Samoan literature Samoan literature Samoan literature can be divided into oral (pre-colonial and post-colonial) and written literatures, in the Samoan language and in English or English translation, and is from the Samoa Islands of independent Samoa and American Samoa, and Samoan writers in diaspora. Samoan as a written language emerged after 1830 when Tahitian and English missionaries from the London Missionary Society, working with Samoan chiefly orators, developed a Latin script based Samoan written language. Before this, there were "logologo" (tapa signs) and "tatau" (tattoo signs) but no phonetic written form. Pre-colonial and post-colonial Samoan oral literature includes "solo" (poetic narratives), "fa'alupega"
Samoan language means child or boy, while "tamā" means father. Diphthongs are . The combination of u followed by a vowel in some words creates the sound of the English w, a letter not part of the Samoan alphabet, as in "uaua" (artery, tendon). In formal Samoan, used for example in news broadcasts or sermons, the consonants are used. In colloquial Samoan, however, merge as and is pronounced . The glottal stop is phonemic in Samoan. The presence or absence of the glottal stop affects the meaning of words otherwise spelled the same, e.g. "mai" = from, originate from; "maʻi" = sickness,