Moriori language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Moriori is a Malayo-Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori. It is the native language of the Moriori, the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands.
The invasion from Taranaki had a heavy impact on Moriori culture and language, with few speaking the language by the 1870s.[1] However, Samuel Deighton, Resident Magistrate on the Chathams from 1873 to 1891, compiled a short vocabulary of Moriori words, with their equivalents in Māori and English. The vocabulary is published as an appendix of King's "Moriori; A People Rediscovered".
The language was reconstructed for parts of the 2000 film "Feathers of Peace", which recreated in documentary style the history of contact between the Moriori people and Pākehā and Māori.
Moriori is generally considered an extinct language, however some people claim that it is still spoken by a handful of individuals on the Chatham Islands.[citation needed]
The Moriori name for the Chathams is "Rekohu".
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Galbraith, Sarah: A Grammar of the Moriori language.
- Clark, R. 1994. Moriori and Maori: The Linguistic Evidence. In Sutton, D. (ed) The origins of the First New Zealanders. Auckland: Auckland University Press. pp.123-135.
