from Western Polynesia. Local oral tradition records that huge waves generated by a severe cyclone washed over the island and killed most of the inhabitants except for 15–17 men, 2 women and an unknown number of children. Recent interpretation of genealogies suggests that this catastrophe occurred about 1700 AD. It was from these survivors that the island was repopulated. The island was one of the first of the Cook Islands to be discovered by the Europeans, on Sunday 20 August 1595 by the Spanish Explorer Álvaro de Mendaña. Population The language of Pukapukan is not only spoken on the island of Pukapuka but on the neighboring Cook Islands as well as New Zealand and Australia. Today the population of Pukapuka has diminished with only a few hundred native speakers. From a 2001 census there were only about 644 speakers on Pukapuka and its plantation island of Nassau. As of a 2011 census, there are now only 450 speakers due to a devastating cyclone that hit the island of Pukapuka in 2005. There are a total of 2,400 speakers worldwide, including those who live on Pukapuka and the 200 speakers on Rarotonga, the most populous island of the Cook Islands. Classification Pukapukan is an Austronesian language of the Nuclear Polynesian branch. Though grouped with the Cook Islands the language shows influence from both Eastern and Western Polynesia. Phonology Alphabet There are 15 letters in the Pukapukan alphabet – five vowels and 10 consonants. The digraph occurs in the place that occupies in the English alphabet. Consonants The consonant phonemes in Pukapukan are: (Teingoa 1993). The letters and are not in the Cook Islands Maori language but are additions to Pukapukan. The semivowel and the palatalised dental spirant , in general, regularly reflect *f and *s, respectively. The sound in Pukapukan actually acts somewhat differently and is difficult for non native speakers to pronounce. It is pronounced like in English "this, other". , go , new , woman , fall over , nose , one Vowels The vowels in Pukapukan are respectively , , , , and . All vowels have two sounds, a long sound and a short sound. A vowel's length is indicated by writing a macron above each vowel. , rock , European , father , crewcut (hairstyle) In Pukapukan it is safe to say that every syllable ends with a vowel, every vowel is pronounced, and there are