Rapa Nui language
| Rapa Nui | |
|---|---|
| Vananga rapa nui | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i] |
| Native to | Chile |
| Region | Easter Island |
| Ethnicity | Rapa Nui people |
|
Native speakers
|
2,700 (2007) |
| Latin script, possibly formerly rongorongo | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | rapa1244 |
Rapa Nui or Rapanui (English /ræpəˈnuːi/;locally: [ˈɾapa ˈnu.i]) also known as Pascuan /ˈpæskjuːən/, or Pascuense, is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken on the island of Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island.
The island is home to a population of just under 4,000 and is a special territory of Chile. According to census data, there are about 3,700 people on the island and on the Chilean mainland who identify as ethnically Rapa Nui. Census data do not exist on the primary known and spoken languages among these people and there are recent claims that the number of fluent speakers is as low as 800. Rapa Nui is a minority language and many of its adult speakers also speak Spanish; most Rapa Nui children now grow up speaking Spanish and those who do learn Rapa Nui begin learning it later in life.
Rapa Nui has ten consonants and five vowels.
All vowels can be either long or short and are always long when they are stressed in the final position of a word. Most vowel sequences are present, with the exception of *uo. Repetition sequences do not occur except in eee ('yes').
Written Rapa Nui uses the Latin script. The Latin alphabet for Rapa Nui consists of 20 letters:
A, Ā, E, Ē, H, I, Ī, K, M, N, O, Ō, P, R, T, U, Ū, V, ʻ G/NG
The nasal velar consonant /ŋ/ is generally written with the Latin letter ⟨g⟩, but occasionally as ⟨ng⟩. The glottal plosive /ʔ/ is typically written with an ʻ, or frequently with an apostrophe. A special letter, ⟨ġ⟩, is sometimes used to distinguish the Spanish /ɡ/, occurring in introduced terms, from the Rapa Nui /ŋ/.
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Wikipedia