The Penrhyn language is a
Cook Islands Maori dialectal variant belonging to the
Polynesian language family spoken by about 200 people on
Penrhyn Island and other islands in the
Northern Cook Islands. It is considered to be an
endangered language as many of its users are shifting to
Cook Islands Māori and
English.
Phonology
Alphabet
A, E, H, I, K, M, N, Ng, O, P, R, T, U, V
Long vowels are written with a
macron
Macron may refer to:
People
* Emmanuel Macron (born 1977), president of France since 2017
** Brigitte Macron (born 1953), French teacher, wife of Emmanuel Macron
* Jean-Michel Macron (born 1950), French professor of neurology, father of Emmanu ...
.
Consonants
Tongareva is one of the few Cook Islands languages without a
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
. There is allophonic voicing of stops present. is present in loanwords from languages like
Rakahanga-Manihiki language.
Grammar
References
Tahitic languages
Languages of New Zealand
Endangered Austronesian languages
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