Parrot Time Magazine

Even when compared to other languages of Oceania that have gotten a good share of language learning resources (such as Hawaiian, Maori, Fijian, Samoan or Tok Pisin), Tuvaluan seems to be obscure at best and unknown at worst.

As of the time of writing, Tuvalu (formerly known as the Ellice Islands under colonial rule) has the second-lowest population out of all sovereign states on the planet (Vatican City has the lowest) and its reputation for being very low-lying and very thin have caused many people throughout the world to think of Tuvalu as "just another sinking island nation", and seldom little else.

In my opinion, it is precisely because the country is endangered that it behooves us to learn more about the Tuvaluan language and culture and to show Tuvalu as a vibrant, living, and proud society.

The Tuvaluan language is Polynesian and within that family there is one "big brother" and one "little brother". Samoan is the big brother, having influenced Tuvalu and many other areas in the Pacific by means of their missionary work, and Tokelauan, which is very close to Tuvaluan and made famous by Te Vaka, the band featured in Disney's "Moana".

Pronunciation
Tuvaluan pronunciation is noteworthy in that it doesn't have any glottal stops (something that many other Polynesian languages have in droves). There are only sixteen letters in the Tuvaluan alphabet (a, e, i, o, u, f, h, k, l, m, n, ng, p, s, t, v). Not only that, both consonants and vowels can have a lengthened form. The consonants are lengthened by adding " ‘ " in front of them.
‘Talo –a prayer, to pray
Tālofa – Hello
While this system of lengthening is quite similar to that in other languages of Oceania or Finnish, do keep in mind that, like Japanese, some vowel sounds will be swallowed in quick speech "Te Tusi Tapu" (the Bible) will have the i-sound JUST BARELY pronounced. Same with the second a in the word "fakamolemole", which means "please" or "excuse me (for a favor)."
The k is also pronounced more deeply in the throat than the English "k" is.

Pronouns
Tuvaluan also shares the pronoun system of inclusive and exclusive "we's" as well as duals, something that many other Polynesian languages have.

Au, I, me.
Taua, we (you and I) = inclusive we (dual)
Tatou, we (you all and I) = inclusive we (plural)
Maua, we (s/he and I) = exclusive we (dual)
Matou, we (they and I) = exclusive we (plural)
Koe – you (singular)
Koulua – the two of you
Koutou, you (only 3+)
Ia, he, him, she, her, it ("it" can also be te mea tenā = that thing)
Laua, they, them (dual)
Latou, they, them (3+) (plural)

The "Faka-" Suffix
One of the common features of Tuvaluan, shared by its Polynesian siblings, is the "causifying prefix", rendered in Tuvaluan as "faka-". Not surprisingly, this is also featured in other languages in identical or similar forms (Tongan / Niuean "faka-", Fijian "vaka-" , Samoan "fa'a-".)

Here are some fun examples that illustrate how the suffix works:

Maofaofa – to be completely destroyed
Fakamaofaofa – to destroy or to demolish a lot of things ( = to cause "Maofaofa")
Kinau – to argue
Fakakinau – to start an argument

What's more, there is some extended morphology involved:

Fakapaleni – to balance (paleni = an English loan word)
Fakapalenīga –a balancing act, the act of balancing (turning the faka- verb into a noun by adding –ga) at the end.
Fakapalenigina – to have been balanced (this is a passive form noted with the suffix -gina)

"Faka-" can also be used to make adverbs as well

Vave – quick (adj.)
Fakavave –quickly (adv.)

One huge advantage this poses as a learner is the fact that you can use this system to acquire additional vocabulary at no cost (with knowledge of how "faka-" works).

Does Tuvaluan Have a Verb "To Have?" or "To Be?"
As is common in the Austronesian Language Family of which Tuvaluan is a member, there is no equivalent word of "to have". Instead, you use: "e iai" or "e isi" (both mean "it exists") and then you follow it up with a possessive. In this case, it resembles the Hungarian system in which to say "I have a book" you literally say "my book is".

E isi saku moemiti – I have a dream (lit. it exists my dream)

Like in other Polynesian languages, the possessives have two forms. The word "my" is expressed in SIX different ways: toku, taku, oku, aku, soku, saku.

"Toku" is merely a fusion of the words "Te oku" = the mine

The ones containing an "o" in them indicate possessions that (roughly speaking) are a part of you or are essential to your being.

A toku igoa ko Jared – My name is Jared

The ones containing an "a" in them (such as "e isi saku moemiti" above) indicate possessions that are more distant from you. Tau meakai – your food.

Toku, taku, tou, tau, tona and tena (the first two being my, the second two beyond your [singular] and the third being his or hers) change to soku, saku, sou, sau, sona and sena if the word that precedes them contains an "s".

As for the verb to be, it is left out. An example:

e fia lauiloa au? – Do I want to be famous?

This literally translates to "present-tense-marker wanting famous I?".

Tense Markers
Tuvaluan expresses tense not through changing the verb, but via tense markers (again, like many other Austronesian languages. Fijian and Kiribati / Gilbertese do the exact same thing). Do keep in mind that some verbs will change form in the plural, especially by turning a consonant hard:

Fakatusatusagina – to be continuously compared. This changes to "Fakatusa'tusagina" if the subject of the verb is a plural noun.

Here are some examples of tense markers at work. Note that the marker "ne" indicates the subject of the sentence:

E = present tense

E faitau ne au. – I am reading
Present-tense read subject-marker I

Au e alofa atu ki a koe.
I love you
I present-tense love away direct-object-marker pronoun-marker you.

Ka = future tense
Ka olo matou

We will go (exclusive plural)
Future tense go (plural) we (exc.pl)

Ne = past tense
Ne tusi mai a ia

S/he wrote

Past tense write from direction pronoun marker s/he.

And these have negative forms as well:

Se = Not (present tense)
A … ka se = Not (future tense)
Seki = Not (past tense)

This is merely a sampling of the most commonly used tense markers.

Places to Learn Tuvaluan
There are a number of fantastic websites and books that you can acquire to further your Tuvaluan studies (although using it will depend on your online community and physical surroundings).

For one, the website http://www.tuvaluislands.com/lang-tv.htm has a fantastic and thorough grammar guide that will explain everything. While it is not going to teach you tourist phrases, it will provide you a way to read better and start sculpting your own sentences.

Geoffrey W. Jackson and Jenny Jackson have created fantastic books and dictionaries to aid the study of Tuvaluan. They have very clear and thorough vocabulary lists and extremely user-friendly.

Lastly, Glosbe.com has a translation memory with lots of sentences in Tuvaluan, and, of course, there is a lot of music in Tuvaluan that is available on YouTube and is sung clearly.

The Music Tuvalu Channel is a great place to start and they continue to post regular uploads: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOvs1-AGk-idOZhScjEu3qQ

Conclusion: Tuvalu mo te Atua (Tuvalu and God)
Lastly I should add that Tuvaluan, despite its scarce resources, is a fantastic gateway to other languages of Oceania, both within Polynesia as well as further afield. What's more, Tuvaluan is listed as "Definitely Endangered" by UNESCO's atlas of the world's language in danger, despite being the primary language of a sovereign state.

There are more news websites, forums and social media groups with which to use Tuvaluan than may seem apparent at first. Personally I have found it a fantastically fulfilling journey that has taught me a lot about Tuvalu and the Pacific Islands in general but also about indigenous heritage and climate crises as a whole.

And every Tuvaluan native speaker is sure to love you for it.

Manuia! (Good luck!)

Jared Gimbel is an American polyglot of mixed Ashkenazi Jewish and Swedish heritage. He writes about learning rarer languages and successful mindsets at https://worldwithlittleworlds.com/. His first video game, „Kaverini: Nuuk Adventures”, set in contemporary Greenland, is scheduled for a release in late 2019.