Tongan language

Tongan is a special language spoken by people in the beautiful island nation of Tonga. It is part of a big family of languages called Austronesian, specifically the Polynesian branch. Many island languages across the ocean belong to this group. About 187,000 people speak Tongan, and it is important to their culture and daily life.

Tongan is different from many other languages because it uses the order verb–subject–object. This means the action comes first in a sentence. Most people who speak Tongan also write it down using the Latin alphabet, just like English.

Tongan is not the same as other languages that might sound similar, such as the [Tonga language](/wiki/Tonga_language_(disambiguation) or the Dungan language. Each of these languages has its own unique history and way of speaking, but Tongan is special to the people of Tonga.

Related languages

Tongan is one of the languages in the Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, like Hawaiian, Cook islander, Māori, and Tahitian. Together with Niuean, and possibly Niuafo’ouan, it forms the Tongic subgroup of Polynesian.

Tongan is special because it has a unique accent system. Like other Polynesian languages, Tongan changed from the ancient sounds of proto-Polynesian. It kept the original sound *h, mixing it with another sound *s, and kept a sound that most other Polynesian languages lost.

Tongan also influenced the Wallisian language after Tongans settled on the island of ʻUvea in the 1400s and 1500s.

Writing

People first tried to write the Tongan language in 1616. They were from the Dutch East India Company. They used Dutch spelling for some Tongan words.

Later, in 1643, another Dutch explorer tried to talk with Tongans using these written words. But it was hard because the words were not always right.

Today, Tongan is written with letters from the Latin script. Older ways of writing Tongan changed the order of the letters. Now, we use the common order of letters that many other languages use.

There are special notes to help read Tongan correctly. Some letters sound different than expected. There are also rules for ordering words in dictionaries. For example, the letter ng comes after n, and long vowels come after short ones.

Phonology

Consonants

The letter l can sometimes sound a bit different.

Vowels

Syllabification

• Each word part has one vowel sound.
• Long vowels are shown with a line above them, but they can sometimes be split into two shorter vowels.
• Each word part can have only one consonant sound at most.
• Consonant combinations are not allowed. The ng sound counts as one sound and cannot be split. For example, the word fakatonga is split as fa-ka-to-nga.
• Every word part ends with a vowel. All vowels are said, but a final i sound is often not fully spoken.
• Stress usually falls on the second-to-last part of a word with two or more parts. For example, móhe means "sleep" and mohénga means "bed". Stress is usually not written unless needed for clarity.

Grammar

Tongan has its own special ways of speaking compared to English.

Articles

English uses only two articles: "a" and "the." Tongan has three articles, making it more detailed. For example:

• ha means "a" or "any," like when you’re talking about any house: ko ha fale ("a house").
• (h)e can mean "a" for a specific house you have in mind: ko e fale ("a (particular) house").
• (h)e with extra emphasis can mean "the," talking about a specific house everyone knows: ko e falé ("the house").

Registers

Tongan has different ways to speak depending on who you’re talking to:

• Ordinary words are used with friends and family.
• Honorific words are used when speaking to chiefs or bosses.
• Regal words are used only for the king or God.

For example, "Come and eat!" can be said in three ways:

• Ordinary: haʻu ʻo kai (used with friends).
• Honorific: meʻa mai pea ʻilo (used with chiefs).
• Regal: hāʻele mai pea taumafa (used with the king).

Pronouns

Tongan pronouns change based on number (singular, dual, plural) and person (I, you, we, they). They also change depending on whether the thing owned is a part of the owner (like a body part) or something separate (like a tool).

Numerals

Tongan numbers can be said in two ways: normally or like a telephone number, saying each digit separately. There are also special counting words for things like fish or coconuts.

Literature

Tongan has a rich tradition of spoken stories and is mostly spoken, not written.

One of the first books about Tongan was written by William Mariner and published in 1817 by John Martin. The way words are written has changed since then.

The Bible and the Book of Mormon have been translated into Tongan, and a few other books exist in the language.

There are several magazines in Tongan that come out weekly or monthly, but no daily newspapers. Some of the weekly papers include Ko e Kalonikali ʻo Tonga, Ko e Keleʻa, Taimi ʻo Tonga, Talaki, Ko e Tauʻatāina, and Tonga Maʻa Tonga. Monthly papers include Taumuʻa lelei from the Catholic Church, Tohi fanongonongo from the Free Wesleyan, Liahona from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and ʻOfa ki Tonga from Tokaikolo.

Calendar

The Tongan calendar used the moon's phases and had 13 months. It helped people know when to plant and grow yams, which were very important food for Tongans.

Sample text

Here is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights written in Tongan and English:

In Tongan:

Ko e kotoa ‘o ha’a tangata ‘oku fanau’i mai ‘oku tau’ataina pea tatau ‘i he ngeia mo e ngaahi totonu. Na’e fakanaunau’i kinautolu ‘aki ‘a e ‘atamai mo e konisenisi pea ‘oku totonu ke nau feohi ‘i he laumalie ‘o e nofo fakatautehina.

In English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.