History of Samoa who brought the tools necessary to create the art of tatau, or in English tattoo, whence came the traditional Samoan "malofie" (also known as "pe'a" for men and as "malu" for women). The foundation of the cultural tradition of Samoa, or the fa'asamoa came with the rise of the warrior queen Nafanua. Her rule instituted traditions of the fa'amatai or local family and village and regional chiefly systems, a decentralized system. Her niece Salamasina continued under this system and their time is considered a golden age of Samoan cultural traditions. For a long period, a Tongan aristocracy ruled in Samoa.
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,