The Marshallese language (Marshallese: Kajin M̧ajeļ or Kajin Majõl ) or Ebon is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Marshall Islands. Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages used by some 351 million speakers. ... The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages. ... The family of Central-Eastern Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Oceanic languages. ... The family of Micronesian Proper languages is a subgroup of the Micronesian languages. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages used by some 351 million speakers. ...

Sounds

Consonants

Marshallese has 22 consonants (five of which are written with digraphs), plus a supplementary velar central approximant consonant (often not written in the current orthography): In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

• Marshallese has a number of consonants with contrasting secondary articulations:
  • palatalized consonants
  • velarized consonants
  • labialized-velarized consonants

(Note that central approximants in the table above actually have a single articulation.) In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ... Labialisation is a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant. ... Labialisation is a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Rhotic consonants, or R-like sounds, are non-lateral liquid consonants. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. ... Co-articulated consonants are consonants produced with two simultaneous places of articulation. ...

• The velarized bilabial stop is phonetically voiced.

A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ...

Vowels

Marshallese has four vowel phonemes each with several allophones: Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar phones that belong to the same phoneme. ...

Marshallese vowels are not specified along the front-back and rounded-unrounded dimensions, but on the height and ATR dimensions (see the IPA classification of vowels in the table on the right). This means that a given vowel phoneme will have several different phonetic realizations. A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... Vowels See also: IPA, Consonants Near‑close Close‑mid Mid Open‑mid Near‑open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... Underspecification is a phenomenon in theoretical linguistics where certain features are omitted in underlying representations. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Exolabial and endolabial [ʏ] in Swedish. ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ...

For example, the high vowel phoneme /ɨ/ may alternately be pronounced as [i], [ɯ], [u], [i͡ɯ], [i͡u], [ɯ͡i], [ɯ͡u], [u͡i], [u͡ɯ], depending on the context:

• Specifically, vowels next to palatized consonants become front unrounded ([i], [ɪ], [e], [ɛ]),
• vowels next to velarized consonants become back unrounded ([ɯ], [ɤ], [ʌ], [ɑ]),
• and vowels next to labialized consonants become back rounded ([u], [ʊ], [o], [ɔ]).
• When between two consonants of different types (e.g., a velarized consonant and a labialized consonant), the vowels become diphthongs, beginning with the surface form found next to the preceding consonant, and ending with the surface form found next to the following consonant (e.g., in the case of a vowel between a velarized and labialized consonant, the diphthongs would be [ɯ͡u], [ɤ͡ʊ], [ʌ͡o], [ɑ͡ɔ]:

Syllable and phonotactics

Stress

Orthography

Marshallese underwent a change of orthography in recent times. However, most people still use the old orthography. It is written in a form of the Latin alphabet with unusual diacritic combinations. There are different alphabetic systems in use by Marshallese speakers depending on religious affiliation. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... A diacritical mark or diacritic, also called an accent mark, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. ...

Here is the (current) alphabet (note that letters with a macron are usually represented with a tilde in printed texts, eg, ō becomes õ): A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... A macron, from Greek (makros) meaning large, is a diacritic ¯ placed over a vowel originally to indicate that the vowel is long. ...

Sometimes, the unusual combinations of letters with combining macrons are replaced by vowels with diaeresis and by ñ/Ñ (or by an ŋ/Ŋ letter), and the combining cedilla is replaced by ł/Ł, or underlined letters (or letters with combining macron below). Ñ and ñ in Arial and Times New Roman, with an example word from Panare Ñ is a letter of the modern Roman alphabet formed by an N with a diacritical tilde. ... The eng is a letter: ÅŠ (capital), Å‹ (small). ... Łł Ł or Å‚, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka (Latin Belarusian), and Navajo alphabets. ...

Finally, the velar approximant /ɰ/ may be seen written as h/H or ʔ (adding one more letter to the alphabet). And some orthographies make distinctions between allophones of the same palatal central approximant /j/ phoneme, i.e. between j/J [ʒ] and y/Y [j] (adding another letter to the alphabet).^{[citation needed]}

Grammar

One Marshallese word is yokwe, which means both hello and good-bye. It also means love. (Compare Hawaiian aloha.) This word may also be written iakwe and io̧kwe. The Hawaiian language is an Austronesian language that takes its name from that of the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. ... The phenomenon called the Aloha Spirit inspired the naming of Aloha Tower, which has greeted vessels to port at Honolulu Harbor since September 11, 1926. ...

Spelling

Marshallese spelling is highly variable. Not only are there multiple orthographies in common use, but spelling is inconsistent within an orthography. For example, ejjelok (no or not) is sometimes spelled ejelok and aoleb is sometimes spelled aolep.

Text examples

Modern orthography

Here is the Hail Mary in Marshallese Unicode. Compare with this scanned image to see how it should look with all the diacritics in place. Hail Mary (disambiguation). ...

Io̧kwe eok Maria, kwo lōn̄ kōn
menin jouj;
Irooj ej pād ippam̧.
Kwo jeram̧m̧an iaan kōrā raņ im
ejeram̧m̧an ineen lo̧jiōm̧, Jesus.
O Maria kwojarjar, jinen Anij,
kwōn jar kōn kem rijjerawiwi.
Kiiō im ilo iien
amwōj mej. Amen.

Older orthography

Here is the Lord's Prayer as given in the 1982 Marshallese Bible, which uses the older orthography (most commonly used today). Representation of the Sermon on the Mount The Lords Prayer in Swahili. ...

Jememuij iljõñ:

En kwojarjar im utiej etam;

En itok am Ailiñ;

Kimin kõmõnmõn ankilam ilõl einwõt air kõmmõn ilõn.

Letok ñõn kim kijim rainin.

Jolok amuij bwid ibbam,

Einwõt kimij julok bwid ko an ro jet ibbem.

Am melejjoñe kim en jab ellã jen joñan,

Ak kwon kejbarok kim jen Eo Enana.

[Bwe am Ailiñ im kajur im aibuijuij indrio, Amen.]

External links

Marshallese language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Marshallese Phrasebook on the website for the Republic of Marshall Islands lists the Marshallese word for the Marshallese language as kajin Majöl
• 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)
• Everything2 page on Marshallese
• Ethnologue report on Marshallese
• Marshallese in the Rosetta Project
• Marshallese Spelling Reforms article in the blog, "Far Outliers"
• A Brief Introduction to Marshallese Phonology, a paper by Heather Willson
• Mark Hale: Phonological Change, which includes a long discussion of Marshallese historical phonology

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1058x1058, 477 KB) aa Wikipedia logo, version 1058px square, no text Wikipedia logo by Nohat (concept by Paullusmagnus); compare Wikipedia File links The following pages link to this file: Arabic language Talk:Anarcho-capitalism Talk:Algorithm Talk:Anno Domini Talk:The... Wikipedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Portable Document Format (PDF), sometimes mistaken for Printable Document Format, is an open file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 and is now being prepared for submission as an ISO standard. ... The Rosetta Project is a global collaboration of language specialists and native speakers working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone to last from 2000 to 2100. ...

Bibliography

• Bender, Byron W. (1968). Marshallese phonology. Oceanic Linguistics, 7, 16-35.
• Bender, Byron W. (1969). Spoken Marshallese. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
• Bender, Byron W. (1969). Vowel dissimilation in Marshallese. In Working papers in linguistics (No. 11, pp. 88-96). University of Hawaii.
• Bender, Byron W. (1973). Parallelisms in the morphophonemics of several Micronesian languages. Oceanic Linguistics, 12, 455-477.
• Choi, John D. (1992). Phonetic underspecification and target interpolation: An acoustic study of Marshallese vowel allophony. UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics (No. 82).
• Hale, Mark. (2000). Marshallese phonology, the phonetics-phonology interface and historical linguistics. The Linguistic Review, 17, 241-257.