Rapa Nui language

From Open Encyclopedia

{{language |name=Rapa Nui |states=Chile |region=Easter Island |speakers=4,650 (ethnic Rapa Nui, 2002) |familycolor=Austronesian |fam2=Malayo-Polynesian |fam3=Central Eastern |fam4=Eastern |fam5=Oceanic |fam6=Central-Eastern |fam7=Remote Oceanic |fam8=Central Pacific |fam9=East |fam10=Polynesian |fam11=Nuclear Polynesian |fam12=Eastern Polynesian |iso2=rap|iso3=rap}}

The Rapa Nui language (also Rapanui) is the Eastern Polynesian language of Easter Island, forming its own subgroup of that classification. Within this group, it shares the most in common with Marquesan morphologically, although its phonology is much closer to that of New Zealand Maori. It is spoken by the Rapa Nui, the inhabitants of Easter Island.

Rapa Nui has the distinction of being the only language in Oceania to have been committed to writing prior to the arrival of Christian missionaries in the 17th century, albeit some (including Jared Diamond) believe the idea of writing to have spread there earlier through European contact. The unique (to date undeciphered) pictographic script is called Rongorongo (Rongo-rongo).

Together with Marquesic, Rapan and Tahitic, Rapa Nui comprises the whole of the "eastern" Polynesian languages. A Tahitian man brought by Captain James Cook was said to be able to communicate with the locals.

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