Editing Polynesian languages (section)

{{Short description|Language family}}
{{use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox language family
|name= Polynesian
|region= [[Polynesia]]
|ethnicity= [[Polynesians]]
|familycolor= Austronesian
|fam2= [[Malayo-Polynesian languages|Malayo-Polynesian]]
|fam3= [[Oceanic languages|Oceanic]]
|fam4= [[Central Pacific languages|Central Pacific]]
|fam5= East Central Pacific
|protoname= [[Proto-Polynesian language|Proto-Polynesian]]
|child1= [[Tongic languages|Tongic]]
|child2= [[Nuclear Polynesian languages|Nuclear Polynesian]]
|glotto= poly1242
|glottorefname= Polynesian
|map= Fijian-Polynesian.svg
|mapcaption= '''The Central Pacific languages'''<br />[[Olive (colour)|Olive]]-Green: East Fijian-Polynesian Languages (not shown: [[Rapanui language|Rapa Nui]])<br />Pink: Western Fijian-Rotuman Languages
}}

The '''Polynesian languages''' form a [[Language family|genealogical group of languages]], itself part of the [[Oceanic languages|Oceanic]] branch of the [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian family]].

There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austronesian family.<ref>{{Glottolog|poly1242}}.</ref> While half of them are spoken in geographical [[Polynesia]] (the [[Polynesian triangle]]), the other half &ndash; known as [[Polynesian outliers]] &ndash; are spoken in other parts of the Pacific: from [[Micronesia]] to atolls scattered in [[Papua New Guinea]], the [[Solomon Islands]] or [[Vanuatu]]. The most prominent Polynesian languages, by number of speakers, are [[Samoan language|Samoan]], [[Tongan language|Tongan]], [[Tahitian language|Tahitian]], [[Māori language|Māori]] and [[Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]].

The ancestors of modern Polynesians were [[Lapita culture|Lapita navigators]], who settled in the [[Tonga]] and [[Samoa]] areas about 3,000 years ago. Linguists and archaeologists estimate that this first population went through common development during about 1000 years, giving rise to [[Proto-Polynesian language|Proto-Polynesian]], the linguistic ancestor of all modern Polynesian languages. After that period of shared development, the Proto-Polynesian society split into several descendant populations, as [[Polynesian navigation|Polynesian navigators]] scattered around various archipelagoes across the Pacific &ndash; some travelling [[Polynesian outliers|westwards to already populated areas]], others navigating eastwards and settling in new territories ([[Society Islands]], [[Marquesas]], [[Hawaii]], [[Māori people|New Zealand]], [[Rapa Nui]], etc.).

Still today, Polynesian languages show strong similarity, particularly [[cognate]] words in their vocabulary; this includes culturally important words such as ''[[tapu (Polynesian culture)|tapu]]'', ''[[ariki]]'', ''[[motu (geography)|motu]]'', ''[[Vanua#Polynesian languages|fenua]]'', ''[[kava]]'', and ''[[tapa cloth|tapa]]'' as well as [[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Nuclear Polynesian/Sawaiki#Proto-Nuclear Polynesian|*''sawaiki'']], the mythical homeland for some of the cultures.<ref name="buckh">{{cite book |title=Vikings of the Sunrise |last=Hīroa |first=Te Rangi |author-link=Te Rangi Hīroa |year=1964 |publisher=Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd |location=New Zealand |page=69 |url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucViki-t1-front-d1-d1.html |access-date=21 August 2010 |isbn=0-313-24522-3 }}</ref>