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"
Tahitian language live to a very great age this temporary substitution could become permanent. In the rest of Polynesia "tū" means to stand, but in Tahitian it became "tiʻa", because the word was included in the name of king Tū-nui-ʻēʻa-i-te-atua. Likewise "fetū" (star) has become in Tahiti "fetiʻa" and "aratū" (pillar) became "aratiʻa". Although "nui" (big) still occurs in some compounds, like Tahiti-nui, the usual word is "rahi" (which is a common word in Polynesian languages for 'large'). The term "ʻēʻa" fell in disuse, replaced by "purūmu" or "porōmu". Nowadays "ʻēʻa" means 'path' while "purūmu" means 'road'. Tū also had a nickname,