Re: Attitudes to rank and class need to change [2]

The concern of Sefita was well-founded. I waited to see if one of our Tongan linguists would care to respond. The structure of our Tongan language has more implications than just "ranking". To save me time I will be happy to come back and enumerate a few if requested.

My purpose in writing this letter is simply to propose a way to save the structure of our language. The application of the language package for the noble hierarchy is the sole cause of confusion. There is no problem with the King...’s package and the commoner'’s. My suggestion is to confine the use of the noble's package only to the nobles (title holders), the Queen and the royalty with the titles prince and princess. This will avoid chaos in the utilization of this package.

Kind Regards

Joe Helu

New Zealand

helu [at] stat [dot] auckland [dot] ac [dot] nz