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Marshallese Language
The Marshallese language ( mh, Kajin M̧ajeļ, link=no or ), also known as Ebon, is a Micronesian language spoken in the Marshall Islands. Spoken by the ethnic Marshallese people, the language is spoken by nearly the country's entire population of 59,000, making it the principal language of the country. There are also roughly 27,000 Marshallese citizens residing in the United States, nearly all of whom speak Marshallese, as well as in other countries including Nauru. There are two major dialects: Rālik (western) and Ratak (eastern). 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 Chuukese, Gilbertese, Kosraean, Nauruan and Pohnpeian. Marshallese shows 33% lexical similarity with Pohnpeian. Within the Micronesian archipelago, Marshallese—along with the rest of the Micronesian language group—is n ...
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SIL International
SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to expand linguistic knowledge, promote literacy, translate the Christian Bible into local languages, and aid minority language development. Based on its language documentation work, SIL publishes a database, ''Ethnologue'', of its research into the world's languages, and develops and publishes software programs for language documentation, such as FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) and Lexique Pro. Its main offices in the United States are located at the International Linguistics Center in Dallas, Texas. History William Cameron Townsend, a Presbyterian minister, founded the organization in 1934, after undertaking a Christian mission with the Disciples of Christ among the Kaqchikel Maya people in Guatemala in the early 1930s.George Thomas ...
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Nauruan Language
The Nauruan or Nauru language () is an Austronesian language, spoken natively in the island country of Nauru. Its relationship to the other Micronesian languages is not well understood. Phonology Consonants Nauruan has 16–17 consonant phonemes. Nauruan makes phonemic contrasts between velarized and palatalized labial consonants. Velarization is not apparent before long back vowels and palatalization is not apparent before non-low front vowels. Voiceless stops are geminated and nasals also contrast in length. Dental stops and become and respectively before high front vowels. The approximants become fricatives in "emphatic pronunciation." transcribes them as and but also remarks that they contrast with the non-syllabic allophones of the high vowels. Depending on stress, may be a flap or a trill. The precise phonetic nature of is unknown. transcribes it as and speculates that it may pattern like palatalized consonants and be partially devoiced. Between a ...
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Republic Of The Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the International Date Line. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia. The country's population of 58,413 people (at the 2018 World Bank Census) is spread out over five islands and 29 coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The capital and largest city is Majuro. It has the largest portion of its territory composed of water of any sovereign state, at 97.87%. The islands share maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and Federated States of Micronesia to the west. About 52.3% of Marshall Islanders (27,797 at the 2011 Census) live on Majuro. In 2016, 73.3% of the population were defined as being "urban". The UN also indicates a population den ...
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Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east. They lie south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea and east of the Philippines, demarcating the Philippine Sea's eastern limit. They are found in the northern part of the western Oceanic sub-region of Micronesia, and are politically divided into two jurisdictions of the United States: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and, at the southern end of the chain, the territory of Guam. The islands were named after the influential Spanish queen Mariana of Austria following their colonization in the 17th century. The indigenous inhabitants are the Chamorro people. Archaeologists in 2013 reported findings which indicated that the ...
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Chamorro Language
Chamorro (; ch, Finuʼ Chamorro, links=no (CNMI), (Guam)) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 58,000 people (about 25,800 people on Guam and about 32,200 in the rest of the Mariana Islands and elsewhere). It is the native and spoken language of the Chamorro people, the indigenous people of the Marianas (Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Guam is a US territory while the CNMI has greater autonomy as a US commonwealth). There are three different dialects of Chamorro — Guamanian, Rotanese, and the general NMI (Saipan and Tinian) dialects. Classification Unlike most of its neighbors, Chamorro is not classified as a Micronesian or Polynesian language. Rather, like Palauan, it possibly constitutes an independent branch of the Malayo-Polynesian language family. At the time the Spanish rule over Guam ended, it was thought that Chamorro was a semi-creole language, with a substantial amount of the vocabulary of Spanish origin and beginning to hav ...
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Palau
Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caroline Islands with parts of the Federated States of Micronesia. It has a total area of . The most populous island is Koror, home to the country's most populous city of the same name. The capital Ngerulmud is located on the nearby island of Babeldaob, in Melekeok State. Palau shares maritime boundaries with international waters to the north, the Federated States of Micronesia to the east, Indonesia to the south, and the Philippines to the northwest. The country was originally settled approximately 3,000 years ago by migrants from Maritime Southeast Asia. Palau was first drawn on a European map by the Czech missionary Paul Klein based on a description given by a group of Palauans shipwrecked on the Philippine coast on Samar. Palau islands ...
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Palauan Language
Palauan () is a Malayo-Polynesian language native to the Republic of Palau, where it is one of the two official languages, alongside English. It is widely used in day-to-day life in the country. Palauan is not closely related to other Malayo-Polynesian languages and its exact classification within the branch is unclear. Classification It is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, and is one of only two indigenous languages in Micronesia that are not part of the Oceanic branch of that family, the other being Chamorro (see , , , and ). Roger Blench (2015) argues that based on evidence from fish names, Palauan had early contact with Oceanic languages either directly or indirectly via the Yapese language. These include fish names for the sea eel, yellowfin tuna (''Thunnus albacares''), left-eye flounder (''Bothus mancus''), triggerfish, sailfish, barracuda (''Sphyraena barracuda''), damsel fish (''Abudefduf'' sp.), squirrelfish (''Holocentrus'' spp.), unicorn fish ('' ...
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Pohnpei State
Pohnpei State (IPA: pɔ:n peɪ) is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The other states are, from east to west, Kosrae State, Chuuk State, and Yap State. The state's main island is Pohnpei. History The pre-colonial history of Pohnpei is divided into three stages: Mwehin Kawa or Mwehin Aramas (ca. 1100); Mwehin Sau Deleur (from ca. 1100 to ca. 1628); and Mwehin Nahnmwarki (from ca. 1628 to ca. 1885). In Pohnpei there are interesting ruins of a Micronesian civilization, especially the ruins of Nan Madol. Spanish Colonization The Caroline Islands, within which the island of Pohnpei is currently included, were visited on 22 August 1526 by the Spanish explorer Toribio Alonso de Salazar. On 1 January 1528, the explorer Alonso de Saavedra took possession of the islands of Uluti in the name of the King of Spain. The archipelago was visited in 1542, by the Matelotes Islands in 1543 and 1545, and by Legazpi in 1565. The first European visitor to Ponap ...
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Nukuoro Language
The Nukuoro language is a Polynesian Outlier language, spoken by about 1,200 people on Nukuoro Atoll and on Pohnpei, two islands of Pohnpei State within the Federated States of Micronesia. Nukuoro is a remote coral atoll with a population of about 150, where the primary language is Nukuoro. An additional several hundred Nukuoro speakers live in Kolonia, Pohnpei, with smaller diaspora communities elsewhere in Micronesia and in the United States. Most Nukuoro speakers, particularly those that live away from Nukuoro Atoll, are multilingual in Pohnpeian and/or English; some older Nukuoro speakers also know German or Japanese. Classification Nukuoro belongs to the Polynesian language family, a branch of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian family. It is closely related to other Polynesian languages, with considerable phonological and lexical similarities. Within the Polynesian branch, Nukuoro is a member of the Polynesian Outliers, which are spoken by island populations in Mi ...
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Kapingamarangi Language
Kapingamarangi is a Polynesian language spoken in the Federated States of Micronesia. It had 3,000 native speakers in 1995. The language is closely related to the Nukuoro language. Introduction History The Kapingamarangi language is a language spoken on islands in the Pacific Ocean by people from Kapingamarangi, the Pohnpei Island, and in the Pohnrakied village in Pohnpei. A small number of Kapingamarangi speakers are also found on other nearby islands, or in communities around the world to which they have immigrated. Kapingamarangi was first recorded on an expedition in 1557 by Spanish navigator . Kapingamarangi, also known as Kirinit, is categorized in the Austronesian language family, along with many other Pacific languages. The Kapingamarangi language is spoken not only on the atoll of Kapingamarangi, but also in the village of Pohnrakied, located on the island of Pohnpei. Population Kapingamarangi currently has three thousand total speakers: one thousand speakers on the a ...
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Polynesian Outlier
Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific subregions: Melanesia and Micronesia. Based on archaeological and linguistic analysis, these islands are considered to have been colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the area of Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu. The closest Polynesian outliers, Anuta and Tikopia in Solomon Islands, were settled some time between the 10th and 13th centuries and subsequently received multiple waves of Polynesian immigration, while the farthest outlier, Nukuoro in the Federated States of Micronesia, was only settled in the 18th century. General definition The region commonly termed "Polynesia" includes thousands of islands, most of them arranged in a rough triangle bounded by Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. Outside this Polynesian Triangle, in are ...
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Yap State
Yap State, also known in the Yapese language as Nam nu Wa'ab (lit. "Island of Yap") or simply as Wa'ab, is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The other states are Kosrae State, Pohnpei State, and Chuuk State. Colonia is the capital of Yap State, which administers both the Yap Main Islands and the island of Satawal, as well as fourteen atolls reaching to the east and south for some . Historically, a tributary system existed between the Neighboring Islands and the Yap Main Islands. This probably related to the need for goods from the high islands, including food, as well as wood for construction of seagoing vessels. According to the FSM Statistics Office, the population of Colonia and the municipalities of the State of Yap was 11,577 in 2020. The state has a total land area of . History The islands are thought to have been populated from the Malay Archipelago. In approximately 950 AD it was the seat of the Yapese Empire contemporary to the Tu'i ...
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