premise: Polynesian languages includes several languages.
hypothesis: Niuean [ njuːˈeɪən ] ( Niuean : ko e vagahau Niuē ) is a Polynesian language , belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian languages . The Polynesian languages are a language family spoken in geographical Polynesia and on a patchwork of outliers from south central Micronesia to small islands off the northeast of the larger islands of the southeast Solomon Islands and sprinkled through Vanuatu . There are approximately forty Polynesian languages . The most prominent of these are Tahitian , Sāmoan , Tongan , Māori and Hawaiian . There are still many cognate words across the different islands e.g. tapu , ariki , motu , kava ( Kava culture ) , and tapa as well as Hawaiki , the mythical homeland for some of the cultures .