Pure Tahitian

Flea For Preservation of Language

DURING a period of several decades, the Tahitian language, as spoken on Tahiti and the neighboring Moorea, has steadily deteriorated.

The smooth euphony which, on the tongues of the elder people, delighted the ear, has disappeared, and the meaning of many words has altered or been forgotten.

In earlier times the purity of the language was scrupulously guarded. Any mistake in construction or precision of diction was loudly ridiculed —to the shame and confusion of the speaker.

With the advent of the Chinaman and the establishment of his little shop as the centre of commerce in every district of the islands, the Tahitian language began to change.

The Chinaman is no stylist. His chief care has been to acquire a vocabulary adequate for the purposes of trade. How the words were put together did not con cern him.

The Tahitian, who loves to chaffer over every transaction, had perforce to ac commodate his speech to the compre hension of the Chinaman. Gradually these forms of speech have corrupted the Tahitian language.

There are, however, two influences working to restore the Tahitian tongue to its pristine purity—“Te Vea Maohi”, and the broadcasts of the Tahiti radio.

“Te Vea Maohi” prints and the radio announcer broadcasts classic Tahitian— the one bringing to the eye, the other to the ear of the younger generation the uncorrupted language of their fathers.

A.C.R.

Mr. A. McMillan, Inspector of Schools in Fijji, is at present on six months’ leave, part of which he is spending in Australia.

Mr. and Mrs. Freeman Kennedy arrived in Sydney from Suva, Fiji, by the last “Monterey”, on their honeymoon.

The marriage took place at Holy Trinity Pro-Cathedral, Suva, on March 11, the bride being Miss Lima Garnett, youngest daughter of Mr. Hamlet Garnett, of Tavua. They will return to the Colony in June to make their future home at Nadi.

Mr. B. Sweetapple, manager of Malindi Plantation, Talasea, New Britain, arrived in Australia on furlough at the end of March.