Name the language

Today’s mystery language is a Polynesian one. Can you work out which language it is?

Comments (4)

ARApril 22nd, 2007 at 7:59 pm

is it Maori? perhaps Tahitian or Marquesan. probably not Hawaiian.

KApril 23rd, 2007 at 12:36 am

Tokelauan or Tuvaluan?

MikeApril 23rd, 2007 at 1:06 am

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.

SimonApril 23rd, 2007 at 5:03 pm

The answer is Samoan.