The oceanic drift in Polynesian linguistics

This paper considers what role the discovery and linguistic differentiation of regional languages played in the representational construction of Polynesia, the study of the region’s languages over time, the languages themselves, and the political and social lives of islanders. Focusing on French Polynesia, it questions whether there has been a sentimental attachment to the issue of human origins that has become entangled in the local politics of regional personhood. It draws particular attention to the use of language to make claims about islander persons and the way that language studies have become entangled in islanders’ enduring traditions of human origins, island settlement and evaluations of the significance thereof.