Marshallese language

Marshallese ( or ), also known as Ebon, is a Micronesian language spoken in the Marshall Islands. The language of the Marshallese people, it is spoken by nearly all of the country's population of 59,000, making it the principal language. There are also roughly 27,000 Marshallese citizens residing in the United States, nearly all of whom speak Marshallese, as well as residents in other countries such as Nauru and Kiribati.

There are two major dialects, the western Rālik and the eastern Ratak.

Classification

Marshallese, a Micronesian language, is a member of the Eastern Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian languages. The closest linguistic relatives of Marshallese are the other Micronesian languages, including Gilbertese, Nauruan, Pohnpeian, Mokilese, Chuukese, Refaluwasch, and Kosraean. Marshallese shows 50% lexical similarity with Gilbertese, Mokilese, and Pohnpeian.

The Ratak and Rālik dialects differ phonetically in how they deal with stems that begin with double consonants.

Status

thumb|A poster sponsored by [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|CDC about COVID-19 prevention in Marshallese]]

Marshallese is the official language of the Marshall Islands and enjoys vigorous use. A dictionary and at least two Bible translations have been published in Marshallese. The palatalized consonants are regarded as "light", and the velarized and rounded consonants are regarded as "heavy", with the rounded consonants being both velarized and labialized. when they are between vowels and not geminated. (Technically, partially voiced stops would be , , , but this article uses voiced transcriptions , , for simplicity.) Before front vowels, the velarized labial consonants actually tend to have rounded (labiovelarized) articulations , but they remain unrounded on the phonemic level, and there are no distinct phonemes. The pronunciation guide used by Naan (2014) still recognizes as allophone symbols separate from in these same conditions while recognizing that there are only palatalized and velarized phonemes. The Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) describes these as heavy dental nasals. (See retroflex trill.) This article uses , and in phonetic transcription.

The heavy lateral consonants and are dark l like in English feel, articulated and respectively.

On the phonemic level, while Bender (1969) and Choi (1992) agree that the vowel phonemes are distinguished by height, they describe the abstract nature of these phonemes differently, with Bender treating the front unrounded surface realizations as their relaxed state that becomes altered by proximity of velarized or rounded consonants, while Choi uses central vowel symbols in a neutral fashion to notate the abstract phonemes and completely different front, back and rounded vowel symbols for surface realizations. Bender (1968, 1969), MED (1976) and Willson (2003) recognize four vowel phonemes, but Choi (1992) observes only three of the phonemes as having a stable quality, but theorizes that there may be a historical process of reduction from four to three, and otherwise ignores the fourth phoneme. For phonemic transcription of vowels, this article recognizes four phonemes and uses the front unrounded vowel notation of the MED, following the approach of Bender (1969) in treating the front vowel surface realizations as the representative phonemes.

On the phonetic level, Bender (1968), MED (1976), Choi (1992), Willson (2003) and Naan (2014) notate some Marshallese vowel surface realizations differently from one another, and they disagree on how to characterize the vowel heights of the underlying phonemes, with Willson (2003) taking the most divergent approach in treating the four heights as actually two heights each with the added presence (+ATR) or absence (-ATR) of advanced tongue root. Bender (1968) assigns central vowel symbols for the surface realizations that neighbor velarized consonants, but the MED (1976), Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) largely assign back unrounded vowel symbols for these, with the exception that the MED uses rather than cardinal for the close-mid back unrounded vowel, and Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) use rather than cardinal for the open back unrounded vowel. Naan (2014) is the only reference providing a vowel trapezium for its own vowels, and differs especially from the other vowel models in splitting the front allophones of into two realizations ( before consonants and in open syllables), merging the front allophones of and as before consonants and in open syllables, merging the rounded allophones of and as , and indicating the front allophone of as a close-mid central unrounded vowel , a realization more raised even than the front allophone of the normally higher . For phonetic notation of vowel surface realizations, this article largely uses the MED's notation, but uses only cardinal symbols for back unrounded vowels.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Marshallese vowel phonemes and surface realizations

! colspan="4" | Bender

! rowspan="7" |  

! colspan="5" | MED

! rowspan="7" |  

! colspan="5" | Choi

! rowspan="7" |  

! colspan="4" | Willson

! rowspan="7" |  

! colspan="4" | Naan

|- style="font-size: 75%;"

! rowspan="2" | Height

! colspan="2" | Unrnd.

! Rnd.

! rowspan="2" | Height

! rowspan="2" | Phon.

! colspan="2" | Unrnd.

! Rnd.

! rowspan="2" | Height

! rowspan="2" | Phon.

! colspan="2" | Unrnd.

! Rnd.

! rowspan="2" | Height

! colspan="2" | Unrnd.

! Rnd.

! colspan="2" | Unrnd.

! Rnd.

|- style="font-size: 75%;"

! Frt.

! colspan="2" | Back

! Frt.

! colspan="2" | Back

! Frt.

! colspan="2" | Back

! Frt.

! colspan="2" | Back

! Frt.

! colspan="2" | Back

| Close

| || ||

| Close

| || ||

| Close

| //

| || ||

| [,] || ||

| Close-mid

| || ||

| rowspan="2" | Mid

| || ||

! colspan="5" |  

| || ||

| rowspan="2" | [,] || || rowspan="2" |

| Mid

| || ||

| Mid

| //

| || ||

| Open

| || ||

| Open

| || ||

| Open

| //

| || ||

Superficially, 12 Marshallese vowel allophones appear in minimal pairs, a common test for phonemicity. When glides are taken into account, it emerges that there are only 4 vowel phonemes. Because the cumulative visual complexity of notating so many diphthongs in phonetic transcriptions can make them more difficult to read, it is not uncommon to phonetically transcribe Marshallese vowel allophones only as one predominant monophthongal allophone, so that a word like can be more simply transcribed as , in a condensed fashion. Before Bender's (1968) discovery that Marshallese utilized a vertical vowel system, it was conventional to transcribe the language in this manner with a presumed inventory of 12 vowel monophthong phonemes, and it remains in occasional use as a more condensed phonetic transcription. For instance, the underlying form of is . In condensed phonetic transcription, the same word can be expressed as or . Marshallese words always underlyingly begin and end with consonants.

'weave'

Only homorganic consonant sequences are allowed in Marshallese, including geminate varieties of each consonant, except for glides.

†Obstruent-liquid and liquid-obstruent clusters besides and undergo epenthesis. using IPA notation similar to that of semi-vowels. Certain Westernized Marshallese placenames spell out the epenthetic vowels:
Ebeye, from earlier Ebeje, from Though they occupy time, the approximants are generally not articulated as glides, and Choi (1992) does not rule out a deeper level of representation. In particular, short vowels occupy one unit of time, and long vowels (for which is an approximant phoneme) are three times as long.

As a matter of prosody, each consonant and vowel phonemic sequence carries one mora in length, with the exception of in sequences where the vowel carries one mora for both phonemes. All morae are thus measured in or shut sequences:

is two morae: . It is also the shortest possible length of a Marshallese word.
is three morae: . Since approximants are also consonants, long vowel sequences of are also three morae.
is four morae: .
Prefixes like are sequences occupying only one mora but are attached to words rather than standing as words on their own.
Suffixes like are sequences. The syllable itself occupies two morae but adds only one mora to the word because the vowel attaches itself to the last consonant phoneme in the word, changing into .

That makes Marshallese a mora-rhythmed language in a fashion similar to Finnish, Gilbertese, Hawaiian, and Japanese.

Historic sound changes

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center

|+ Marshallese reflexes of Proto Oceanic consonants

! Proto-Oceanic

| *mp || *mp,ŋp || *p || *m || *m,ŋm || *k || *ŋk || *ŋ || *y || *w || *t || || *s,nj || *ns,j || *j || *nt,nd || *d,R || *l || *n || *ɲ

! Proto-Micronesian

| *p || *pʷ || *f || *m || *mʷ || *k || *x || *ŋ || *y || *w || *t || *T || *s || *S || *Z || *c || *r || *l || *n || *ɲ

! Marshallese

| || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || || ||

Marshallese consonants show splits conditioned by the surrounding Proto-Micronesian vowels. Proto-Micronesian *k *ŋ *r become rounded next to *o or next to *u except in bisyllables whose other vowel is unrounded. Default outcomes of *l and *n are palatalized; they become velarized or rounded before *a or sometimes *o if there is no high vowel in an adjacent syllable. Then, roundedness is determined by the same rule as above.

Orthography

thumb|Marshallese version of the [[Book of Mormon]]

thumb|Marshallese alphabet in a library

Marshallese is written in the Latin alphabet. There are two competing orthographies. The "old" orthography was introduced by missionaries. It is currently widely used, including in newspapers and signs.

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" | Labial

! colspan="3" | Coronal

! colspan="2" | Dorsal

! Light!! Heavy!! Light!! colspan="2" | Heavy!! colspan="2" | Heavy

! Stop

| || || || || || ||

! Nasal

| || || || || || ||

! Rhotic

| || || || || || ||

!Lateral

! Glide

| || || || || || ||

| valign="top" |

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+ Orthographic vowels of Marshallese

The palatal glide phoneme may also be written out but only as before one of , or as before one of either . The approximant is never written before any of . A stronger raised palatal glide , phonemically analyzed as the exotic un-syllabic consonant-vowel-consonant sequence rather than plain , may occur word-initially before any vowel and is written . For historical reasons, certain words like may be written as

Modern orthography has a bias in certain spelling choices in which both possibilities are equally clear between two non-approximant consonants.

is preferred over .
: "big", not
is preferred over .
: "small", not
Historically, both and have been common and sometimes interchangeable. It is still true today with some words. In the new orthography, is generally preferred over in most such situations.
: "atoll; island; land", not
: "Christmas", not
: "Nell", not
However, after one of and before one of unrounded , the spelling is preferred over .
: "pencil", not
For the name of the Marshall Islands, the new orthography prefers , but the spelling with is still found.
: or , "Marshall Islands"

In a syllable whose first consonant is rounded and whose second consonant is palatalized, it is common to see the vowel between them written as one of , usually associated with a neighboring velarized consonant:

"August".
"Ujelang".

The exception is long vowels and long diphthongs made up of two mora units, which are written with the vowel quality closer to the phonetic nucleus of the long syllable:

"kindness".
"will be".
"taxicab". is usually not written any other way, but exceptions exist such as ( "land; country; island; atoll"), which is preferred over because the spelling emphasizes that the first (unwritten) glide phoneme is dorsal rather than palatal.

The spelling of grammatical affixes, such as () and () is less variable despite the fact that their vowels become diphthongs with second member dependent on the preceding/following consonant: the prefix may be pronounced as any of depending on the stem. The term ("Marshallese people") is actually pronounced as if it were .

Display issues

In the most polished printed text, the letters always appear with unaltered cedillas directly beneath, and the letters always appear with unaltered macrons directly above. Regardless, the diacritics are often replaced by ad hoc spellings using more common or more easily displayable characters. In particular, the Marshallese-English Online Dictionary (but not the print version), or MOD, uses the following characters: Nouns are often verbalized and verbs nominalized without any overt morphological marker: These are marked for number, and in the plural also encode a human/nonhuman distinction. For example, in the singular 'the pencil' and 'the boy' take the same determiner, but in the plural 'the pencils' and have different determiners.

The Marshallese demonstrative system has five levels:

near the speaker (sg. / pl. human / pl. nonhuman )
near the speaker and listener ()
near the listener ()
away from both speaker and listener ()
distant but visible ().

! colspan="3" | Person

! absolutive / emphatic !! objective

! rowspan="3" | s

! colspan="2" | 1

| ||

! colspan="2" | 2

| ||

! colspan="2" | 3

| colspan="2" |

! rowspan="4" | pl

! 1

! inc

| colspan="2" |

! 1

! exc

| colspan="2" |

! colspan="2" | 2

| colspan="2" | (Ralik) (Ratak)

! colspan="2" | 3

| colspan="2" |

</div>

Marshallese possesses two sets of 1st and 2nd person singular pronouns, known as "absolutive" or "emphatic" pronouns and as "objective" pronouns. It is common in Oceanic languages for a special type of pronoun to be used in equational sentences and for topicalization or focus. Predicational sentences have SVO word order and a main verb:

| (Rālik) ; (Ratak)

|Yes

| Atoll, or island; the word for land in general

| How are you? (Literally, "How is your life doing?") Notice that the assimilates before the .

| (It) is good.

| (It) is bad.

| ;

| Hello, goodbye and love, similar to the Hawaiian aloha; also an expression of sympathy.

| ;

| Iroij, the various paramount chieftains of Marshallese culture

| No.

| Thank you very much. alone means "thank you".

| You're welcome. Literally "for kindness".

| Christian: The majority religion of the Marshall Islands

Cardinal numbers

This includes the cardinal numbers one through ten in the Rālik dialect. Where Ratak forms differ, they are listed in parentheses.

(the is silent)
()
()

Months

, 'January'
, 'February'
, 'March'
, 'April'
, 'May'
, 'June'
, 'July'
, 'August'
, also , 'September'
, 'October'
, also , 'November'
, 'December'

Weekdays

, 'Sunday; Sabbath'
, 'Monday'
, 'Tuesday'
, 'Wednesday'
, 'Thursday'
, also , also , 'Friday'
, 'Saturday'

Marshallese atolls and islands

or , 'Marshall Islands'
, 'Ratak Chain'
, 'Ailuk Atoll'
, 'Arno Atoll'
, 'Aur Atoll'
, 'Erikub Atoll'
or , 'Bokak (Taongi) Atoll'
, 'Jemo Island'
, 'Likiep Atoll'
or , 'Mejit Island'
, 'Majuro Atoll'
, 'Djarrit'
, 'Laura'
, 'Delap'
, 'Uliga'
, 'Mili Atoll'
, 'Maloelap Atoll'
, 'Knox Atoll'
, 'Bikar Atoll'
, 'Toke (Taka) Atoll'
, 'Utirik Atoll'
, 'Wotje Atoll'
, 'Ralik Chain'
, 'Ailinginae Atoll'
, 'Ailinglaplap Atoll'
, also , 'Enewetak (Eniwetok) Atoll'
, 'Lib Island'
, 'Ebon Atoll'
or , 'Jaluit Atoll'
, 'Jabor Island'
, 'Jabat (Jabot, Jabwot) Island'
, 'Kili Island'
, 'Kwajalein Atoll'
, also , 'Ebeye Island'
, 'Lae Atoll'
, 'Namdrik (Namorik) Atoll'
, 'Namu Atoll'
, 'Bikini Atoll'
, 'Rongerik (Rongdrik) Atoll'
, 'Rongelap Atoll'
, 'Wotho Atoll'
or , 'Ujae Atoll'
or , 'Ujelang Atoll'
, 'Wake (Enenkio) Atoll' (claimed by the Marshall Islands, administered by the United States)

Other countries and places

, 'United States (America)'
, 'Hawaii', where a Marshallese diaspora lives
, 'California', where a Marshallese diaspora lives
, 'Arkansas', where a large Marshallese diaspora lives
, 'Australia'
, 'Asia'
, also , also , 'China'
, also , 'Japan (Nippon)', former colonial ruler
, 'Korea'
, 'Philippines', former colonial administrator under Spanish rule
, 'Russia'
, 'Taiwan'
, 'England'
, 'Samoa'
, 'Germany', former colonial ruler
, 'Spain', former colonial ruler
, 'Micronesia'
, 'Caroline Islands'
, also , 'Palau'
, 'Federated States of Micronesia (F.S.M.)'
, 'Pohnpei (Ponape)'
, 'Yap'
, also , 'Kosrae (Kusaie)'
, 'Chuuk (Truk)'
, 'Kiribati (Gilbert Islands)'
, 'Mariana Islands'
, 'Saipan'
, 'Guam'
, 'Nauru (Naoero)'
, 'Mexico', former colonial administrator under Spanish rule
, 'New Zealand'
, also , 'New Guinea', former colonial administrator under German rule
, 'Fiji'
, 'Tuvalu'

Text examples

Modern orthography

Here is the Hail Mary in standard Marshallese orthography:

Older orthography

Here is the Lord's Prayer from the 1982 Marshallese Bible, which uses the older orthography:

References

Bibliography

External links

Naan, a free Marshallese–English Dictionary for beginner/intermediate learners of both languages
Marshallese–English Online Dictionary
Marshallese Phrasebook on the website for the Republic of Marshall Islands lists the Marshallese word for the Marshallese language as
Peace Corps Marshall Islands Marshallese Language Training Manual (PDF, 275 KB; instead of macrons uses trema on vowels and tilde on n, and underlines instead of cedillas)
Marshallese Spelling Reforms article in the blog, "Far Outliers"
Kaipuleohone has recordings of stories from the 1950s as well as index cards of plant and animal words
Materials on Marshallese are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1 and AC2) held by Paradisec

Classification

Status

Historic sound changes

Orthography

Display issues

Cardinal numbers

Months

Weekdays

Marshallese atolls and islands

Other countries and places

Text examples

Modern orthography

Older orthography

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links