Days of the Week in Samoan

The Samoan words for our days of the week are made up of two parts: the word Aso, or day, and then a second word to describe that day.

For example, Aso Sā is what we call Sunday, and the word sā means sacred.

As Samoa is a very Christian country with most denominations observing the Sabbath on Sunday, you can see how we might have come up with the term, Aso Sā.

Monday to Sunday in Samoan

Let’s check out the rest of the days in Samoan.

Discrepancies

Samoan is traditionally an oral language – we’ve only recently come up with a written system – so you may come across different ways of spelling our words. I’ve seen Aso To’ona’i (Saturday) spelled to’ana’i or tona’i.

But based on decades in the Samoan language media industry – my family used to run a Samoan language newspaper – the word to’ona’i – which also refers to a feast we usually have on the weekends – is correct…because that’s just how we’ve always spelled it. 

I can understand the spelling to’ana’i (lots of people (mis?)pronounce this word with an ‘a’ in it) but tona’i is definitely not normal :). 

But like I said, the written version of Samoan is still young. Let’s see how this word stands up over time.  

Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday

It’s helpful to know how to refer to days without having to use their names.