The so-called definitive accent (DA) in Tongan has been analyzed in various ways in the literature: as stress shift from penultimate to final vowel, as simultaneous stress reduction on a penult and stress addition on an ultima, and as addition of a syllable by repetition of the final vowel. This study investigates each of these analyses empirically in order to establish the phonology of DA in Tongan. Our findings support Melenaite Taumoefolau's proposal that definite NPs are formed by repetition of the NP-final vowel, and thus a morphological analysis of DA as reduplicative suffixation. Moreover, our findings substantiate an account of Tongan in which stress is unexceptionally penultimate in a foot, and in which "long vowels" and "diphthongs" are to be considered sequences of two syllables, as suggested by Taumoefolau.
This paper examines the sociolinguistic situation in Tonga and discusses its relevance to language maintenance in Polynesia. The environment surrounding Tongan is not visibly ominous: it is an official language of an independent state and is spoken by a sizable population in a predominantly monolingual community. Tongan represents an instance of language shift as a result of globalization, wherein a speech community voluntarily gives up its indigenous language(s) for another, more socioeconomically beneficial language, in this case, English. The paper proposes that language endangerment should be understood in terms of a unit larger than the nation-state. This is particularly relevant in the Polynesian context, in which international borders are obscured by transnational migrants. The paper also discusses some positive roles the diasporic communities may potentially play in language maintenance.
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