Neha Patil (Editor)

Rakahanga Manihiki language

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Native to
  
Cook Islands

Regulated by
  
Kopapa Reo

Official language in
  
Cook Islands

Region
  
Rakahanga and Manihiki islands

Native speakers
  
320 in the Cook Islands (2011 census) 2,500 in New Zealand, based on a cited population of 5,000 (1981) being half in Cook Islands and half in New Zealand

Language family
  
Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Polynesian Eastern Polynesian Tahitic Rakahanga-Manihiki

Rakahanga-Manihiki is a Cook Islands Maori dialectal variant belonging to the Polynesian languages family, spoken by about 2500 people on Rakahanga and Manihiki Islands (part of the Cook Islands) and another 2500 in other countries, mostly New Zealand and Australia. Wurm and Hattori consider Rakahanga-Manihiki as a distinct language with "limited intelligibility with Rarotongan" (i.e. the Cook Islands Maori dialectal variant of Rarotonga). According to the New Zealand Maori anthropologist Te Rangi Hīroa who spent few days on Rakahanga in the years 1920, "the language is a pleasing dialect and has closer affinities with [New Zealand] Maori than with the dialects of Tongareva, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands"

References

Rakahanga-Manihiki language Wikipedia