)
    • /'ia/ (How many)
      • ex. e a’a tō-koe huru
        • e (Imperfective Aspect) + a’a (What) + tō-koe (Article)(Possessive marker [o])-(2S) + huru (state)
          • 'How are you' (literal translation - 'What is your state?')
  • Past negative /ki’ere/
    • ki’ere vau i haere i te fare
      • ki’ere (Negative) + vau (1S) + i (Prefective Aspect)) + haere (Go) + i (Prepositional) + te (Article) + fare (House)
        • 'I did not go to a house'
  • Non-past negative (Regular negative) /kāre/
    • kāre -koe puta
      • kāre (Negative) + -koe (Article)(Possive marker [a])-(2S) + puta (book)
        • 'You don't have your book.' (Literal translation - 'your book doesn't exist')
  • Adverbial /ake/
    • me rahi ake teie eika i
      • me (Thing) + rahi (Big) + ake (Complement word, Adverbial) + teie (Demonstrative) + eika (Fish) + i (Prepositional)
        • 'This fish is bigger than my fish the other day'
  1. ^ Walworth, Mary (2017). Reo Rapa: A Polynesian Contact Language — Journal of Language Contact. Brill. pp. 1, 2.
  2. ^ Walworth, Mary (2014). "Rapa". Endangered Languages. Retrieved February 2, 2017.