The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in the region known as Polynesia. They are classified as part of the Austronesian family, belonging to the Oceanic branch of that family. They fall into two branches: Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. There is an estimation of almost 5 million Polynesians in the world.
There are approximately forty Polynesian languages. The most prominent of these are Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Māori, Fijian and Hawaiian. Because the Polynesian islands were settled relatively recently and because internal linguistic diversification only began around 2,000 years ago, their languages retain strong commonalities. There are two broad subgroups: Tongan and Niuean constitute the Tongic division and all others are considered part of the Nuclear Polynesian division.
Components
The traditional classification (diagram at right) divides Polynesian into two groups, Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian, and Nuclear Polynesian again into two, with Samoic-Outlier and Eastern Polynesian. However, while the Eastern Polynesian languages form a valid group, Samoic Outlier—consisting of the Samoic, Ellicean, and Futunic languages—is not justified by shared innovations in the languages. Classifying the languages according to sporadic sound changes in the various languages, Marck (2000) broke up the Futunic group, and placed those languages outside the Samoic and Eastern Polynesian languages. A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database also supported Eastern Polynesian but not the other groups, including Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian. Considering only groupings supported to 90% probability, the languages are:
- Tongan-Samoan
- Tongan
- Samoan
- Anuta
- Rennell-Bellona
- Niuean
- Fakauvea, Wallisian, or East Uvean (Wallis Island, Wallis and Futuna)
- Fakafutuna or (East) Futunan (Futuna Island, Wallis and Futuna)
- Niuean
- Ellicean-Eastern
Futunic (5 languages, weakly supported)
- Emaic
- Fagauvea (Faga-Ouvéa) or West Uvean (Ouvéa, New Caledonia)
- Emae
- Ifira-Mele
- Pileni (and Taumako; on the Reef Islands in the Solomons)
- Futuna-Aniwan or West Futunan (Futuna Island, Vanuatu)
Not included in the database were Niuafoʻouan and Pukapuka, both of uncertain classification.
