Pohnpeian language

Pohnpeian is a Micronesian language spoken as the indigenous language of the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian has approximately 30,000 (estimated) native speakers living in Pohnpei and its outlying atolls and islands with another 10,000-15,000 (estimated) living off island in parts of the US mainland, Hawaii, and Guam. It is the second-most widely spoken native language of the Federated States of Micronesia the first being Chuukese.

Pohnpeian features a " high language", referred to as or including specialized vocabulary used when speaking to, or about people of high rank.

Classification

Pohnpeian is most closely related to the Chuukic languages of Chuuk (formerly Truk). Ngatikese, Pingelapese and Mwokilese of the Pohnpeic languages are closely related languages to Pohnpeian. Pohnpeian shares 81% lexical similarity with Pingelapese, 75% with Mokilese, and 36% with Chuukese.

Pohnpeian employs a great deal of loanwords from colonial languages such as English, Japanese, Spanish, and German. However, these loanwords are neither spelled nor pronounced exactly the same as the source language. Examples of these loanwords include:

* , meaning "frog", borrowed from the Japanese ,
* , meaning "baseball", borrowed from the Japanese ,
* , meaning "to win", borrowed from the Spanish
* , meaning "boat", borrowed from the English
* , meaning "to draw or paint a picture", borrowed from the German

Phonology

The modern Pohnpeian orthography uses twenty letters — sixteen single letters and four digraphs — collated in a unique order:

As German missionaries designed an early form of the orthography, Pohnpeian spelling uses -h to mark a long vowel, rather like German: 'mountain'. The IPA equivalents of written Pohnpeian are as follows:

Phonotactics

Pohnpeian phonotactics generally allow syllables consisting of consonants (C) and vowels (V) accordingly: V, VC, CV, CVC. This basic system is complicated by Pohnpeian orthographical conventions and phonological processes. Orthographically, is used to represent , though it is often unwritten; ''-u'' is realized as ; and indicates a long vowel (a spelling convention inherited from German). Thus, is pronounced , never . Consecutive vowels are glided with or , depending on the relative height and order of the vowels:
* is said ("to find")
* is said ("to have a runny nose")
* is said ("bad")
* is said ("cooled")

While the glide is never written other than as the glide may be written between and a non-high vowel: ("bad").

Words beginning in nasal consonant clusters may be pronounced as written, or with a leading prothetic vowel. The roundedness of the prothetic vowel depends on that of the adjacent consonant cluster and the first written syllable. For example:
* can be said ("blood")
* may be ("a while ago")
* is optionally ("twin")
* may be (a species of crab)

Pohnpeian orthography renders the consonant clusters and as and , respectively.

Substitution and assimilation

Further phonological constraints frequently impact the pronunciation and spelling of consonant clusters, triggered variously by reduplication and assimilation into neighboring sounds. Sound changes, especially in reduplication, are often reflected by a change in spelling. However, processes triggered by affixes as well as adjacent words are not indicated in spelling. In order to inflect, derive, and pronounce Pohnpeian words properly, the order of operations must generally begin with liquid assimilation, followed by nasal assimilation, and end with nasal substitution.

First, liquid assimilation is seen most often in reduplication alongside spelling changes. By this process, liquids and are assimilated into the following alveolar (coronal) consonant: > ("contract").

The second process, nasal assimilation, presents two varieties: partial and complete. In partial nasal assimilation, assimilates with a following stop consonant to produce , , , , or . For example, the prefix ''nan-'' ("in") produces:
* , pronounced ("trade wind season")
* , pronounced ("between them")
* , pronounced ("inlet")
Partial assimilation also occurs across word boundaries: is pronounced . The allophone of is written "n" in these cases.

In complete nasal assimilation, assimilates into adjacent liquid consonants to produce or : ("oversexed," spelling change from reduplication); is said ("season of plenty"). Complete nasal assimilation also occurs across word boundaries: is said ("will be beautiful").

The third process, nasal substitution, also presents two varieties. Both varieties of nasal substitution affect adjacent consonants of the same type: alveolar (coronal), bilabial, or velar. The first variety is often triggered by reduplication, resulting in spelling changes: is reduplicated to ("tired").

The second variety of nasal substitution, limited to bilabial and velar consonants, occurs across word and morpheme boundaries:
* is pronounced as if it were ''kalam pahn'' ("always will be")
* is pronounced as if it were ''souling kin soupisek'' ("Soulik is abituallybusy")
This second variety of the nasal substitution process is phonemically more productive than the first: it includes all results possible in the first variety, as well as additional cluster combinations, indicated below. Some alveolar pairs produce an intervening vowel, represented as V below. Not all clusters are possible, and not all are assimilative, however.

By following the order of operations, reduplication of the word ("tired") progresses thus: (liquid assimilation) > (nasal substitution). In this case, the same result is achieved by nasal substitution alone.

Grammar

Pohnpeian word order is nominally SVO. Depending on the grammatical function, the head may come before or after its dependents. Like many Austronesian languages, Pohnpeian focus marking interacts with transitivity and relative clauses (see Austronesian alignment). Its range of grammatically acceptable sentence structures is more generally (1) noun phrase, (2) verb phrase (3) other noun phrases, where the contents of the leading noun phrase may vary according to the speaker's focus. If the leading noun phrase is not the subject, it is followed by the focus particle . Normally, the object phrase is last among predicates:

Honorific speech

Honorific speech is used in several settings as a way of showing honor and respect to older ones, those who have been assigned titles, royalty, and in almost all religious settings. Depending on the second or third person, a given sentence may vary widely because honorific speech comprises a separate vocabulary, including all parts of speech and topics both lofty and mundane. Examples include:
* (to eat with the )
* (high chief's wife)
* (chest; normally )
* (armpit; normally )
* (anus, normally )
* (to joke, normally )
* (to vomit)
* (an interjection)
Although at times in the absence of a specific honorific word, the word is often used to indicate that the proceeding verb is honoric ( would translate to "God creates"). The word has no meaning by itself. However, when used as a prefix, it is a sure way to distinguish honorific speech ( has the meaning of "Give", would be the honorific version of the same word).

Nouns

Nouns may be singular, dual, or plural in number, and generally inflect by suffixing. Numerals usually follow the nouns they count, and agree in noun class. Groups of nouns and adjectives comprise noun phrases. Pohnpeian transitive sentences contain up to three noun phrases.

Inalienable, or direct, possession is marked by personal suffixes. Other forms of possession are indicated through possessive classifiers. The construct suffix ''-n'' appears in oblique positions, such as possessive phrases. Words ending in ''n'', however, are followed by the clitic . Possessive phrases generally add this construct state to a classifier noun, followed by the possessor, and lastly the possessum. For example:

Some possessive classifiers, namely and , may precede the possessum:

Possessive classifiers can also occur with more than one following noun. The classifier itself may give a particular meaning to the possessum:
* means "pig"
* means "his (live) pig"
* means "his (butchered) pig"
* means "his pig (to eat)"

Determiners

Determiners in Pohnpeian may occurs as enclitics which are bound morphemes or independent words and occur in three basic types: demonstrative modifiers, pointing demonstratives, and demonstrative pronouns. All of the determiners have a three-way diectic distinction of proximal (near the speaker), medial (near the listener), and distal (away from both the speaker and listener), as well as an emphatic/non-emphatic distinction. Demonstratives are generally, suffixed to or following the last word of a noun phrase. Orthographically singular clitics are suffixed to the word, while plurals are written as separate words.

=Demonstrative modifiers

=
Demonstrative modifiers occur as enclitics with nouns and always occupy the last element in a noun phrase.

The singular emphatic demonstrative modifiers are formed by suffixing the non-emphatic singular forms to appropriate numeral classifier for the noun, such as ''men-'' for animate nouns. The plural forms are always constructed by suffixing the non-emphatic plural form to ''pwu-'' regardless of the singular classifier.

Examples of the demonstrative modifiers in use are

=Pointing modifiers

=
Pointing modifiers are determiners that can stand alone in a noun phrase and are used in equational (non-verbal) sentences. They can also occur by themselves as one word sentences. They have both non-emphatic and emphatic forms.

Example uses of pointing modifiers:
* 'Here is your knife'
* 'Here are your knives'
* 'Here it is!'
* 'There they are! (away from you and me)

=Demonstrative pronouns

=
Demonstrative pronouns are determiners that can replace noun phrases in a verbal sentence. They have both non-emphatic and emphatic forms.

Examples of demonstrative pronouns in use:
* 'This is broken'
* 'He/she took it there away from you and me'
* 'Those are broken'
* 'He/she took it there by you'

Pronouns

The relative pronoun means "one who is" or "which," and is used with adjectives and general verbs:
* (He one strong > He is the strong one)
* (He one eat > He is the one who ate)

Possessive classifiers

Possessive classifiers are used frequently and differentiate among person, possessum, and honorific usage. Their personal forms appear below:

Further possessive classifiers include:
* (third person honorific)
* (vehicles, canoes)
* (drinkable things)
* (buildings, homes)
* (pillows)
* (land)
* (things to sleep on)
* (earrings)
* (garlands, titles, names)
* (covers, sheets)
* (edibles)
* (catch of fish)

Specialized kinship classifiers include:
* (relatives)
* (clan members)
* (sibling in Crow kinship)
* (man's sister-relation's children)
* (persons with whom one has had sexual intercourse)

Honorifics

Honorifics comprise a largely separate vocabulary.

Numbers and measure words

Numbers normally follow the nouns they count, however they may be pre-posed in certain situations. Numbers and measure words depend on the grammatical class and physical characteristics of the object being counted. The several number systems are grouped by linguists into three sets, reflecting their term for "ten." When naming numbers in order, natives most often use the –''u'' class. is an alternate word for "ten" for ''-pak'' and ''-sou'' classifiers.

Higher numerals such as "hundred", "thousand", do not inflect for noun class. The system, above is likewise not class-based.

Ordinals are formed with the prefix ''ka–'', pronounced as ''ke–'' in certain words.

Verbs

Pohnpeian distinguishes between intransitive and transitive verbs. Transitive verbs are those with both a subject and an object. Intransitive verbs indicate most other verbal, adjectival, and adverbial relationships. Within verb phrases, aspect markers are followed by adverbs, and lastly the main verb.

Many, if not most, transitive and intransitive verbs share common roots, though their derivation is often unpredictable. Some thematic features among intransitive verbs include ablaut, reduplication, the suffix ''-ek'', and the prefix ''pV'', where V stands for any vowel. Thematic suffixes among transitive verbs include ''-ih'' and ''-VC'', where C stands for any consonant. Some transitive verbs also end in a final short vowel.

Pohnpeian indicates four grammatical aspects: unrealized, habitual, durative, and perfective. Alternations in vowel length, as well as ablaut, are a salient feature of the aspect paradigm.

Pohnpeian permits relative clauses and conjoined clauses through use of conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. The language also permits verbs within nominal clauses as gerundive clauses, finite clauses, and infinitive clauses.

Pohnpeian verbs allow for a high level of affixation. The allowable suffixes and their ordering is presented in the table below.

Intransitive verbs

Pohnpeian intransitive verbs can be divided into the following types:

There are five verbal prefixes, which appear as bound morphemes: the causative ''ka-'', the negatives ''sa-'' and ''sou-'', and two other semantic modifiers ''ak-'' and ''li-''.

''Ka-'', the causative prefix, makes intransitive verbs into transitive ones. It is the most productive prefix, as it is the only that can precede the other four above. It often occurs in conjunction with a reduplicative vowel suffix. For example, with , "be jealous", an adjective:
* : That woman is jealous
* : That woman was made jealous
* : That woman made the therwoman jealous
* , idle
* , busy (i.e., un-idle)
* , to make busy

The majority of intransitive verbs have only a transitive causative form: , "to be stupid." Among verbs where ''ka-'' is productive, only adjectives and a few resultative intransitive verbs have both intransitive and transitive causative forms. Though the prefix is productive in many active and resultative verbs, it is not productive with neutral intransitive verbs, nor for a handful of intransitives denoting bodily functions such as "sneeze" (), "frown" (), "be full" (), and "be smelly" (). The prefix ''ka-'' often has assimilative allophones depending on the stem, for example:
* (to tell a tale) becomes (to talk)
* (to climb) becomes (to trace one's ancestry)
* (to be hidden) becomes (secret sweetheart)

As illustrated in these examples, the prefix often causes semantic differentiation, necessitating different constructions for literally causative meanings; , a different form employing ''ka-'', is used to mean "to make hidden."

''Sa-'' and ''sou-'' negate verbs, however ''sou-'' is less productive than ''sa-'', which itself varies in productivity according to regional dialect. The general meaning of ''sa-'' appears to be "not," while ''sou-'' apparently means "un-," thus:
* , to understand; , to not understand
* , correct; , incorrect
* , concerned; , careless (i.e., un-concerned)

Like ''ka-'', ''sa-'' displays assimilative allophony:
* , "to know" > , "to not know"
* , "intelligent" > , "not intelligent."

Only a single example has been found of ''sa-'' preceding ''ka-'': the word means "inappropriate," deriving from the verb , "be competent."

''Ak-'' adds a semantic meaning of demonstration or display when combined with adjectives. When preceded by ''ka-'', it becomes ''kahk-''. ''Li-'' generally means "may," or "predisposed, given to" some quality or action.

=General intransitive verbs

=

General intransitive verbs describe actions or events. They are divided into active, resultative, and neutral subtypes. For example, (to eat) and (to fish) are active; (to be hung up) and (to be closed) are resultative (static); and (to sew, to be sewn) and (to steal, to be stolen) are neutral — they can have either an active or a resultative meaning. Though resultative verbs sometimes resemble passive transitive verbs in English, they are in fact a class of intransitive verbs in Pohnpeian, which entirely lacks a comparable active-passive voice distinction. For example, means both "That man will take a photograph" and "That man will be photographed." Reduplication is frequently productive among general intransitives and adjectives alike. Derivations often include reduplication:
* > "to urinate"
* > "to pull out">

Many intransitives are ablauted from their transitive forms, sometimes with reduplication:
* > "to carry on one's side"
* > "to cut"

Others are derived from transitive forms through the prefix ''pV-'', conveying a meaning of reciprocal action: (stare) > (stare at one another). These reciprocal intransitives form a distinct subgroup.

A few intransitives derive from transitive roots through the suffix ''-ek'', though this is a fossilized suffix and is no longer productive. For example, (to be found) from (to find); (for a thatch roof to be mended) from (to mend a thatch roof). Sometimes this results in two intransitive derivations of a single transitive root, usually with a semantic nuance:
* transitive "to wring", intransitive "to wring/be wrung", intransitive "to be twisted"
* transitive "to deceive", intransitive "to deceive/be deceived", intransitive "to be deceitful"
The suffix was apparently much more productive earlier in the language's history, even among active verbs.

Intransitives include verbs that incorporate their objects, in contrast with transitives, which state objects separately; this is somewhat akin to "babysitting" in English. This process sometimes results in vowel shortening within the incorporated noun. Any verbal suffixes, normally suffixed to the initial verb, follow the incorporated object. Incorporation is not possible when there is a demonstrative suffix, however:
* , I will mat-unroll
* , I will unroll mats
* , I will unroll that mat

=Adjectives

=

Pohnpeian adjectives are a class of non-action intransitive verbs. They function in a mostly parallel way to other intransitive verbs:
* – "He will run/be cruel"
* – "He is running/being cruel"
* – "He ran to/is cruel to that boy"
Many adjectives themselves can be used as commands, and have transitive counterparts.

Adjectives function as a subclass of intransitive verbs, though grammatical functions set them apart. For example, the superlative ''-ie'' is reserved for adjectives, as in , "beautiful," and , "most beautiful." Likewise reserved for adjectives is the suffix -''ki'', which indicates instrumentality in transitive verbs, means "to consider eautiful when suffixed to an adjective. Superlatives may also appear using the ordinal numeral "first." Comparatives are made through word order and the suffix ''-sang'': means "This pig is bigger than that pig."

One feature setting adjectives apart from non-active verbs is the productivity of the stative marker (different from the pronoun and focus particle ), which is generally not grammatically correct with intransitive verbs of any kind:
*, He is good; and , He ''is'' good!
*, It exists there; but not *.

Another aspect setting adjectives apart from other intransitives is that adjectives precede numerals, while intransitives follow. Adjectives generally follow the head noun, though possessives and numbers with fractions precede the noun:
*, boy
**, that boy
**, those three boys
**, those three tall boys
**, my three sons there
*, that orange
**, one-fourth of that orange
*, that breadfruit
**, three-fourths of that breadfruit

Transitive verbs

Transitive verbs consist of single roots and various suffixes upon modern intransitive verbs. Historically, intransitive verbs probably developed by dropping these transitive suffixes and ablauting.

Some transitive verbs end in -VC on intransitive forms, appearing as unablauted or without reduplication; as intransitives were likely products of final syllable dropping, the endings are rather unpredictable:
* > , "to plant"
* > , "to make fire"
* > , "to defecate"
* > , "to catch"

Several transitive verbs end in -''ih'' on intransitive roots, sometimes also with vowel changes:
* > , "to draw"
* > , "to tie"
* > , "to stir, probe"
This form is the most productive and is used with loanwords. For example: , deriving from German , means "to paint, draw."

Some transitive verbs ending in short final vowels have intransitive counterparts that lack those endings; again, ablaut and reduplication often differentiate. Examples include:
* > , "to hang up"
* > , "to spear"
* > , "to sharpen"
The short vowel ending ''-i'' appears only in ''-ki''.

Transitive verbal suffixes include the perfective ''-ehr'', ''-ki'' (which derives verbs from nouns; different from the noun instrumental suffix ''-ki'' and short vowel suffix), object pronoun suffixes, and a host of directional suffixes. These include ''-ehng'' (towards) and ''-sang'' (away, without).

Prepositions and Prepositional Nouns

Pohnpeian has two canonical prepositions and . is used to express the containment of an object in either 2D or 3D space by another object, and expresses the attachment of an object to another object.
*
**, 'That person is in the house.'
**, 'That cat is on the rug.'
*
**, 'That ring is on the woman's finger.'
**, 'The crack is in the cup.'

Basic phrases

Below are some basic words and phrases in Pohnpeian:
* - Hello (semi-formal)
* - Hello sir/ma'am (formal)
* - Hello ladies/gentlemen (plural, formal)
* - Hello/Goodbye (informal)
* - thank you (formal)
* - thank you (informal)
* - my name is
* - your name (singular, informal)
* - What is your name?
* - How are you? (singular, informal)
* - How are you? (singular, formal)
* - How are you? (to two people, informal)
* - How are you? (to three or more people, informal)
* - Where are you coming from? (singular, informal)

References

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External links

* Pohnpeian dictionary (1950) in Kaipuleohone
* Lessons in Ponapean (1967) and accompanying audio recordings
* Kitail Lokaiahn Pohnpei: Introductory Lessons in Ponapean (1969)
* Pohnpeian-English word list, approximately 8888 word

Written and audio materials for Pohnpeian
in Kaipuleohone, some materials are archived unde
Ponapean

Pohnpeian-English Online Dictionary

{{Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages

Pohnpeic languages
Languages of the Federated States of Micronesia
Pohnpei