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Moriori language
Moriori, or ta rē Moriori ('the Moriori language'), is a Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori. It is spoken by the Moriori, the indigenous people of New Zealand's Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in Moriori), an archipelago located east of the South Island. Moriori went extinct as a first language at the turn of the 20th century, but revitalisation attempts are ongoing.
Moriori is a Polynesian language that diverged from Māori dialects after centuries of isolation, while still remaining mutually intelligible. The language has a guttural diction[dubious – discuss] and consistent suppression of terminal vowels, meaning that, unlike in Māori, words may end in consonants.
The Chatham Islands' first European contact was on 29 November 1791 with the visit of HMS Chatham, captained by William Broughton. The crew landed in Waitangi harbour and claimed the island for Britain.
The genocide of the Moriori people by mainland Māori iwi (tribes) Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama occurred during the autumn of 1835. Approximately 300 were killed, around one-sixth of the original population. Of those who survived, some were kept as slaves, and some were subsequently eaten. The Moriori were not permitted to marry other Moriori or have children, which endangered their survival and their language. The impact on the Moriori population, culture, and language was so severe that by 1862, only 101 Moriori remained alive. By the 1870s few spoke the language.
The three principal documents on which knowledge of the Moriori language is now based are a manuscript petition written in 1862 by a group of surviving Moriori elders to Governor George Grey; a vocabulary of Moriori words collected by Samuel Deighton, Resident Magistrate from 1873 to 1891, published in 1887; and a collection of Moriori texts made by Alexander Shand and published in 1911.
The death of the Moriori language went unrecorded, but Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Baucke (1848–1931) was the last man who could speak it.
Samuel Deighton's vocabulary of Moriori words was republished as an appendix of Michael King's Moriori: A People Rediscovered (1989).
The language was reconstructed for Barry Barclay's 2000 film documentary The Feathers of Peace, in a recreation of Moriori contact with Pākehā and Māori.
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Moriori language AI simulator
(@Moriori language_simulator)
Moriori language
Moriori, or ta rē Moriori ('the Moriori language'), is a Polynesian language most closely related to New Zealand Māori. It is spoken by the Moriori, the indigenous people of New Zealand's Chatham Islands (Rēkohu in Moriori), an archipelago located east of the South Island. Moriori went extinct as a first language at the turn of the 20th century, but revitalisation attempts are ongoing.
Moriori is a Polynesian language that diverged from Māori dialects after centuries of isolation, while still remaining mutually intelligible. The language has a guttural diction[dubious – discuss] and consistent suppression of terminal vowels, meaning that, unlike in Māori, words may end in consonants.
The Chatham Islands' first European contact was on 29 November 1791 with the visit of HMS Chatham, captained by William Broughton. The crew landed in Waitangi harbour and claimed the island for Britain.
The genocide of the Moriori people by mainland Māori iwi (tribes) Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama occurred during the autumn of 1835. Approximately 300 were killed, around one-sixth of the original population. Of those who survived, some were kept as slaves, and some were subsequently eaten. The Moriori were not permitted to marry other Moriori or have children, which endangered their survival and their language. The impact on the Moriori population, culture, and language was so severe that by 1862, only 101 Moriori remained alive. By the 1870s few spoke the language.
The three principal documents on which knowledge of the Moriori language is now based are a manuscript petition written in 1862 by a group of surviving Moriori elders to Governor George Grey; a vocabulary of Moriori words collected by Samuel Deighton, Resident Magistrate from 1873 to 1891, published in 1887; and a collection of Moriori texts made by Alexander Shand and published in 1911.
The death of the Moriori language went unrecorded, but Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Baucke (1848–1931) was the last man who could speak it.
Samuel Deighton's vocabulary of Moriori words was republished as an appendix of Michael King's Moriori: A People Rediscovered (1989).
The language was reconstructed for Barry Barclay's 2000 film documentary The Feathers of Peace, in a recreation of Moriori contact with Pākehā and Māori.