France is the only country in the world with territory in every single continent, even claiming a sliver of land in Antarctica. Most of these overseas territories are small islands, with many found in the Pacific. Perhaps the best-known example is French Polynesia, a large collection of islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. Across the islands, indigenous inhabitants speak their own languages and practice their own cultures, although the influence of the French language and culture is strong.
Tahiti is the biggest, most populated, and best-known of the French Polynesian islands and is home to the capital, Papeete. Accordingly, Tahitian is the most spoken indigenous language in the territory, with around 20% of the population citing Tahitian as the language they primarily use at home. Around 37% of the ethnic Tahitian population are native speakers, according to the 2007 census, amounting to roughly 68,000 speakers. As the French influence throughout Tahiti grows, Tahitian could be at risk, so it’s important to make preservation efforts for the language. At TranslationServices.com, we’re proud to help by offering professional Tahitian translation services.
We offer quotes for our Tahitian translation services for free—all you have to do is ask.
Uncovering the original language of Tahiti
Writing Tahitian is simple, since the language uses the Latin alphabet, just like English and like most other Pacific Island languages. Tahitian is from the Eastern Polynesian branch of the expansive Austronesian language family and is closely related to other Polynesian languages like Hawaiian, Māori, and Rapa Nui, exhibiting similar vocabulary and grammatical structures. For example, the Tahitian pronominal system shares many traits with Hawaiian, such as dividing pronoun numbers into singular, dual, and plural and featuring a clusivity distinction that clarifies whether the listener is included.
Like many other Polynesian languages, Tahitian’s default word order is verb-subject-object, found in 9% of the world’s languages. The language features a definite article, an indefinite article, and an article used exclusively with pronouns and proper nouns. The language features almost no inflection, instead expressing grammatical information through particles. For example, verbal tense, aspect, and mood are all constructed by placing particles before or after the verb, sometimes with particles on both sides. The vocabulary in Tahitian may differ from common vocabulary in closely related languages due to the historical custom of suppressing words that resembled the name of an important leader and replacing them with new words.
High-quality, flexible Tahitian translation services are our mandate.
We’re committed to ensuring that any client who needs Tahitian services can access them from us. This has led us to scout out experienced Tahitian translators who specialize in different areas of translation, enabling us to build a team with diverse capabilities. So, if you have historical documents or traditional literature in Tahitian, why not send them over to our team to translate into English? We’ll help you spread appreciation of Tahitian culture. Or maybe you’re looking to translate material into Tahitian—such as surveys, pedagogical material, or entertainment content such as books, games, websites, poems, and apps. We love this kind of translation job project because it encourages the use of Tahitian within French Polynesia and invigorates positive feelings toward the language in Tahitian youth.
If you want Tahitian translation services, what are you waiting for? Message us today to get started!