Fa'asamoa Mai

Are we in danger of losing our language?

With each new generation we seem to be speaking less and less to our children. I'm not talking about those still in the islands but those who have moved away from Samoa. Even the 30-something generation is more familiar with English than Fa'asamoa. As it has already been stated "language defines culture." Since many of us are growing up in the English culture, it is probably the reason we use the English language to speak to others because it defines our lives.

All of us are familar with the numerous cognates of the Samoan language. Some we might have even thought were Samoan. Take for example the word for bear (urosa). That sounds nothing like bear. But, that is because our culture didn't need a word for bear. There aren't any in Samoa. Initially it comes from ursa the latin word for bear. (Ursa Major) big bear or big dipper. This word more than likely entered our language from the early missionaries to Samoa. They would have taken the word from the Holy Bible and then translated it.

Today however, I have heard outrageous cognates like the use of the word sali. Am I to assume that this is Samoan for sorry? It is true we don't have a word for sorry but, that can be traced back to our culture (I address this in another article.) So if we are borrowing English words and Samoanizing them are we really speaking Samoan or is it an unusual dialect of English?