| Mokilese | |
|---|---|
| Mwoakilloa | |
| Native to | Micronesia |
| Region | Mwoakilloa |
Native speakers | (1,500 cited 1979–2010)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mkj |
| Glottolog | moki1238 |
| ELP | Mokilese |
 Mokilese is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Mokilese, also known asMwoakilloan,Mwokilese, orMwoakilese, is aMicronesian language originally spoken onMwoakilloa,Federated States of Micronesia. Of the 1200 Mokilese speakers, only about 500 live onMwoakilloa.[2]
Mokilese originated from theMokil (or Mwoakilloa) Atoll, but speakers have also migrated approximately 100 miles west, to thePohnpei Islands, and parts of theUnited States.Mwoakilloa andPohnpei are both geographically part of theCaroline Islands just abovePapua New Guinea. Mwoakilloa is a district of the outlying islands ofPohnpei of theFederated States of Micronesia.
BeforeWestern contact, Mokilese only had contact with its neighboring islands:Pohnpei,Pingelap,Kosrae, and theMarshall Islands. AfterSpanish explorers "rediscovered" Mokil Atoll, they colonized it in 1886 (Hezel, 1992). Shortly after they lost theSpanish-American War in 1898, they sold it toGermany (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). Later, in 1914, it was seized byJapan and heavily fortified duringWorld War II, untilJapan surrendered and passed it on to theUnited States in August 1945 (Hezel, 1992). Thereafter, it became a part of theUN trust territory under U.S. jurisdiction in 1947 until the trust territory dissolved in 1986 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014).
Mokilese is both the name of the Mokil population and the language which they speak. It is currently spoken onMokil Atoll, thePohnpei Islands, and in some parts of theUnited States. There are only approximately 1,500 speakers of this language left. 1,050 of whom reside inMicronesia; a little over 900 inPohnpei and less than 150 inMokil Atoll. The other 450 speakers are scattered across theUnited States (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013). Although this language originated in Mokil Atoll, there are now only around 150 speakers who live in Mokil Atoll, while the rest live in diaspora communities―approximately 100 miles west―to Pohnpei, where they remain until this day (Rehg & Bender, 1990).
Mokilese is a Micronesian language, and therefore, a part of theAustronesian language family. Mokilese belongs to thePohnpeic subgrouping, and is the sister language ofPingelapese andPohnpeian. Mokilese shares approximately 79%lexical similarity withPingelapese, and 75% withPohnapeian (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013).
Mokilese has the following simple consonantphonemes:
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Labio-velar | ||||
| Plosive | p ⟨p⟩ | pʷˠ ⟨pw⟩ | d ⟨d⟩ | ɟ ⟨j⟩ | k ⟨k⟩ |
| Nasal | m ⟨m⟩ | mʷˠ ⟨mw⟩ | n ⟨n⟩ | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | |
| Fricative | s ⟨s⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | l ⟨l⟩ | ||||
| Trill | r ⟨r⟩ | ||||
/ɟ/ may also be realized as a fricative [ʝ] in certain positions, and may also be heard as a palatal affricate [ɟ͡ʝ] in free variation.[3]
In addition Mokilese contrasts between simple andgeminate consonants and each consonant above has a geminate pair.[3] For examplelikkoau (clothes) contrasts withlikoau (chapped). Geminate consonants only occurbetween vowels.[3] Geminate ⟨pw⟩, ⟨mw⟩, and ⟨ng⟩ are written ⟨pww⟩, ⟨mww⟩, and ⟨ngg⟩, respectively.[3]
Mokilese has 7 simple phonemic vowels distinguishing between short and long varieties of each, except no minimal pairs exist between /e/ and /eː/, notably.
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | iː | u | uː |
| Close-mid | e | eː | o | oː |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɛː | ɔ | ɔː |
| Open | a | aː | ||
Although distinguished in the phonology,/e/ and/ɛ/ are not distinguished in Mokilese orthography. Both are written⟨e⟩.[3]
Mokilese words can begin and end with both vowels and consonants. However, this does not mean that there are no rules at all. Mokilese syllables still maintain a set of rules as explained by Harrison and Albert (1976):
| Proto Oceanic | *mp | *mp,ŋp | *p | *m | *m,ŋm | *k | *ŋk | *ŋ | *y | *w | *t | *s,nj | *ns,j | *j | *nt,nd | *d,R | *l | *n | *ɲ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proto Micronesian | *p | *pʷ | *f | *m | *mʷ | *k | *x | *ŋ | *y | *w | *t | *T | *s | *S | *Z | *c | *r | *l | *n | *ɲ |
| Proto Chuukic–Pohnpeic | *p | *pʷ | *f | *m | *mʷ | *k | *∅,r[nb 1] | *ŋ | *y | *w | *t | *j | *t | *t | ∅ | *c | *r | *l | *n | *ɲ |
| Proto-Pohnpeic | *p[nb 2] | *pʷ | *p, ∅[nb 3] | *m | *mʷ | *k | *∅,r[nb 1] | *ŋ | *y | *w | *j,∅[nb 2]{_i,u,e[nb 4]} | *j | *t | *t | ∅ | * c | *r | *l | *n | *∅,n{high V_} |
| Mokilese | p[nb 2] | pʷ | p, ∅[nb 3] | m | mʷ | k | ∅,r[nb 1] | ŋ | ∅,y | w | j,[nb 2]∅{_i,u,e[nb 4]} | j | t̻ | t̻ | ∅ | s | r | l | n | ∅,n{high V_} |
The basicword order for Mokilese is Subject–Verb–Object (Harrison & Albert, 1976).
ex.Woal lapp-o loakjid phon woss-o.Man old-that to fish on reef-thatThat old man is fishing on the reef.
This example shows the subject (man) comes first, then the verb (to fish), and lastly, the object (reef).
There are many forms ofreduplication in Mokilese. The most common reduplication form is a reduplication of the first CVC of a word.
Next, there is the CVː reduplication form. This is the reduplication of the first CV of a word and lengthening of the vowel (represented by ⟨h⟩).
Another reduplication form Mokilese has is VCC. When reduplicating VC, the consonant is alsogeminated.
There is also the CV reduplication, which reduplicates the first CV of a word.
Lastly, there is also the -CVC reduplication form. This form reduplicates the last CVC of a word rather than the first.
Mokilese has a base 10 counting system. Rather than having just one set of numbers, Mokilese has four sets, each used to count different things. Each number consists of anumeral prefix and anumeral classifier. Most of the numeral prefixes are similar across the four different sets, and it is the general classifier that distinguishes one set from another. The four general classifiers are–w,–men,–pas, and–kij, as shown in the chart below.
| -w | -men | -pas | -kij | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One | e-w | e-men | e-pas | e-kif |
| Two | ria-w | roah-men | rah-pas | riah-kij |
| Three | jilu-w | jil-men | jil-pas | jil-kij |
| Four | pah-w | pah-men | pah-pas | pah-kij |
| Five | limoa-w | lim-men | lim-pas | lim-kij |
| Six | wono-w | won-men | won-pas | won-kij |
| Seven | iju-w | ij-men | ij-pas | ij-kij |
| Eight | walu-w | wal-men | wal-pas | wal-lij |
| Nine | duoa-w | doh-man | doh-pas | doh-kij |
–w is a general classifier; it is used to count numbers and describe other objects that are not covered by the other number classifiers.
-men describes animate nouns such as people, bird, animal, fish, etc.
-pas is used to describe long objects like pencil, canoe, songs, stories, road, etc.
-kij is for describing things that have parts and pieces such as slices of bread, sheets of paper, fragment of a mirror, etc.
Mokilese's numerals can also reach up to the billions. However, most of the higher numerals are rarely used.
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Mokilese has borrowed numerous words from languages of foreigners who traveled intoMicronesia, as well as from other Micronesian languages. Some Micronesian languages that influenced Mokilese werePohnpeian,Marshallese,Pingelapese, andKusaiean (Rehg & Bender, 1990). The reason why Mokilese borrowed words from these languages was because they had lived in close contact with the people of these islands for many years. Because of how this borrowing occurred, it is hard to tell exactly when the words were borrowed, especially since there were hardly any documentations from back then. On top of that, not allloanwords are easy to identify because these languages are all, more or less, closely related to Mokilese. Sheldon P. Harrison (1976) believed there to be more loanwords from other Micronesian languages, but "it is difficult to tell exactly how many because of the problems in distinguishing such borrowings from native Mokilese words." With that said, a few loanwords from these places have been identified.
Words derived fromPohnpeian:
Words derived from Marshallese:
Word derived from Marshallese:
Mokilese also borrowed words from foreign languages such asGerman,Spanish,Japanese, andEnglish. These borrowings occurred due to colonization. The first of these languages to come in contact with Mokilese wasSpanish, which occurred in the 16th century, when Spanish explorers discoveredMicronesia (Hezel, 1992). Then they colonized theMokil Atoll in 1886. Shortly after, Spain sold the island toGermany after they lost theSpanish–American War in 1898 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). Later, in 1914, the island was seized byJapan in 1919, and heavily fortified duringWorld War II, until they surrendered and passed it on toUnited States in August 1945 (Hezel, 1992). Thereafter, it became part of a UN trust territory under U.S. jurisdiction in 1947 until the trust territory dissolved in 1986 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). All this outside contact introduced many loanwords to Mokilese, although there are only a few forSpanish andGerman because their contact durations were shorter.
Word derived fromSpanish:
Word derived fromGerman:
Word derived fromJapanese:
Word derived fromEnglish (before WWII):
Word derived from English (after WWII):
Mokilese is anendangered language. It is only spoken at home, and thelanguage acquisition is getting worse with each generation. This is because the younger generations are not fluent speakers, they prefer learningPohnpeian andEnglish instead, so only the elders and adults are actually fluent (Poll, 2013). This is just for the Mokilese speakers inPohnpei andMokil Atoll; the speakers in the U.S. are all old and have no domains of use, so when they die, there will be no more speakers in the United States (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013). Mokilese does not have government recognition and there are no schools that teaches the language (Poll, 2013).
Mokilese is endangered and lacks extensive documentation. The complete published resources are a Mokilese-English Dictionary (Harrison & Albert, 1977) and a Mokilese Reference Grammar (Harrison & Albert, 1976). However these resources are fairly outdated since they were written in the 1960s and the language is changing rapidly. Other physical materials in Mokilese are books of chants, songs, accounts and tales of Mokil Atoll, which are few. There is also one short interview video, and a couple of war dance videos on YouTube. However, there are no websites, TV shows, or radio stations in their language.[citation needed]