Marshallese (Marshallese:Kajin Ṃajeḷ orKajin Majōl[kɑzʲinʲ(i)mˠɑːzʲɛlˠ]), also known asEbon, is aMicronesian language spoken in theMarshall Islands. The language of theMarshallese people, it is spoken by nearly all of the country's population of 59,000, making it the principal language.[3] There are also roughly 27,000 Marshallese citizens residing in theUnited States,[4] nearly all of whom speak Marshallese, as well as residents in other countries such asNauru andKiribati.
There are two major dialects, the westernRālik and the easternRatak.
The Ratak and Rālik dialects differ phonetically in how they deal with stems that begin with double consonants.[5] Ratak Marshallese inserts a vowel to separate the consonants, while Ralik adds a vowel before the consonants (and pronounced an unwritten consonant phoneme/j/ before the vowel).[5] For example, the stemkkure 'play' becomesikkure in Rālik Marshallese andkukure in Ratak Marshallese.[5][7]
A poster sponsored byCDC aboutCOVID-19 prevention in Marshallese.
Marshallese is the official language of theMarshall Islands and enjoys vigorous use.[1] As of 1979, the language was spoken by 43,900 people in the Marshall Islands.[1] in 2020 the number was closer to 59,000.[3] Additional groups of speakers in other countries includingNauru and theUnited States increase the total number of Marshallese speakers, with approximately 27,000 Marshallese-Americans living in theUnited States.[4] Along withPohnpeian andChuukese, Marshallese stands out among Micronesian languages in having tens of thousands of speakers; most Micronesian languages have far fewer.[8] A dictionary and at least two Bible translations have been published in Marshallese.[1]
Marshallese has a large consonant inventory, and each consonant has some type of secondary articulation (palatalization,velarization, orrounding).[9] The palatalized consonants are regarded as "light", and the velarized and rounded consonants are regarded as "heavy", with the rounded consonants being both velarized andlabialized.[10] (This contrast is similar to that between "slender" and "broad" consonants inGoidelic languages, or between "soft" and "hard" consonants inSlavic languages.) The "light" consonants are considered more relaxed articulations.[10]
Although Marshallese has novoicing contrast in consonants,[9] stops may be allophonicallypartially voiced ([p→b],[t→d],[k→ɡ]),[11] when they are between vowels and notgeminated. (Technically, partially voiced stops would be[p̬~b̥],[t̬~d̥],[k̬~ɡ̊], but this article uses voiced transcriptions[b],[d],[ɡ] for simplicity.)[12] Final consonants are oftenunreleased.[11]
Glides/jɰw/ vanish in many environments, with surrounding vowels assimilating theirbackness androundedness.[13] That is motivated by the limited surface distribution of these phonemes as well as other evidence that backness and roundedness are not specified phonemically for Marshallese vowels.[13] In fact, the consonant/ɰ/ never surfaces phonetically but is used to explain the preceding phenomenon.[11] (/j/ and/w/ may surface phonetically in word-initial and word-final positions and, even then, not consistently.[11])
Bender (1968) explains that it was once assumed that there were six bilabial consonants because of observed surface realizations,/ppʲpʷmmʲmʷ/, but he determined that two of these,/pm/, were actually allophones of/pʲmʲ/ respectively before front vowels and allophones of/pˠmˠ/ respectively before back vowels.[14] Before front vowels, the velarizedlabial consonants/pˠmˠ/ actually tend to have rounded (labiovelarized) articulations[pʷmʷ], but they remain unrounded on the phonemic level, and there are no distinct/pʷmʷ/ phonemes.[14][15] The pronunciation guide used byNaan (2014) still recognizes[pm] as allophone symbols separate from[pʲpˠmʲmˠ] in these same conditions while recognizing that there are only palatalized and velarized phonemes.[16] This article uses[pʲpˠmʲmˠ] in phonetic transcriptions.
The consonant/tʲ/ may be phonetically realized as[tʲ],[t͡sʲ],[sʲ],[t͡ɕ],[ɕ],[c], or[ç] (or any of theirvoiced variants[dʲ],[d͡zʲ],[zʲ],[d͡ʑ],[ʑ],[ɟ], or[ʝ]), infree variation.[10][11][12] Word-internally it usually assumes avoicedfricative articulation as[zʲ] (or[ʑ] or[ʝ]) but not whengeminated.[12]/tʲ/ is used to adapt foreignsibilants into Marshallese. In phonetic transcription, this article uses[tʲ] and[zʲ] as voiceless and voiced allophones of the same phoneme.
Marshallese has no distinct/tʷ/ phoneme.
Thedorsal consonants/kŋkʷŋʷ/ are usuallyvelar but with the tongue a little farther back[k̠ɡ̠ŋ̠k̠ʷɡ̠ʷŋ̠ʷ], making them somewhere between velar anduvular in articulation.[12] All dorsal phonemes are "heavy" (velarized or rounded), and none are "light" (palatalized).[10] As stated before, thepalatal consonant articulations[c],[ɟ],[ç] and[ʝ] are treated as allophones of the palatalizedcoronal obstruent/tʲ/, even though palatal consonants are physically dorsal. For simplicity, this article uses unmarked[kɡŋkʷɡʷŋʷ] in phonetic transcription.
Bender (1969) describes/nˠ/ and/nʷ/ as being 'dark'r-colored, but is not more specific.[17] The Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) describes these as heavydental nasals.[10]
The heavy lateral consonants/lˠ/ and/lʷ/ aredarkl like in Englishfeel, articulated[ɫ] and[ɫʷ] respectively.[12] This article uses[lˠ] and[lʷ] in phonetic transcription.
On the phonemic level, while Bender (1969) and Choi (1992) agree that the vowel phonemes are distinguished byheight, they describe the abstract nature of these phonemes differently, with Bender treating thefront unrounded surface realizations as their relaxed state that becomes altered by proximity of velarized or rounded consonants,[20] while Choi usescentral vowel symbols in a neutral fashion to notate the abstract phonemes and completely differentfront,back androunded vowel symbols for surface realizations. Bender (1968, 1969), MED (1976) and Willson (2003) recognize four vowel phonemes, but Choi (1992) observes only three of the phonemes as having a stable quality, but theorizes that there may be a historical process of reduction from four to three, and otherwise ignores the fourth phoneme. For phonemic transcription of vowels, this article recognizes four phonemes and uses the front unrounded vowel/æɛei/ notation of the MED, following the approach of Bender (1969) in treating the front vowel surface realizations as the representative phonemes.
On the phonetic level, Bender (1968), MED (1976), Choi (1992), Willson (2003) andNaan (2014) notate some Marshallese vowel surface realizations differently from one another, and they disagree on how to characterize thevowel heights of the underlying phonemes, with Willson (2003) taking the most divergent approach in treating the four heights as actually two heights each with the added presence (+ATR) or absence (-ATR) ofadvanced tongue root. Bender (1968) assigns central vowel symbols for the surface realizations that neighbor velarized consonants, but the MED (1976), Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) largely assign back unrounded vowel symbols for these, with the exception that the MED uses[ə] rather than cardinal[ɤ] for theclose-mid back unrounded vowel, and Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) use[a] rather than cardinal[ɑ] for theopen back unrounded vowel.Naan (2014) is the only reference providing avowel trapezium for its own vowels, and differs especially from the other vowel models in splitting the front allophones of/i/ into two realizations ([ɪ] before consonants and[i] in open syllables), merging the front allophones of/ɛ/ and/e/ as[ɛ] before consonants and[e] in open syllables, merging the rounded allophones of/ɛ/ and/e/ as[o], and indicating the front allophone of/æ/ as a close-mid central unrounded vowel[ɘ], a realization more raised even than the front allophone of the normally higher/ɛ/. For phonetic notation of vowel surface realizations, this article largely uses the MED's notation, but uses only cardinal symbols for back unrounded vowels.
Marshallese vowel phonemes and surface realizations
Superficially, 12 Marshallese vowel allophones appear inminimal pairs, a common test for phonemicity.[21] For example,[mʲæ] (mā, 'breadfruit'),[mʲɑ] (ma, 'but'), and[mʲɒ] (mọ, 'taboo') are separate Marshallese words.[21] However, the uneven distribution of glide phonemes suggests that they underlyingly end with the glides (thus/mʲæj/,/mʲæɰ/,/mʲæw/).[13] When glides are taken into account, it emerges that there are only 4 vowel phonemes.[13]
When a vowel phoneme appears between consonants with different secondary articulations, the vowel often surfaces as a smooth transition from one vowel allophone to the other.[23] For example,jok 'shy', phonemically/tʲɛkʷ/, is often realized phonetically as[tʲɛ͡ɔkʷ].[23] It follows that there are 24 possible shortdiphthongs in Marshallese:[23]
Phoneme
◌ʲ_◌ˠ
◌ʲ_◌ʷ
◌ˠ_◌ʲ
◌ˠ_◌ʷ
◌ʷ_◌ʲ
◌ʷ_◌ˠ
/i/
[i͡ɯ]
[i͡u]
[ɯ͡i]
[ɯ͡u]
[u͡i]
[u͡ɯ]
/e/
[e͡ɤ]
[e͡o]
[ɤ͡e]
[ɤ͡o]
[o͡e]
[o͡ɤ]
/ɛ/
[ɛ͡ʌ]
[ɛ͡ɔ]
[ʌ͡ɛ]
[ʌ͡ɔ]
[ɔ͡ɛ]
[ɔ͡ʌ]
/æ/
[æ͡ɑ]
[æ͡ɒ]
[ɑ͡æ]
[ɑ͡ɒ]
[ɒ͡æ]
[ɒ͡ɑ]
These diphthongs are the typical realizations of short vowels between two non-glide consonants, but in reality the diphthongs themselves are not phonemic, and short vowels between two consonants with different secondary articulations can be articulated as either a smooth diphthong (such as[ɛ͡ʌ]) or as a monophthong of one of the two vowel allophones (such as[ɛ~ʌ]), all in free variation. Bender (1968) also observes that when the would-be diphthong starts with a back rounded vowel[ɒɔou] and ends with a front unrounded vowel[æɛei], then a vowel allophone associated with the back unrounded vowels (notated in this article as[ɑʌɤɯ]) may also occur in the vowel nucleus.[24] Because the cumulative visual complexity of notating so many diphthongs in phonetic transcriptions can make them more difficult to read, it is not uncommon to phonetically transcribe Marshallese vowel allophones only as one predominant monophthongal allophone, so that a word like[tʲɛ͡ɔkʷ] can be more simply transcribed as[tʲɔkʷ], in a condensed fashion. Before Bender's (1968) discovery that Marshallese utilized a vertical vowel system, it was conventional to transcribe the language in this manner with a presumed inventory of 12 vowel monophthong phonemes,[25] and it remains in occasional use as a more condensed phonetic transcription.[26][18] This article uses phonemic or diphthongal phonetic transcriptions for illustrative purposes, but for most examples it uses condensed phonetic transcription with the most relevant short vowel allophones roughly corresponding toMarshallese orthography as informed by the MED.
Some syllables appear to contain long vowels:naaj 'future'.[27] They are thought to contain an underlying glide (/j/,/ɰ/ or/w/), which is not present phonetically.[28][29] For instance, the underlying form ofnaaj is/nʲæɰætʲ/.[27] Although the medial glide is not realized phonetically, it affects vowel quality; in a word like/nʲæɰætʲ/, the vowel transitions from[æ] to[ɑ] and then back to[æ], as[nʲæ͡ɑɑ͡ætʲ].[30] In condensed phonetic transcription, the same word can be expressed as[nʲɑɑtʲ] or[nʲɑːtʲ].[25][26][18]
Syllables in Marshallese follow CV, CVC, and VC patterns.[27] Marshallese words always underlyingly begin and end with consonants.[29] Initial, final, and long vowels may be explained as the results of underlying glides not present on the phonetic level.[29] Initial vowels are sometimes realized with an onglide[j] or[w] but not consistently:[31]
Onlyhomorganic consonant sequences are allowed in Marshallese,[33] including geminate varieties of each consonant, except for glides.[11] Non-homorganic clusters are separated by vowelepenthesis even across word boundaries.[33] Some homorganic clusters are also disallowed:[33]
Obstruent-obstruent,nasal-nasal,liquid-liquid, nasal-obstruent, and nasal-liquid clusters undergo assimilation of the secondary articulation except if the first consonant is a rounded coronal or a rounded dorsal. Then, the clusters undergo assimilation of the rounded articulation.[34]
†Obstruent-liquid and liquid-obstruent clusters besides/lʲtˠ/ and/lˠtˠ/ undergo epenthesis.[34]
Clusters involving any glides undergo epenthesis, including otherwise homorganic clusters of two of the same glide.
The following assimilations are created, with empty combinations representing epenthesis.
Bilabials
↓→
/p/
/m/
/p/
/pː/
/mː/
/m/
/mp/
Coronals
↓→
/t/
/n/
/r/
/l/
/t/
/tː/
/n/
/nt/
/nː/
/nr/
/nl/
/r/
/rː/
/rl/
/l/
†
/lr/
/lː/
Dorsals
↓→
/k/
/ŋ/
/k/
/kː/
/ŋː/
/ŋ/
/ŋk/
Secondary
↓→
/◌ʲ/
/◌ˠ/
/◌ʷ/
/◌ʲ/
/◌ʲ◌ʲ/
/◌ˠ◌ˠ/
/◌ʷ◌ʷ/
/◌ˠ/
/◌ʷ/
/◌ʷ◌ʷ/
Thevowel height of an epenthetic vowel is not phonemic as the epenthetic vowel itself is not phonemic, but is still phonetically predictable given the two nearest other vowels and whether one or both of the cluster consonants are glides.[29][27] Bender (1968) does not specifically explain the vowel heights of epenthetic vowels between two non-glides, but of his various examples containing such vowels, none of the epenthetic vowels has a height lower than the highest of either of their nearest neighboring vowels, and the epenthetic vowel actually becomes/ɛ̯/ if the two nearest vowels are both/æ/.Naan (2014) does not take the heights of epenthetic vowels between non-glides into consideration, phonetically transcribing all of them as aschwa[ə].[16] But when one of the consonants in a cluster is a glide, the height of the epenthetic vowel between them follows a different process, assuming the same height of whichever vowel is on the opposite side of that glide, forming a long vowel with it across the otherwise silent glide.[24] Epenthetic vowels do not affect the rhythm of the spoken language, and can never be a stressed syllable.[citation needed] Phonetic transcription may indicate epenthetic vowels between two non-glides as non-syllabic,[35] using IPA notation similar to that ofsemi-vowels. Certain Westernized Marshallese placenames spell out the epenthetic vowels:
Epenthetic vowels in general can be omitted without affecting meaning, such as in song or in enunciated syllable breaks. This article uses non-syllabic notation in phonetic IPA transcription to indicate epenthetic vowels between non-glides.
The short vowel phonemes/æɛei/ and the approximant phonemes/jɰw/ all occupy a roughly equal duration of time.[37] Though they occupy time, the approximants are generally not articulated as glides, and Choi (1992) does not rule out a deeper level of representation.[38] In particular,/V/ short vowels occupy one unit of time, and/VGV/ long vowels (for which/G/ is an approximant phoneme) are three times as long.[39]
As a matter ofprosody, each/C/ consonant and/V/ vowel phonemic sequence carries onemora in length, with the exception of/C/ in/CV/ sequences where the vowel carries one mora for both phonemes. All morae are thus measured in/CV/ or shut/C/ sequences:[40]
/CVC/ is two morae:/CV-C/. It is also the shortest possible length of a Marshallese word.
/CVCVC/ is three morae:/CV-CV-C/. Since approximants are also consonants, long vowel sequences of/CVGVC/ are also three morae.
/CVCCVC/ is four morae:/CV-C-CV-C/.
Prefixes likeri- are/CV-/ sequences occupying only one mora but are attached to words rather than standing as words on their own.
Suffixes like-in are/-VC/ sequences. The syllable itself occupies two morae but adds only one mora to the word because the vowel attaches itself to the last consonant phoneme in the word, changing/-C/ into/-C‿V-C/.
Marshallese consonants show splits conditioned by the surrounding Proto-Micronesian vowels. Proto-Micronesian *k *ŋ *r become rounded next to *o or next to *u except in bisyllables whose other vowel is unrounded. Default outcomes of *l and *n are palatalized; they become velarized or rounded before *a or sometimes *o if there is no high vowel in an adjacent syllable. Then, roundedness is determined by the same rule as above.
Marshallese version of theBook of MormonMarshallese alphabet in a library
Marshallese is written in theLatin alphabet. There are two competing orthographies.[42] The "old" orthography was introduced by missionaries.[42] This system is not highly consistent or faithful in representing the sounds of Marshallese, but until recently, it had no competing orthography.[43] It is currently widely used, including in newspapers and signs.[43] The "new" orthography is gaining popularity especially in schools and among young adults and children.[42] The "new" orthography represents the sounds of the Marshallese language more faithfully and is the system used in the Marshallese–English dictionary by Abo et al., currently the only complete published Marshallese dictionary.[42][43]
Marshallese spelling is based on pronunciation rather than a phonemic analysis. Therefore, backness is marked in vowels despite being allophonic (it does not change the meaning), and many instances of the glides/jɰw/ proposed on the phonemic level are unwritten, because they do not surface as consonants phonetically. In particular, the glide/ɰ/, which never surfaces as a consonant phonetically, is always unwritten.
The letterw is generally used only in three situations:
To mark a rounded consonant (one ofkw ḷw ṇw ñw rw) or approximant phoneme (w) before a vowel that precedes an unrounded consonant phoneme (a ā e i ō ū). Even then, if the consonant phoneme comes after a back rounded vowelọ o u and before another vowel, it is common to write one ofḷ ṇ r instead ofḷw ṇw rw, but the rounded dorsal consonantskw ñw are still written withw in these circumstances.
To mark a velarized bilabial consonant (eitherbw orṃw) before a vowel that precedes a palatalized consonant phoneme (ā e i).
To indicate a[w] glide phonetically surfacing either word-initially or between two vowels.
w is never written out word-finally or before another consonant.
The palatal glide phoneme/j/ may also be written out but only ase before one ofa o ō ọ, or asi before one of eitheru ū. The approximant is never written before any ofā e i. A stronger raised palatal glide[i̯], phonemically analyzed as the exotic un-syllabic consonant-vowel-consonant sequence/ji̯j/ rather than plain/j/, may occur word-initially before any vowel and is writteni. For historical reasons, certain words likeiọkwe may be written asyokwe[45] with ay, which does not otherwise exist in the Marshallese alphabet.
One source of orthographic variation is in the representation of vowels. Puremonophthongs are written consistently based on vowel quality. However, shortdiphthongs may often be written with one of the two vowel sounds that they contain. (Alternate phonetic realizations for the same phonemic sequences are provided purely for illustrative purposes.)
Historically, bothō ande have been common and sometimes interchangeable. It is still true today with some words. In the new orthography,ō is generally preferred overe in most such situations.
In a syllable whose first consonant is rounded and whose second consonant is palatalized, it is common to see the vowel between them written as one ofa ō ū, usually associated with a neighboring velarized consonant:
The exception is long vowels and long diphthongs made up of two mora units, which are written with the vowel quality closer to the phonetic nucleus of the long syllable:
If the syllable is phonetically open, the vowel written is usually the second vowel in the diphthong: the wordbwe[pˠɛ][60] is usually not written any other way, but exceptions exist such asaelōñ (/ɰajɘlʲɘŋ/[ɑelʲɤŋ] "land; country; island; atoll"[49]), which is preferred over*āelōñ because thea spelling emphasizes that the first (unwritten) glide phoneme is dorsal rather than palatal.
The spelling of grammaticalaffixes, such asri- (/rˠi-/[61]) and-in (/-inʲ/) is less variable despite the fact that their vowels become diphthongs with second member dependent on the preceding/following consonant: the prefixri- may be pronounced as any of[rˠɯ͜i,rˠɯ,rˠɯ͜u] depending on the stem. The termRi-Ṃajeḷ ("Marshallese people") is actually pronounced[rˠɯmˠɑːzʲɛlˠ] as if it wereRūṃajeḷ.[62]
In the mostpolished printed text, the lettersĻ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ O̧ o̧ always appear with unalteredcedillas directly beneath, and the lettersĀ ā N̄ n̄ Ō ō Ū ū always appear with unalteredmacrons directly above. Regardless, the diacritics are often replaced by ad hoc spellings using more common or more easily displayable characters. In particular, theMarshallese-English Online Dictionary (but not the print version), or MOD, uses the following characters:[36]
Standard
MOD
Ļ
M̧
Ņ
N̄
O̧
Ḷ
Ṃ
Ṇ
Ñ
Ọ
ļ
m̧
ņ
n̄
o̧
ḷ
ṃ
ṇ
ñ
ọ
As of 2019, there are no dedicatedprecomposed characters inUnicode for the lettersM̧ m̧ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧; they must be displayed as plain Latin letters withcombiningdiacritics, and even many Unicodefonts will not display the combinations properly and neatly. AlthoughĻ ļ Ņ ņ exist as precomposed characters in Unicode, these lettersalso do not display properly as Marshallese letters in most Unicode fonts. Unicode defines the letters as having acedilla, but fonts usually display them with acomma below because of rendering expectations of theLatvian alphabet. For many fonts, a workaround is to encode these letters as the base letterL l N n followed by azero-width non-joiner and then a combining cedilla, producingĻ ļ Ņ ņ.
Both systems already require fonts that displayBasic Latin (withA a B b D d E e I i J j K k L l M m N n O o P p R r T t U u W w) andLatin Extended-A (withĀ ā Ō ō Ū ū). The standard orthography also requiresCombining Diacritical Marks for the combining diacritics. The MOD's alternative letters have the advantage of being neatly displayable as all-precomposed characters in any Unicode fonts that support Basic Latin, Latin Extended-A along withLatin-1 Supplement (withÑ ñ) andLatin Extended Additional (withḶ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ọ ọ). If a font comfortably displays both theInternational Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration and theVietnamese alphabet, it can also display MOD Marshallese.
This chart highlights the display issues in common web fonts and common free Unicode fonts that are known to support standard or MOD Marshallese lettering. Distinct typefaces appear only if the operating environment supports them. Some fonts have combining diacritic alignment issues, and the vast majority of the fonts have the Latvian diacritic issue; of the fonts shown below, only theNoto series displays Marshallese correctly.
The old orthography was still very similar to the new orthography but made fewer phonological distinctions in spelling than the new orthography does. The new orthography attempts phonological consistency while adhering to most of the spelling patterns of the old orthography, especially in regard to vowels andw. It has made the new orthography relatively easy for old orthography users to learn. The phonology of Marshallese was documented by Bender (1969) with written examples using the old orthography. Here are some differences between the new and old orthographies:
The new orthography uses thecedillaed lettersḷ ṃ ṇ ọ. The old orthography did not use cedillas and ambiguously wrote theml m n o.
The new orthography usesp for "light"/pʲ/ andb for "heavy"/pˠ/. The old orthography usedb for both.
Compare oldbinjel vs. newpinjeḷ[pʲinzʲɛlˠ], 'pencil'.
The new orthography consistently usesd for "light"/rʲ/ in all positions. The old orthography often wrotedr before vowels, andr after vowels.
Compare oldAmerka vs. newAmedka[ɑmʲɛrʲɛ̆ɡɑ], 'United States'.
Compare oldindreo orindrio vs. newindeeo[inrʲeːɔ], 'forever'.
Except in certain affixes like-an whose spelling may be fixed, the new orthography spells the vowel monophthong allophone[æ] asā in all positions. The old orthography hadā, but it was relatively less common, and[æ] was sometimes writtene instead.
Except in certain affixes likeri- whose the spelling of the vowels may be fixed, the new orthography spells the vowel monophthong allophone[ɯ] asū in all positions. The old orthography spelled[ɯ] asi between consonants.
Compare oldKirijmōj vs. newKūrijṃōj[kɯrˠizʲĭmˠɤtʲ], 'Christmas'.
The new orthography uses onlye o ō for allophones of the vowel phoneme/e/. In the old orthography, some words usede o ō, but other words usedi u (ū) instead.
Compare oldailiñ vs. newaelōñ[ɑelʲɤŋ~ɑelʲeŋ], 'land'.
The new orthography uses the letterọ for the vowel monophthong allophone[ɒ] along with many of its related diphthong allophones. The old orthography spelt[ɒ] asa between consonants buto at the ends of words.
Compare oldiakwe vs. newiọkwe[i̯ɒɡʷɛ], 'hello; good bye; love'.
Compare oldmo vs. newmọ[mʲɒ], 'taboo'.
The new orthography tries to consistently write long vowels and geminated consonants with double letters. The old orthography habitually wrote these as single letters.
Compare oldekatak vs. newekkatak[ɛkːɑdˠɑk], 'study'.
Compare oldjab vs. newjaab[tʲɑːpˠ], 'no'.
The wordiọkwe[i̯ɒɡʷɛ] ('hello; goodbye; love') and the phraseiọkwe eok[i̯ɒɡʷɛe̯okʷ] ('hello [to you]') are a special case. The new orthography's rules useiọkwe eok, while the old orthography's rules usediakwe iuk. However,yokwe yuk has been historically more entrenched in both orthographies, but the lettery does not exist in the normal spelling rules of either orthography. That spelling has multilingual significance as well;yokwe (yuk)/ˈjɒkweɪ(ˈjʊk)/ is also the established spelling for the greeting when used in Marshallese-influencedEnglish and byanglophones in the Marshall Islands.
In his 1968 publicationMarshallese Phonology, linguistByron W. Bender designed a purely morphophonemic orthography, based on the symbols found on a manual typewriter, with regular reflexes between the dialects and intended for use in dictionaries and language teaching. Besides also appearing in his 1969 tutorialSpoken Marshallese,[63] it appeared in a modified form alongside the "new" orthography in the 1976Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) to which he contributed. Bender later collaborated with Stephen Trussel when the MED was adapted to website format as theMarshallese-English Online Dictionary (MOD), with Bender's orthography appearing in an again-modified form.
Phoneme
/pʲ/
/pˠ/
/tʲ/
/tˠ/
/k/
/kʷ/
/mʲ/
/mˠ/
/nʲ/
/nˠ/
/nʷ/
/ŋ/
/ŋʷ/
/rʲ/
/rˠ/
/rʷ/
/lʲ/
/lˠ/
/lʷ/
/j/
/ɰ/
/w/
/æ/
/ɛ/
/e/
/i/
Bender (1968)
p
b
j
t
k
q
m
m̍
n
n̍
n̎
g
g̎
d
r
r̎
l
ƚ
l̎
y
h
w
a
e
&
i
MED (1976)
p
b
j
t
k
q
m
m̧
n
ņ
ņᵒ
g
gᵒ
d
r
rᵒ
l
ļ
ļᵒ
y
h
w
a
e
ȩ
i
MOD
p
b
j
t
k
kʷ
m
ṃ
n
ṇ
ṇʷ
g
gʷ
d
r
rʷ
l
ḷ
ḷʷ
y
h
w
a
e
ẹ
i
The MOD's version of Bender's orthography usesunder-dot diacritics instead of thecedillas used both by the "new" orthography and by the 1976 MED's version of Bender's orthography, for reasons specific to the MOD'sdisplay issues.
In addition to plain sequences of phonemes, Bender's orthography recognizes a few special sequences, many of which relate to regular differences between theRālik andRatak dialects of Marshallese.
{yiꞌy} is for a "passing over lightly" version of the vowel allophonei that occurs at the beginning of certain words, phonetically pronounced[i̯] and existing on the phonemic level as/ji̯j/. For example,{yiꞌyakʷey} is equivalent toiọkwe[i̯ɒɡʷɛ]/ji̯jækʷɛj/ "hello; goodbye; love".
{ꞌyiy} is for a "dwelling upon" version ofi that occurs at the beginning of certain words, now generally writtenii in the "new" orthography, phonetically pronounced[iː] and existing on the phonemic level as/jijj/, effectively making it identical to{yiyy}. An example is{ꞌyiyayiyȩw}, which is equivalent toiiāio[iːæio]/jijjæjijew/ "reunion".
{yiy} at the beginning of a word, without apostrophes, indicates a version ofi whose reflex differs between the two dialects. In the Rālik dialect, this assumes the "dwelling upon" pronunciation, equivalent to{ꞌyiy}. In the Ratak dialect, it instead assumes the "passing over lightly" pronunciation, equivalent to{yiꞌy}. An example is{yiyaḷ}, equivalent toiaḷ "road":
In the Rālik dialect,{yiyaḷ} becomes[iːɑlˠ]/jijjælˠ/ and is often instead written asiiaḷ in the "new" orthography.
In the Ratak dialect,{yiyaḷ} becomes[i̯ɑlˠ]/ji̯jælˠ/.
{hhV} at the beginning of a word (where "V" can be any vowel) indicates a back unrounded vowel that whose reflex differs between the dialects. In the Rālik dialect,{hhV} becomes{hVhV}, lengthening the vowel. In the Ratak dialect, the second{h} disappears, becoming{hV}, and the vowel remains short. An example is{hhayȩt}, equivalent toaet "yes":
In the Rālik dialect,{hhayȩt} becomes[ɑːetˠ]/ɰæɰæjetˠ/ and is often instead written asaaet in the "new" orthography.
In the Ratak dialect,{hhayȩt} becomes[ɑetˠ]/ɰæjetˠ/.
{yiwV} at the beginning of a word (where "V" can be any vowel) is usually equivalent to{yiwwV}.
{wiwV} at the beginning of a word (where "V" can be any vowel) usually becomes{yiwwV} in the Rālik dialect, but usually becomes{wiwwV} in the Ratak dialect.
When a Bender orthography spelling begins with a doubled consonant other than{hh}, such as{ṃṃan} "good", its reflex differs between the dialects.
In the Rālik dialect,{ṃṃan} becomes{yeṃṃan}, sprouting both aprothetic{y} and a vowel. The dialect generally spells thiseṃṃan[ɛmˠːɑnʲ]/jemˠmˠænʲ/ "good" in the "new" orthography, making it homophonous with the phraseeṃṃan which means "it is good" in both dialects.
In the Ratak dialect,{ṃṃan} becomes{ṃeṃan} with only a prothetic vowel, appearing instead between the two consonants. The dialect generally spells thisṃōṃan[mˠʌmˠɑnʲ]/mˠɛmˠænʲ/ "good" in the "new" orthography.
In both dialects, the prothetic vowel is equivalent to the first stem vowel unless it is{a}, in which case the stem vowel is always paired with the prothetic vowel{e}. But when spellings like{ṃṃan} takeprefixes with a vowel, there are no prothetic vowels:{ri-} "person" +{ṃṃan} "good" becomes{riṃṃan}/rˠi-mˠmˠænʲ/[rˠɯmˠːɑnʲ], which the "new" orthography spellsrūṃṃan "good person".
Nouns are not overtly marked as such, and do not inflect for number, gender, or case.[64] Nouns are often verbalized and verbs nominalized without any overt morphological marker:[64]
1PL.IN.AGR-should sing.TR song of be.covered(=American)
'We should sing American songs.' (Willson 2008)
Marshallese has determiners and demonstratives which follow the noun they modify.[65] These are marked for number, and in the plural also encode a human/nonhuman distinction.[66] For example, in the singularpinjeḷ eo 'the pencil' andḷaddik eo 'the boy' take the same determiner, but in the pluralpinjeḷ ko 'the pencils' andḷaddik ro have different determiners.[66] Indefinites are an exception; in the singular they are expressed with the wordjuon 'one' before the noun (e.g.juon al 'a song'), and there is no plural indefinite determiner.[67]
The Marshallese demonstrative system has five levels:
near the speaker (sg.e / pl. humanrā / pl. nonhumankā)
near the speaker and listener (in / rein / kein)
near the listener (ṇe / raṇe / kaṇe)
away from both speaker and listener (eṇ / raṇ / kaṇ)
Marshallese possesses two sets of 1st and 2nd person singular pronouns, known as "absolutive" or "emphatic" pronouns and as "objective" pronouns.[68] Marshallese 1st person plurals mark forclusivity.[68] Third person objective pronouns may only be used for humans; nonhumans instead take a null pronoun:[68]
The emphatic pronouns serve as subjects of equational sentences, as complements of prepositions, in order to emphasize objects, in coordination structures, and with topicalized or focused subjects.[69] It is common in Oceanic languages for a special type of pronoun to be used in equational sentences and for topicalization or focus.[69]
Marshallese has four verb tenses: present, past, near future, and future. The tenses are formed by adding a tense suffix to the personal pronoun in the sentence. If the subject is not a personal pronoun, a third-person pronoun is added with the appropriate tense suffix. The present tense is formed by attaching the suffix -j to the personal pronoun (-ij for kōm and koṃ). The suffix for the past tense is either -ar or -kar depending on the dialect. -naaj is the suffix used for the regular future tense and -itōn is used for the near future.[70]
Marshallese, like many Micronesian languages, divides sentences into two types: predicational sentences and equational sentences.[71] Predicational sentences haveSVO word order and a main verb:[71]
^"Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal: In the Matter of the People of Enewetak".International Legal Materials.39 (5):1214–1233. 2000.doi:10.1017/S0020782900008640.S2CID232252215.
Miller, Rachel (2010).Wa kuk wa jimor: Outrigger canoes, social change, and modern life in the Marshall Islands. University of Hawai’i.hdl:10125/21114.
Bender, Byron W. (1969). Vowel dissimilation in Marshallese. InWorking 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 (1/2):455–477.doi:10.2307/3622863.JSTOR3622863.
Hale, Mark. (2007) Chapter 5 ofHistorical Linguistics: Theory and Method. Blackwell
Hale, Mark (2000). "Marshallese phonology, the phonetics-phonology interface and historical linguistics".The Linguistic Review.17 (2–4):241–257.doi:10.1515/tlir.2000.17.2-4.241.S2CID143601901.
