Family and origin
Pingelapese is a Micronesian member of the Austronesian language family. It is closely related to other languages within the Chuukic-Pohnpeic branch, sharing 83% lexical similarity with Mokilese and sharing 79% lexical similarity with Pohnpeian. Approximately 5,000 years ago, the Austronesian peoples voyaged eastward from Taiwan, and eventually made it to Micronesia about 3,000 years later. Morton et al. estimated that theHistory
Since the introduction of democracy into the Micronesian regions, the Pingelapese people were grouped together with the remaining outer islands of Pohnpei to create the political State of Pohnpei. Other cultural influences are evident in Pingelapese history. The Spanish era is portrayed in the Pingelapese dance called "Din Dihn" which is loosely translated in English to "Tin Tin". The dance reflects the introduction of the durable foreign material calledHistorical sound changes
1 In the Pohnpeic languages, geminate obstruents are realized as homorganic nasal-obstruent clusters. 2 Often before .Calendar system
The Pingelapese language has a calendar system corresponding to theDate system
Each date of the month has a specific name: # E Sukoru (1st) - also known as the new moon # E Ling (2nd) # E Sehm (3rd) # Masepeng (4th) # Masalim (5th) # Mesawon (6th) # Meseis (7th) # Mesawel (8th) # Woalduadu (9th) # Medel (10th) # Siepwong (11th) # Arkohnge (12th) # Sekainpe (13th) # Woalopwo (14th) # Woalemwahu (15th) # Mas (16th) - also known as the full moon # Er (17th) # Lelidi (18th) # Koahmwaloa (19th) # Edemen Koahmwaloa (20th) # Apeleng (21st) # Sengek (22nd) # Wesengek (23rd) # Dapas (24th) # Dapasmeing (25th) # Kerdakehleng (26th) # Areiso (27th) # Semwenpal (28th) # Ihla (29th) # Esep (30th) # Epei (31st) In the Pingelapese culture, Monday marks the first day of the week. The names for the days of the week come from the Pingelapese non specific object numeral set. This number follows the prefix "niy-" to become the word designated for the day of the week. For example, the Pingelapese word for Monday is "niyaehd". The words for the other days of the months are as follows: niyari (Tuesday), niyesil (Wednesday), niyaepang (Thursday), and niyalim (Friday).Numerals
The Pingelapese language incorporates at least five sets of numeral classifiers. These classifiers combine numbers and nouns. The nouns must have some sort of relation to the object for example, how it is shaped or how it is used. Each of these set designates a different set of words to represent the numeral one through nine. There is a set of words designated for describing long nouns, such as trees or roads. These numerals are: # aepas # risepas # silipas # pahpas # luhpas # woanaepas # isipas # waelaepas # duaepas There is another set of words used to count animate things, such as: men, fish or birds. This words are as follows: # aemen # riaemaen # silimaen # pahmaen # luhmaen # woanaemaen # isimaen # waelaemaen # duaemaen A third set is designated for small or partial objects and these are as follows: # ekis # risekis # silikis # pahkis # lumikis # woanikis # isikis # waelikis # duoau For all other nouns (couples, stream, land), there is another set of words to represent the numbers one through nine. # eu # riau # silu # pahu # limau # wonou # isu # waelu # duoau There is one final set of number names. This set is used to count things that are not specific. This list includes: # aehd # ari # esil # aepoang # alim # awoahn # aeis # aewael # add # eisik For numbers greater that nine, there is only one word for each numeral. they no longer vary depending on what they are being used to count. The Pingepalese words for numbers greater than 9 are as follows: * 10 - eisaek * 20 - rieisaek * 30 - silihsaek * 40 - pahisaek * 50 - limeisaek * 60 - woneisaek * 70 - isihsaek * 80 - waelihsaek * 90 - tueisaek * 100 - epwiki * 200 - repwiki * 300 - silipwiki * 400 - pahpwiki * 500 - limepwiki * 600 - wonepwiki * 700 - isipwiki * 800 - waelipwiki * 900 - duepwiki * 1,000 - kid * 10,000 - naen * 100,000 - lop * 1,000,000 - rar * 10,000,000 - dep * 100,000,000 - sap * 1,000,000,000 - lik When reading a number in Pingelapse, start with the biggest number first and read the smaller numbers in succession. An example of this would be as follows: the number 1,769 would be spoken as "kid isipwiki woneisaek duoau".Sentence structure
The Pingelapese language has four major types of sentences. These four are transitive sentences, intransitive sentences, existential sentences, and equational sentences. Transitive sentences The first type of sentence, transitive, use transitive verbs. Transitive verbs have two main characteristics. The first characteristic is that it must be an action verb expressing an activity that can physically be done. For example, drink, sit, or drive. The second characteristic is that there must be a direct object, meaning someone or something has to be the recipient of the action verb. For example, Susan drank the water. Two participants must be involved to have a transitive sentence. There is also a fixed word order: subject-transitive verb-object. For example, Susan (subject) filled (transitive verb) the cup (object). If the verb is active in a transitive sentence, the subject's semantic role is the agent. The object's semantic role would be the patient. (Payne 2006:105-107) Intransitive sentences The second sentence structure used in Pingelapese would be intransitive verb sentences. An intransitive verb has no object attached to it. For example, Richard winked. In Pingelapese must be a stative verb or an active verb. A stative verb is when the person or object is affected by said verb. An active verb occurs if the action is performed by the subject. There is a specific word order for intransitive sentences too. This word is order Subject-Verb. Referring back to the previous example, Richard (subject) winked (verb). There are also cases when the word order used is Verb-Subject for intransitive sentence structure, however not all intransitive verbs can use the Verb-Subject word order. Verb-Subject word order is only available in Pingelapese when referencing unaccusative verbs or by discourse pragmatics. Intransitive sentences also known as "existential" have a postverbal subject the majority of the time. Intransitive verbs only have one solid grammatical relation which is the subject of the sentence. When the verb is active the entity is doing the action. Existential sentences Existential sentences are the third type of sentence structure used. Normally existential sentences that have a post-verbal subject are used in the beginning of a story to introduce new characters or objects that have not been referenced before. These verbs are not used when the character is already known. If a character is already known, the verb would be used in the preverbal position This form has a dominant post-verbal subject order. Post-verbal subjects allow new characters to be introduced or new and unknown events to happen. Existential sentences make a claim that something either exists or it does not. There are not many verbs of existential origin in Pingelapese. These include “minae” (to exist), “soh” (to not exist), “dir” (to exist in large numbers), and “daeri” (to be finished). All four of these verbs use a postverbal subject. These words are generally used when introducing characters of a story. . Verbal equational sentences In most Micronesian languages, a verb may not be required. Some sentences, called equational sentences, use one noun phrase to identify or locate another noun phrase, without the need of a verbal element. One of the nouns is used to indicate location and the other noun is used for identification. There is also an auxiliary verb located in between the two nouns. Pingelapese has a similar sentence type, although instead of a verbless construction it employs a verbal construction. ''e/ae'' are used in Pingelapese as auxiliary verbs, which are verbs that are used to supplement other verbs. These auxiliary verbs can be used independently to equate two noun phrases. They can also be used to indicate a question. ''e'' is used when the speaker is certain of his statement and ''ae'' is used when the speaker is uncertain of his statement. Example sentences are shown below. ''Calvin daekah Brenda e soaun-padahk-pwi'' ‘Calvin and Brenda are teachers.” ''Calvin daekah Brenda ae soaun-padahk-pwi'' ‘Calvin and Brenda are teachers?”Direct questions
Direct questions are mostly asked with a question word, but when a question word is excluded from the sentence, a question is distinguished by a non-falling final intonation (remains steady or slightly spiked intonation). The question words are as follows: "ish" means "who", "dah" means "what", "ngahd" means "when".Morphology
Similar to other languages, words in Pingelapese can take different forms to add to or even change their meanings. Verbal suffixes are morphemes added at the end of a word to change its form. Pingelapese uses many verbal suffixes, but few verbal prefixes. Prefixes are those that are added at the front. For example, the Pingelapese suffix –''kin'' means ‘with’ or ‘at.’ It is added at the end of a verb. ''ius'' = to use --> ''ius-kin'' = to use with ''mwahu'' = to be good --> ''mwahu-kin'' = to be good at ''sa''- is an example of a verbal prefix. It is added to the beginning of a word and means ‘not.’ The following sentence is an example of how ''-sa'' is used. ''pwung'' = to be correct --> ''sa-pwung'' = to be incorrect There are also directional suffixes that when added to the root word give the listener a better idea of where the subject is headed. The verb ''alu'' means to walk. A directional suffix can be used to give more detail. -''da'' = ‘up’ --> ''aluh-da'' = to walk up -''di'' = ‘down’ --> ''aluh-di'' = to walk down -''eng'' = ‘away from speaker and listener’ --> ''aluh-eng'' = to walk away Pingelapese also uses reduplication. This can be either partial or total reduplication when speaking with durative meaning. Triplification is also used. Generally a part of a verb or a whole verb is repeated to communicate continuative meaning. The only other languages that use triplification are Tibetan, Chintang, Batwana, and Thao. Directional suffixes are not limited to motion verbs. When added to non-motion verbs, their meanings are a figurative one. The following table gives some examples of directional suffixes and their possible meanings. Preverbal prefix list:Reduplication and triplication
The Pingelapese language uses reduplication and triplication. Reduplication is used to show that a verb is being acted continuously. An example of this would be "wou", which means "to bark", and "wouwou", which means "barking". Triplication shows that the action is "still" happening. Using the same example, "wou-wou-wou" would mean "still barking". Oftentimes reduplication and triplication produce consonant clusters. There are two ways that the language handles these consonant clusters. The first being, if the consonants are homorganic, the first would be left out and the next vowel is lengthened. An example of this would be the verb "to swim". In Pingepalese, the word for the verb "to swim" would be "pap", but the word for continuously swimming would be "pahpap", while "still swimming" would be "pahpahpap". If the consonants are not homorganic with each other, a vowel is inserted in between the two consonants to break them up. For example, the verb meaning "to dance" is "wen". The continuous action of "dancing" would be conveyed as "wenewen", while "still dancing would be "wenewenewen". The most common form of reduplication comes in the same phoneme count as the aforementioned examples, three. The second most common occurrence of reduplication and triplication are in the replication of the first four phonemes. A few four phoneme reduplication examples are as follows: "kusupaek" (the coming of surf over reef in low tide) would be reduplicated as "kusukusupaek" and "kerir" (to love in secret) would be reduplicated as "kerikerir".Orthography
Many native speakers of Pingelapese have little practice reading and writing in their language. On the atoll and in other areas, Pingelapese speakers speak Pingelapese at home and at church. English and Pohnpeian are the main languages of education and administrative communication. Because of this, Pingelapese people have proficiency reading and writing in English and Pohnpeian, but few people are able to read or write Pingelapese, leaving it to be a predominantly spoken language. There is a significant literacy challenge when it comes to learning Pingelapese. There are few study materials available to elementary school student to teach them Pingelapese, and therefore it is common for students to learn only English and Pohnpeian. Children often have a difficult time learning how to read and write both Pingelapese and Pohnpeian, often incorrectly correlating sounds and letters. The difficulty of learning how to read and write in Pingelapese may also be due to an inadequate alphabet suited to the language. This along with the lack of training in the language makes many people reluctant to write in Pingelapese. Unlike many other Micronesian languages, the Pingelapese people were never able to form a proper orthography committee board. The purpose of this board is to develop an official and agreed upon writing system. This has left the Pingelapese language with different spellings of its documents and records. For example, the name has been spelt as both Pingilap and Pingelap. It has been reported that around fifty years ago there was an early orthography taught at the Pingelap elementary atoll. It is not known to many people, but elderly Pingelapese people have confirmed it. It is not actively used or taught in schools despite efforts to revive it. The loss of this orthography could have been due to emigration out of the Pingelap and into Pohnpei, increasing the use of the Pohnpeian alphabet. Most people who speak Pingelapese use Pohnpeic orthography for administrative and educational purposes and early orthography for history and legends of Pingelap. There are great differences between early orthography and Pohneic orthography when it comes to phonemic distinction. Some of these differences can alter the meaning of some words in Pingelapese. Some other differences are the number of vowels. Pingelapese has eight and Pohnpeian orthography has only six. This means that the distinction of some of the vowels in Pingelapese are underrepresented in Pohnpeic. These changes cause drastic ambiguity that context cannot fix, such as tense change.Phonology
The degree of language used differs between communities. All of the Pingelap communities have experienced language shift. The Pingelapese language consists of a total of thirty-five phonemes. There are 11 consonants and 14 vowels. Pingelapese has ten syllables and eight vowel phonemes. This is the first recorded Pohnpeic language that has an eight-vowel system. Multiple young and elderly Pingelapese speakers in the Mwalok and Pingelap atoll can confirm this recent discovery of the eighth vowel. This is also the first Pohnpeic system that has a more symmetrical vowel system withPronouns
Subject pronouns are personal pronouns that are used as the subject of a verb. In Pingelapese, subject pronouns originated from eitherReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pingelapese Language Endangered Austronesian languages Languages of the Federated States of Micronesia Pohnpeic languages Pohnpei