Carolinian is an Austronesian language originating in the Caroline Islands, but spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands. It is an official language (alongside English) of the Carolinian people. Carolinian is a threatened language according to the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat), but available data is scarce. There are approximately 3,100 native speakers in the world. Carolinian has 95% lexical similarity with Satawalese, 88% with Woleaian and Puluwatese; 81% with Mortlockese; 78% with Chuukese, 74% with Ulithian.
Classification
The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas occupies a chain of 14 islands in the Pacific, approximately 1,300 miles southeast of Japan. The total land area encompasses 183.5 square miles, and some islands are unpopulated. Most Carolinians live on Saipan, the largest island, although a very small island, Agrigan, is reported to be populated solely by Carolinians speaking Carolinian language.
Carolinian, more usually known as Saipan Carolinian, was born from several languages in the Carolinian language continuum, due to a century of migration from the western Carolinian atolls to the Northern Marianas island of Saipan. Spoken mostly by the Carolinian people, Carolinian is the most closely related dialect to Satawalese, Woleaian, and Puluwatese languages. In present day, Carolinian is changing quickly due to influence from English, which has dominated Micronesia since World War II. There are only a small percentage of Carolinian children left on Saipan who can confidently speak the traditional form of Carolinian.
Phonology
Consonant Phonemes Table
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" | !! Labial !! Alveolar !! Retroflex !! Palatal !! Velar
!Glottal
|-
! rowspan="2" | Stops
!
| p pː || t tː || || || kː
|
|-
!
|bʷˠ, (pʷˠ)
|d
|
|
|ɡ
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Affricate
| || || ʈ͡ʂːʲ || ||
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Fricatives
| f fː || s sː || ʂ || || x
|h
|-
! rowspan="2" | Nasals
!
| m mː || n
| || || ŋ ŋː
|
|-
!
|mʷˠ mʷˠː
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Liquids
| || l lː, r || ɻ
| ||
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Glides
| w || || || j ||
|
|-
|}
The table shows that alveolar ridge receives tongue-blade contact while the tongue tip makes contact at some place on the teeth.
Alphabet
There were 28 letters in 1977 and they were expanded to 33 letters in 2004.