Marshallese language

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. Within the Micronesian archipelago, Marshallese—along with the rest of the Micronesian language group—is not as closely related to the more ambiguously classified Oceanic language Yapese in Yap State, or to the Polynesian outlier languages Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro in Pohnpei State, and even less closely related to the non-Oceanic languages Palauan in Palau and Chamorro in the Mariana Islands. == Variation ==

The Republic of the Marshall Islands contains 34 atolls that are split into two chains, the eastern Ratak Chain and the western Rālik Chain. The Ratak and Rālik dialects differ phonetically in how they deal with stems that begin with double consonants. == Status ==

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. ==Phonology==

Consonants Marshallese has a large consonant inventory, and each consonant has some type of secondary articulation (palatalization, velarization, or rounding). 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. 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 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==

'' 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. 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: As of 2019, there are no dedicated precomposed characters in Unicode for the letters ; they must be displayed as plain Latin letters with combining diacritics, and even many Unicode fonts will not display the combinations properly and neatly. Although exist as precomposed characters in Unicode, these letters also do not display properly as Marshallese letters in most Unicode fonts. Unicode defines the letters as having a cedilla, but fonts usually display them with a comma below because of rendering expectations of the Latvian alphabet. For many fonts, a workaround is to encode these letters as the base letter followed by a zero-width non-joiner and then a combining cedilla, producing . Both systems already require fonts that display Basic Latin (with ) and Latin Extended-A (with ). The standard orthography also requires Combining Diacritical Marks for the combining diacritics. The MOD's alternative letters have the advantage of being neatly displayable as all-precomposed characters in any Unicode fonts that support Basic Latin, Latin Extended-A along with Latin-1 Supplement (with ) and Latin Extended Additional (with ). If a font comfortably displays both the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration and the Vietnamese alphabet, it can also display MOD Marshallese. This chart highlights the display issues in common web fonts and common free Unicode fonts that are known to support standard or MOD Marshallese lettering. Distinct typefaces appear only if the operating environment supports them. Some fonts have combining diacritic alignment issues, and the vast majority of the fonts have the Latvian diacritic issue; of the fonts shown below, only the Noto series displays Marshallese correctly. Differences in orthography The old orthography was still very similar to the new orthography but made fewer phonological distinctions in spelling than the new orthography does. The new orthography attempts phonological consistency while adhering to most of the spelling patterns of the old orthography, especially in regard to vowels and . It has made the new orthography relatively easy for old orthography users to learn. The phonology of Marshallese was documented by Bender (1969) with written examples using the old orthography. Here are some differences between the new and old orthographies: • The new orthography uses the cedillaed letters . The old orthography did not use cedillas and ambiguously wrote them . • The new orthography uses for "light" and for "heavy" . The old orthography used for both. • : Compare old vs. new , 'pencil'. • The new orthography consistently uses for "light" in all positions. The old orthography often wrote before vowels, and after vowels. • : Compare old vs. new , 'United States'. • : Compare old or vs. new , 'forever'. • Except in certain affixes like whose spelling may be fixed, the new orthography spells the vowel monophthong allophone as in all positions. The old orthography had , but it was relatively less common, and was sometimes written instead. • : Compare old vs. new , 'Ebeye'. • Except in certain affixes like whose the spelling of the vowels may be fixed, the new orthography spells the vowel monophthong allophone as in all positions. The old orthography spelled as between consonants. • : Compare old vs. new , 'Christmas'. • The new orthography uses only for allophones of the vowel phoneme . In the old orthography, some words used , but other words used instead. • : Compare old vs. new , 'land'. • The new orthography uses the letter for the vowel monophthong allophone along with many of its related diphthong allophones. The old orthography spelt as between consonants but at the ends of words. • : Compare old vs. new , 'hello; good bye; love'. • : Compare old vs. new , 'taboo'. • The new orthography tries to consistently write long vowels and geminated consonants with double letters. The old orthography habitually wrote these as single letters. • : Compare old vs. new , 'study'. • : Compare old vs. new , 'no'. • The word ('hello; goodbye; love') and the phrase ('hello [to you]') are a special case. The new orthography's rules use , while the old orthography's rules used . However, has been historically more entrenched in both orthographies, but the letter does not exist in the normal spelling rules of either orthography. That spelling has multilingual significance as well; is also the established spelling for the greeting when used in Marshallese-influenced English and by anglophones in the Marshall Islands. ==Bender's orthography==

In his 1968 publication Marshallese Phonology, linguist Byron W. Bender designed a purely morphophonemic orthography, based on the symbols found on a manual typewriter, with regular reflexes between the dialects and intended for use in dictionaries and language teaching. Besides also appearing in his 1969 tutorial Spoken Marshallese, it appeared in a modified form alongside the "new" orthography in the 1976 Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) to which he contributed. Bender later collaborated with Stephen Trussel when the MED was adapted to website format as the Marshallese-English Online Dictionary (MOD), with Bender's orthography appearing in an again-modified form. The MOD's version of Bender's orthography uses under-dot diacritics instead of the cedillas used both by the "new" orthography and by the 1976 MED's version of Bender's orthography, for reasons specific to the MOD's display issues. In addition to plain sequences of phonemes, Bender's orthography recognizes a few special sequences, many of which relate to regular differences between the Rālik and Ratak dialects of Marshallese. • is for a "passing over lightly" version of the vowel allophone that occurs at the beginning of certain words, phonetically pronounced and existing on the phonemic level as . For example, is equivalent to "hello; goodbye; love". • is for a "dwelling upon" version of that occurs at the beginning of certain words, now generally written in the "new" orthography, phonetically pronounced and existing on the phonemic level as , effectively making it identical to . An example is , which is equivalent to "reunion". • at the beginning of a word, without apostrophes, indicates a version of whose reflex differs between the two dialects. In the Rālik dialect, this assumes the "dwelling upon" pronunciation, equivalent to . In the Ratak dialect, it instead assumes the "passing over lightly" pronunciation, equivalent to . An example is , equivalent to "road": • In the Rālik dialect, becomes and is often instead written as in the "new" orthography. • In the Ratak dialect, becomes . • at the beginning of a word (where "V" can be any vowel) indicates a back unrounded vowel that whose reflex differs between the dialects. In the Rālik dialect, becomes , lengthening the vowel. In the Ratak dialect, the second disappears, becoming , and the vowel remains short. An example is , equivalent to "yes": • In the Rālik dialect, becomes and is often instead written as in the "new" orthography. • In the Ratak dialect, becomes . • at the beginning of a word (where "V" can be any vowel) is usually equivalent to . • at the beginning of a word (where "V" can be any vowel) usually becomes in the Rālik dialect, but usually becomes in the Ratak dialect. • When a Bender orthography spelling begins with a doubled consonant other than , such as "good", its reflex differs between the dialects. • In the Rālik dialect, becomes , sprouting both a prothetic and a vowel. The dialect generally spells this "good" in the "new" orthography, making it homophonous with the phrase which means "it is good" in both dialects. • In the Ratak dialect, becomes with only a prothetic vowel, appearing instead between the two consonants. The dialect generally spells this "good" in the "new" orthography. • In both dialects, the prothetic vowel is equivalent to the first stem vowel unless it is , in which case the stem vowel is always paired with the prothetic vowel . But when spellings like take prefixes with a vowel, there are no prothetic vowels: "person" + "good" becomes , which the "new" orthography spells "good person". ==Grammar==

Morphology Nouns are not overtly marked as such, and do not inflect for number, gender, or case. 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 (). 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: {{interlinear|lang=mh|indent=2 In equational sentences, both the subject and predicate are noun phrases: {{interlinear|lang=mh|indent=2 ==Vocabulary==

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==