Rotuman

Rotuman, also referred to as Rotunan, Rutuman or Fäeag Rotuạm (citation form: Faega Rotuma), is an Austronesian language spoken by the indigenous people of the South Pacific island group of Rotuma, an island with a Polynesian-influenced culture that was incorporated as a dependency into the Colony of Fiji in 1881. Our Rotuman Language is unique because after the Samoans and Tongans invaded Rotuma that was first inhabited by Tahitians. They created our current language by inputting their various words in order to understand each other. Plus a good example is the Afrikaans language which is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their slaves. The Rotuman language has sparked much interest with linguists because the language uses metathesis to invert the ultimate vowel in a word with the immediately preceding consonant, resulting in a vowel system characterized by umlaut, vowel shortening or extending and diphthongization. Unlike its Pacific neighbors, Rotuman is typically considered an AVO (agent–verb–object) language. Rotuman has no phonemic vowel length and is underlyingly a language of open syllables. Thus, only consonant + vowel syllables exist in the underlying syllable structure, although phonological processes provide for more variation. A minimal word constraint that disallows words of less than two moras also alters this underlying representation. Except for words from non-lexical categories, a word like /ka/ ('tomorrow') is realized as [kaa]. That constraint applies before word compounding (including reduplication as well): /fu/ ('coral reef') + /liʔu/ ('deep sea') → [fuuˈliʔu] ('deep sea pool'). Vowels are also lengthened when both final and stressed. Non-high vowels are raised when they are followed by a syllable with a high vowel. /ɛ/ → [e] /a/ → [ɔ] /ɔ/ → [o] Generally speaking, when /a/ is followed by /ɛ/ within a metrical foot, it is fronted to [æ].