| Chuukese | |
|---|---|
| Trukese | |
| Chuuk | |
| Native to | Federated States of Micronesia |
| Region | Chuuk |
| Ethnicity | Chuukese |
Native speakers | (51,330 cited 2000 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin script | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Federated States of Micronesia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | chk |
| ISO 639-3 | chk |
| Glottolog | chuu1238 |
Chuukese (/tʃuːˈkiːz/), also renderedTrukese (/trʌˈkiːz/),[2] is aChuukic language of theAustronesian language family spoken primarily on the islands ofChuuk in theCaroline Islands inMicronesia. There are communities of speakers inPohnpei, andGuam. Estimates show that there are about 45,900 speakers in Micronesia.[1]
Chuukese is anAustronesian language of theMicronesian subbranch. It is one of the dialects making up the Chuukic subgroup of Micronesian languages, together with its close relatives likeWoleaian, andCarolinian.[3]
Chuukese has the unusual feature of permitting word-initialgeminate (double) consonants. The common ancestor of Western Micronesian languages is believed to have had this feature, but most of its modern descendants have lost it.[4]
Truk andChuuk only differ in orthography, with both older⟨tr⟩ and current⟨ch⟩ representing the sound[ʈʂ].
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar/ Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||
| Nasal | plain | m | mʷ | n | ŋ | |
| tense | mː | mːʷ | ŋː | |||
| Plosive/Affricate | p | pʷ | t | ʈʂ | k | |
| Fricative | plain | f | s | |||
| tense | fː | sː | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Consonants are doubled in Chuuk when they have a voiceless sound. Some consonant combinations are frequently denasalized between vowels when doubled.[5][6][7]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ʌ | o |
| Low | æ | a | ɒ |
/ɨ/ can be heard as either central[ɨ] or back[ɯ].
Chuukese is one of the few languages allowing for word initial double consonants:[4]
| Chuukese spelling | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | á | e | é | i | o | ó | u | ú | f | ff | s | ss | k | kk | m | mm | mw | mmw | n | ng | nng | p | pp | pw | ppw | r | ch | t | tt | w | y |
| IPA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ɐ | a | e | ə | i | o | ɑ | u | ɨ | f | fː | s | sː | k | kː | m | mː | mˠ | mˠː | nn̩ | ŋ | ŋː | p | pː | p~b | pː | r | tʂ | t̪ | t̪ː | w | j |
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