Tongan Language Course

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ego
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Tongan Language Course

Postby ego » 2004-12-09, 13:43

What about something more unusual even than tagalog, hausa or quichua? Tongan, (lea faka-Tonga), is one of the two official languages of the Kingdom of Tonga in western Polynesia. Here anyone interested in learning tongan can leave a message. If there is a sufficient interest we can start learning it, talking about it and exchanging ideas in general. I am not a native Tongan, I am just the only person in Unilang who can speak tongan at a satisfying level. I couldn't find any tongan speakers here so I decided to create some in order to have pals to chat with in this very interesting, smooth and melodic language. I'd be glad to share with you everything I know and thus improve my knowledge too. Any kind of help is welcomed.
Some things about Tonga and tongan:
Tonga is a group of about 170 islands in western Polynesia in the south Pacific, next to Fiji and Samoa. Archaelogists and linguistic research have shown that the first settlers came at around 1000 BC probably from New Guinea, Indonesia or Philipines. They formed many chiefdoms in the islands which have been united in 1845 into one Kingdom by the King Taufa'ahau Siaosi Tupou I. Tonga is the only country in the region which has never been a colony. Till nowadays they remain the last polynesian Kingdom, almost an absolute monarchy. There are about 110.000 Tongans living in Tonga and about 60.000 or more overseas.
The tongan language, (a language of the austronesian group), is one of the oldest polynesian languages and the most conservative of all (the populations that settled the rest of Polynesia have begun their journey from Tonga and Samoa). It maintains more phonemes than any other and also it uses the consonants more. It is very close to the languages of Niue and Uvea (Wallis isl.), and similar to samoan, tuvaluan, tahitian, maori and hawaiian, although not mutually intelligible. It is today the mother language of about 120.000 people.
With the assistance of some books, tapes, magazines and two dictionnaries I will try to do my best for you. I have also been in contact with some Tongan friends asking for their help.
Anyone interested please leave a message. The beginning of the courses is not arranged yet (of course).
'Ofa atu
Last edited by ego on 2005-01-21, 21:56, edited 2 times in total.

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Postby E}{pugnator » 2004-12-09, 15:41

Count me in! I'm definitively interested in any polinesian language! How can I learn the basics?
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Postby Ariki » 2004-12-09, 19:21

Do they mark their long vowels with a macron? If so, how can we get those macrons to appear (I use macrons, and my vowels end up looking like boxes, even though they turn up on other sites I visit and leave messages on).

If you'd like, get in contact with me and we can plan together a course to teach simultaneously (in different threads of course) Tongan, Māori and Rapa Nui.

kia pai tōu rā

(may your day be well).
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

He ingoa ōpaki a Riki; he ingoa ōkawa a Ariki.

Riki is an informal name; Ariki is a formal name.

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Postby Car » 2004-12-09, 20:16

riki wrote:Do they mark their long vowels with a macron? If so, how can we get those macrons to appear (I use macrons, and my vowels end up looking like boxes, even though they turn up on other sites I visit and leave messages on).

kia pai tōu rā


I can see your macrons just fine, can you see them in the quote? Looks like you're missing a font.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Postby E}{pugnator » 2004-12-09, 20:26

The problem with macrons not displaying is just a bug in Internet Explorer browser (what else? :evil: ). The macrons and some IPA symbols don't display even when you have the Arial Unicode MS font. It works when you copy and paste the same text with the macrons somewhere else and also when the text is quoted.

I suggest to always type the polynesian text as quoted.
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Postby projetdefleur » 2004-12-09, 20:35

I would certainly be up for a Tongan discussion group. It would be an interesting language to learn
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Postby Ariki » 2004-12-09, 21:25

which font car??
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

He ingoa ōpaki a Riki; he ingoa ōkawa a Ariki.

Riki is an informal name; Ariki is a formal name.

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Postby ego » 2004-12-09, 23:14

Yes, tongan uses macron. I can guess all polynesian languages do, as well as the glottal stop and the stress. They appear normally to my screen but I can not write them here, so I will have to write all texts on Microsoft Word and then attach them here but it's not a big problem. I don't know much about these things anyway. What about simultaneous teaching, let this be a choice of everyone here, if he/she wishes to learn one or more polynesian languages at the same time. Teaching two languages under the same topic will cause confusion I think. But we can create a polynesian languages discussion group where we will be able to talk about polynesian and relative languages. Any other ideas and comments are welcomed. Anyone interested in learning tongan, keep on leaving messages please, the “lēsoni ‘uluaki” (lesson one) is under construction! :D

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Postby Raza » 2004-12-10, 1:21

Count me in also. :)

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Postby Ariki » 2004-12-10, 1:24

Āe, I was thinking along the same lines, have three open (Māori, Rapa Nui and Tongan). Next year is shaping up to be the year of Polynesian languages at unilang if we get more people learning and teaching Polynesian languages.
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

He ingoa ōpaki a Riki; he ingoa ōkawa a Ariki.

Riki is an informal name; Ariki is a formal name.

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Postby Strigo » 2004-12-10, 3:31

I'll be taking a look 8)
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Postby Car » 2004-12-10, 10:58

E}{pugnator wrote:The problem with macrons not displaying is just a bug in Internet Explorer browser (what else? :evil: ).


I use the IE, too, but can see them...

riki, I can't recommend one, but Yamada is usually a good source for fonts.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Postby Kubi » 2004-12-10, 14:01

Car wrote:
E}{pugnator wrote:The problem with macrons not displaying is just a bug in Internet Explorer browser (what else? :evil: ).


I use the IE, too, but can see them...

Hmm..I don't, and I do have the Arial Unicode font which has all the macron letters in it. As Expug says, I only see them correctly in quotes. Strange effect...
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Postby bluechiron » 2004-12-11, 3:35

I'm interested in a Tongan course! I'll probably try to work on all the Polynesian courses as we go...when's the first lesson coming? :)
Shukta shimi yuyankapak, kanpa ñawikunata wichkana ushankakunarakmi kanpa shungutawan uyankirakpish.
To know another language, first your eyes will have to be open, and you will have to listen with your heart.

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Postby projetdefleur » 2004-12-11, 3:56

bluechiron1 wrote:I'm interested in a Tongan course! I'll probably try to work on all the Polynesian courses as we go...when's the first lesson coming? :)
I believe they start in January, but I could be wrong :roll:
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Postby ego » 2004-12-11, 13:47

Well I am still giving some time for other interested friends to join. I will talk with riki so that we begin together, and I guess this will happen on january, since riki said it's better for him and also it corresponds to the polynesian tradition. Ask him to explain :wink: Since we have seen that many people are interested in learning all the three polynesian languages, we will try our lessons to have a correlation in order to help you. Also we think of creating a new topic where comparisons and general rules will be given and any relating discussions will take place

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Postby Ariki » 2004-12-12, 11:09

If you change your board style to sub-red, the macrons will appear :D

Click here

http://forum.unilang.org/phpBB2/profile ... ditprofile

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Postby Kubi » 2004-12-13, 8:23

riki wrote:If you change your board style to sub-red, the macrons will appear :D

Click here

http://forum.unilang.org/phpBB2/profile ... ditprofile

Thanks for that hint, it works :D
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Postby ego » 2005-01-08, 14:11

Hi all, long time :P

Finally I will post the first lesson on january 22th and I will be posting one lesson every saturday. I will try to post the lessons in dark blue letters (if I find out how this happens :? ) so you can distinguish them easily.

'Ofa atu
Last edited by ego on 2005-01-11, 9:16, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby Anchjo » 2005-01-08, 19:41

polyglossos wrote:Hi all, long time :P
I will try to post the lessons in blue letters (if I find out how this happens


Just write

Code: Select all

[color=blue]Text goes here[/color]

and you'll get text like this.

I think I'm not going to learn Tongan but I'd like to know what it is like :)
Please help me to improve my language skills and PM me if you encounter any spelling mistakes in my posts. Thank you!


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