LANGUAGE OF THE ISLANDS
A Papa'a's Guide
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A papa'a is a foreigner - the word literally means four layers of clothes and refers to the way missionaries used to dress.  James Chalmers from Scotland (left) was one such missionary who arrived in Rarotonga in 1867 and spent the next 10 years of his life working there.
Missionary, James Chalmers
According to the authoritative Ethnalogue.com, there are five living languages in the Cook Islands.  ENGLISH and Cook Islands Maori are the official languages.
COOK ISLANDS MAORI is sometimes called Rarotongan after the capital island and it's the most widely spoken version of maori.   It's estimated that about 42,700 speak it.   That includes islanders on Atiu, Aitutaki, Mitiaro, Mauke and Mangaia where they have their own accent and a few of their own words.  For example, "meitaki ma'ata" means thank you very much on Rarotonga; on Mauke they say "meitaki nui" (literally "most special thanks")
Least spoken is PENRHYNESE which is unique to the Northern Group island of Penrhyn and is rapidly disappearing.  It's also spoken - after a fashion - on Palmerston Island where it's mixed up with words from the Gloucestershire accent of England.    That's down to William Marsters, a Gloucestershire man who populated the island with his offspring whose relatives still live there to this day.
PUKAPUKAN is more like the Samoan language than Cook Islands Maori and is completely unintelligible to most other Cook Islanders.  Remarkably though, there are more speakers outside Pukapuka than on the Northern Group island.   It's estimated 2,300 people are fluent, with the majority in Australia and New Zealand.  Until December, 2007, there was no known written form of the language.   The very first work to be created was a translation of the Bible's New Testament which is still only in a draft form.
 An example of Pukapukan:  Ata wai wolo = Thank you
Pukapuka from the space shuttle
Pukapuka
Still without any written form though is RAKAHANGA-MANIHIKI which is spoken by about 2,500 Cook Islanders, only half of whom live on the two islands from which it takes its name.   The rest are in New Zealand.   Speakers of Cook Islands Maori can understand some of it, but not much.
Kia orana = Hello
(literally, "may you live long")
Aere ra = Goodbye
Meitaki = Thank you
'Ae = yes
Kare = no
Tane = man
Vaine = woman
Manea = pretty/handsome
Mataora = happy
Kai = food
Teia ra = today
Apopo = tomorrow
Ra = sun
Marama = moon
Moana = ocean
Maunga = mountain
'Ura = to dance
SOME USEFUL WORDS
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