Post #73284 by tikibars on Thu, Jan 29, 2004 12:37 AM

On 2004-01-28 18:22, BaronV wrote:
i've torn through "Speak Rapanui! ¡Habla Rapanui!" since i got it a few months back (a useful intro) - what else is out there?

This book did wonders for me when I was on Rapa Nui in 2000. The locals are triple friendly to you if you attempt to speak Rapa Nui instead of Spanish.

Another comment (not directed at Baron specifically):

This article is excellent, but inherently flawed:

Hoto Matua did not speak the language we know as Rapa Nui.

His language died after slave raids, smallpox, and intertribal warfare wiped out most of the island's population.

Missionaries introduced a bastardization of Tahitian - which is the current language - in the 19th century. It was also at that point that the island was named Rapa Nui - before that it the island had two names, both poetic descriptions: Te Pito o te Henua (the navel of the world) or Matekiteranga (sp? - eyes looking up at heaven).

Anyway, I 100% suppost the Rapa Nui people preserving their heritage... and their continuing efforts to free themselves from Chile... but just to clarify: their current heritage is not the heritage of Hotu Matua and the Moai builders. That heritage was completely wiped out by the joint 'efforts' of Europeans and the islanders themselves in the 18th/19th century, mostly between 1770 and 1864.

I guess I should be telling the author of the article all of this!