Marshallese language

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Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:InfoboxTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check |unknown=Template:Main other |preview=Page using Template:Infobox language with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| acceptance | agency | aiatsis | aiatsis2 | aiatsis3 | aiatsis4 | aiatsis5 | aiatsis6 | aiatsisname | aiatsisname2 | aiatsisname3 | aiatsisname4 | aiatsisname5 | aiatsisname6 | altname | ancestor | ancestor2 | ancestor3 | ancestor4 | ancestor5 | ancestor6 | ancestor7 | ancestor8 | ancestor9 | ancestor10 | ancestor11 | ancestor12 | ancestor13 | ancestor14 | ancestor15 | boxsize | coordinates | coords | created | creator | date | dateprefix | development_body | dia1 | dia2 | dia3 | dia4 | dia5 | dia6 | dia7 | dia8 | dia9 | dia10 | dia11 | dia12 | dia13 | dia14 | dia15 | dia16 | dia17 | dia18 | dia19 | dia20 | dia21 | dia22 | dia23 | dia24 | dia25 | dia26 | dia27 | dia28 | dia29 | dia30 | dia31 | dia32 | dia33 | dia34 | dia35 | dia36 | dia37 | dia38 | dia39 | dia40 | dialect_label | dialects | ELP | ELP2 | ELP3 | ELP4 | ELP5 | ELP6 | ELPname | ELPname2 | ELPname3 | ELPname4 | ELPname5 | ELPname6 | era | ethnicity | extinct | fam1 | fam2 | fam3 | fam4 | fam5 | fam6 | fam7 | fam8 | fam9 | fam10 | fam11 | fam12 | fam13 | fam14 | fam15 | family | familycolor | fontcolor | glotto | glotto2 | glotto3 | glotto4 | glotto5 | glottoname | glottoname2 | glottoname3 | glottoname4 | glottoname5 | glottopedia | glottorefname | glottorefname2 | glottorefname3 | glottorefname4 | glottorefname5 | guthrie | ietf | image | imagealt | imagecaption | imagescale | iso1 | iso1comment | iso2 | iso2b | iso2comment | iso2t | iso3 | iso3comment | iso6 | isoexception | lc1 | lc2 | lc3 | lc4 | lc5 | lc6 | lc7 | lc8 | lc9 | lc10 | lc11 | lc12 | lc13 | lc14 | lc15 | lc16 | lc17 | lc18 | lc19 | lc20 | lc21 | lc22 | lc23 | lc24 | lc25 | lc26 | lc27 | lc28 | lc29 | lc30 | lc31 | lc32 | lc33 | lc34 | lc35 | lc36 | lc37 | lc38 | lc39 | lc40 | ld1 | ld2 | ld3 | ld4 | ld5 | ld6 | ld7 | ld8 | ld9 | ld10 | ld11 | ld12 | ld13 | ld14 | ld15 | ld16 | ld17 | ld18 | ld19 | ld20 | ld21 | ld22 | ld23 | ld24 | ld25 | ld26 | ld27 | ld28 | ld29 | ld30 | ld31 | ld32 | ld33 | ld34 | ld35 | ld36 | ld37 | ld38 | ld39 | ld40 | linglist | linglist2 | linglist3 | linglist4 | linglist5 | linglist6 | lingname | lingname2 | lingname3 | lingname4 | lingname5 | lingname6 | lingua | lingua2 | lingua3 | lingua4 | lingua5 | lingua6 | lingua7 | lingua8 | lingua9 | lingua10 | linguaname | linguaname2 | linguaname3 | linguaname4 | linguaname5 | linguaname6 | linguaname7 | linguaname8 | linguaname9 | linguaname10 | listclass | liststyle | map | map2 | mapalt | mapalt2 | mapcaption | mapcaption2 | mapscale | minority | module | name | nation | nativename | notice | notice2 | official | posteriori | pronunciation | protoname | pushpin_image | pushpin_label | pushpin_label_position | pushpin_map | pushpin_map_alt | pushpin_map_caption | pushpin_mapsize | qid | ref | refname | region | revived | revived-cat | revived-category | script | setting | sign | signers | speakers | speakers_label | speakers2 | stand1 | stand2 | stand3 | stand4 | stand5 | stand6 | standards | state | states }}<templatestyles src="Template:Infobox/styles-images.css" /> Template:Culture of the Marshall Islands Marshallese (Template:Langx or Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh), also known as Ebon, is a Micronesian language spoken in the Marshall Islands. The language of the Marshallese people, it is spoken by nearly all of the country's population of 59,000, making it the principal language.<ref name=Pop>Template:Cite web</ref> There are also roughly 27,000 Marshallese citizens residing in the United States,<ref name=Ruststaff>Template:Cite web</ref> nearly all of whom speak Marshallese, as well as residents in other countries such as Nauru and Kiribati.

There are two major dialects, the western Rālik and the eastern Ratak.

Classification

Marshallese, a Micronesian language, is a member of the Eastern Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian languages.<ref name="hgb">Template:Harvp</ref> The closest linguistic relatives of Marshallese are the other Micronesian languages, including Gilbertese, Nauruan, Pohnpeian, Mokilese, Chuukese, Refaluwasch, and Kosraean. Marshallese shows 50% lexical similarity with Gilbertese, Mokilese, and Pohnpeian.<ref name="eth" />

Within the Micronesian archipelago, Marshallese—along with the rest of the Micronesian language group—is not as closely related to the more ambiguously classified Oceanic language Yapese in Yap State, or to the Polynesian outlier languages Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro in Pohnpei State, and even less closely related to the non-Oceanic languages Palauan in Palau and Chamorro in the Mariana Islands.

Variation

The Republic of the Marshall Islands contains 34 atolls that are split into two chains, the eastern Ratak Chain and the western Rālik Chain.<ref name="hgb" /> These two chains have different dialects, which differ mainly lexically, and are mutually intelligible.<ref name="eth" /><ref name="hgb" /> The atoll of Ujelang in the west was reported to have "slightly less homogeneous speech",<ref name="eth" /> but it has been uninhabited since 1980.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Ratak and Rālik dialects differ phonetically in how they deal with stems that begin with double consonants.<ref name="hgb" /> Ratak Marshallese inserts a vowel to separate the consonants, while Ralik adds a vowel before the consonants (and pronounced an unwritten consonant phoneme Template:IPA before the vowel).<ref name="hgb" /> For example, the stem Template:Lang 'play' becomes Template:Lang in Rālik Marshallese and Template:Lang in Ratak Marshallese.<ref name="hgb" /><ref>MED: Template:Lang</ref>

Status

File:Stop the Spread of Germs updated (Marshallese).pdf
A poster sponsored by CDC about COVID-19 prevention in Marshallese.

Marshallese is the official language of the Marshall Islands and enjoys vigorous use.<ref name="eth" /> As of 1979, the language was spoken by 43,900 people in the Marshall Islands.<ref name="eth" /> in 2020 the number was closer to 59,000.<ref name=Pop/> Additional groups of speakers in other countries including Nauru and the United States increase the total number of Marshallese speakers, with approximately 27,000 Marshallese-Americans living in the United States.<ref name=Ruststaff/> Along with Pohnpeian and Chuukese, Marshallese stands out among Micronesian languages in having tens of thousands of speakers; most Micronesian languages have far fewer.<ref name="w2008pp6-7">Template:Harvp</ref> A dictionary and at least two Bible translations have been published in Marshallese.<ref name="eth"/>

Phonology

Consonants

Marshallese has a large consonant inventory, and each consonant has some type of secondary articulation (palatalization, velarization, or rounding).<ref name="w1">Template:Harvp</ref> The palatalized consonants are regarded as "light", and the velarized and rounded consonants are regarded as "heavy", with the rounded consonants being both velarized and labialized.<ref name="MEDSounds" /> (This contrast is similar to that between "slender" and "broad" consonants in Goidelic languages, or between "soft" and "hard" consonants in Slavic languages.) The "light" consonants are considered more relaxed articulations. <ref name="MEDSounds" />

Consonant phonemes of Marshallese
Labial Coronal Dorsal
Light Heavy Light Heavy Heavy
Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small
Stop Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Nasal Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Rhotic Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Lateral Template:IPA link Template:IPA link Template:IPA link
Glide Template:IPA link (Template:IPA link) Template:IPA link

Although Marshallese has no voicing contrast in consonants,<ref name="w1" /> stops may be allophonically partially voiced (Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA),<ref name="c14">Template:Harvp</ref> when they are between vowels and not geminated. (Technically, partially voiced stops would be Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, but this article uses voiced transcriptions Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink for simplicity.)<ref name="alph" /> Final consonants are often unreleased.<ref name="c14" />

Glides Template:IPA vanish in many environments, with surrounding vowels assimilating their backness and roundedness.<ref name="b21-22" /> 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.<ref name="b21-22" /> In fact, the consonant Template:IPA never surfaces phonetically but is used to explain the preceding phenomenon.<ref name="c14"/> (Template:IPA and Template:IPA may surface phonetically in word-initial and word-final positions and, even then, not consistently.<ref name="c14" />)

Bender (1968) explains that it was once assumed that there were six bilabial consonants because of observed surface realizations, Template:IPA, but he determined that two of these, Template:IPA, were actually allophones of Template:IPA respectively before front vowels and allophones of Template:IPA respectively before back vowels.<ref name="b16">Template:Harvp</ref> Before front vowels, the velarized labial consonants Template:IPA actually tend to have rounded (labiovelarized) articulations Template:IPA, but they remain unrounded on the phonemic level, and there are no distinct Template:IPA phonemes.<ref name="b16" /><ref name="bxvi-xvii">Template:Harvp</ref> The pronunciation guide used by Naan (2014) still recognizes Template:IPA as allophone symbols separate from Template:IPA in these same conditions while recognizing that there are only palatalized and velarized phonemes.<ref name="naan" /> This article uses Template:IPA in phonetic transcriptions.

The consonant Template:IPA may be phonetically realized as Template:IPAblink, Template:IPA, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPA, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, or Template:IPAblink (or any of their voiced variants Template:IPAblink, Template:IPA, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPA, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, or Template:IPAblink), in free variation.<ref name="MEDSounds" /><ref name="c14" /><ref name="alph" /> Word-internally it usually assumes a voiced fricative articulation as Template:IPAblink (or Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink) but not when geminated.<ref name="alph" /> Template:IPA is used to adapt foreign sibilants into Marshallese. In phonetic transcription, this article uses Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink as voiceless and voiced allophones of the same phoneme.

Marshallese has no distinct Template:IPA phoneme.

The dorsal consonants Template:IPA are usually velar but with the tongue a little farther back Template:IPA, making them somewhere between velar and uvular in articulation.<ref name="alph" /> All dorsal phonemes are "heavy" (velarized or rounded), and none are "light" (palatalized).<ref name="MEDSounds" /> As stated before, the palatal consonant articulations Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink are treated as allophones of the palatalized coronal obstruent Template:IPA, even though palatal consonants are physically dorsal. For simplicity, this article uses unmarked Template:IPA in phonetic transcription.

Bender (1969) describes Template:IPA and Template:IPA as being 'dark' r-colored, but is not more specific.<ref name="bxvii">Template:Harvp</ref> The Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) describes these as heavy dental nasals.<ref name="MEDSounds" />

Consonants Template:IPA, Template:IPA and Template:IPA are all coronal consonants and full trills. Template:IPA is similar to Spanish Template:Lang with a trill position just behind the alveolar ridge, a postalveolar trill Template:IPA,<ref name="bxvii" /> but Template:IPA is a palatalized dental trill Template:IPA, articulated further forward behind the front teeth.<ref name="alph" /> The MED and Willson (2003) describe the rhotic consonants as "retroflex", but are not clear how this relates to their dental or alveolar trill positions.<ref name="MEDSounds" /><ref name="w6">Template:Harvp</ref> (See retroflex trill.) This article uses Template:IPAblink, Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink in phonetic transcription.

The heavy lateral consonants Template:IPA and Template:IPA are dark l like in English feel, articulated Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink respectively.<ref name="alph" /> This article uses Template:IPAblink and Template:IPAblink in phonetic transcription.

The velarized consonants (and, by extension, the rounded consonants) may be velarized or pharyngealized<ref name="MEDSounds" /> like the emphatic consonants in Arabic or Mizrahi Hebrew.

Vowels

Marshallese has a vertical vowel system of just four vowel phonemes, each with several allophones depending on the surrounding consonants.<ref name="w2">Template:Harvp</ref>

On the phonemic level, while Bender (1969) and Choi (1992) agree that the vowel phonemes are distinguished by height, they describe the abstract nature of these phonemes differently, with Bender treating the front unrounded surface realizations as their relaxed state that becomes altered by proximity of velarized or rounded consonants,<ref name="bxiii-xvii">Template:Harvp</ref> while Choi uses central vowel symbols in a neutral fashion to notate the abstract phonemes and completely different front, back and rounded 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 Template:IPA 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) and Naan (2014) notate some Marshallese vowel surface realizations differently from one another, and they disagree on how to characterize the vowel 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) of advanced 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 Template:IPAblink rather than cardinal Template:IPAblink for the close-mid back unrounded vowel, and Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) use Template:IPAblink rather than cardinal Template:IPAblink for the open back unrounded vowel. Naan (2014) is the only reference providing a vowel trapezium for its own vowels, and differs especially from the other vowel models in splitting the front allophones of Template:IPA into two realizations (Template:IPAblink before consonants and Template:IPAblink in open syllables), merging the front allophones of Template:IPA and Template:IPA as Template:IPAblink before consonants and Template:IPAblink in open syllables, merging the rounded allophones of Template:IPA and Template:IPA as Template:IPAblink, and indicating the front allophone of Template:IPA as a close-mid central unrounded vowel Template:IPAblink, a realization more raised even than the front allophone of the normally higher Template:IPA. 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
Bender<ref name="b17">Template:Harvp</ref>   MED<ref name="MEDSounds">Template:Harvp</ref>   Choi<ref name="c15">Template:Harvp</ref>   Willson<ref name="w3">Template:Harvp</ref>   Naan<ref name="naan">Template:Cite web</ref>
Height Unrnd. Rnd. Height Phon. Unrnd. Rnd. Height Phon. Unrnd. Rnd. Height Unrnd. Rnd. Unrnd. Rnd.
Frt. Back Frt. Back Frt. Back Frt. Back Frt. Back
Close Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Close Template:Lang Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Close /Template:IPA link/ Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:Nobr Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink [[[:Template:IPA link]],Template:IPA link] Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink
Close-mid Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Mid Template:Lang Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink   Template:Nobr Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink [[[:Template:IPA link]],Template:IPA link] Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink
Mid Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:Lang Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Mid /Template:IPA link/ Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:Nobr Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink
Open Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Open Template:Lang Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Open /Template:IPA link/ Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:Nobr Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink Template:IPAblink

Superficially, 12 Marshallese vowel allophones appear in minimal pairs, a common test for phonemicity.<ref name="b17" /> For example, Template:IPA (Template:Lang, 'breadfruit'), Template:IPA (Template:Lang, 'but'), and Template:IPA (Template:Lang, 'taboo') are separate Marshallese words.<ref name="b17" /> However, the uneven distribution of glide phonemes suggests that they underlyingly end with the glides (thus Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA).<ref name="b21-22">Template:Harvp</ref> When glides are taken into account, it emerges that there are only 4 vowel phonemes.<ref name="b21-22" />

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.<ref name="w3"/> For example, Template:Lang 'shy', phonemically Template:IPA, is often realized phonetically as Template:IPA.<ref name="w3" /> It follows that there are 24 possible short diphthongs in Marshallese:<ref name="w3" />

Phoneme Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA

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 Template:IPA) or as a monophthong of one of the two vowel allophones (such as Template:IPA), all in free variation. Bender (1968) also observes that when the would-be diphthong starts with a back rounded vowel Template:IPA and ends with a front unrounded vowel Template:IPA, then a vowel allophone associated with the back unrounded vowels (notated in this article as Template:IPA) may also occur in the vowel nucleus.<ref name="b22-23">Template:Harvp</ref> 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 Template:IPA can be more simply transcribed as Template:IPA, 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,<ref name="b17-21">Template:Harvp</ref> and it remains in occasional use as a more condensed phonetic transcription.<ref name="c22-25">Template:Harvp</ref><ref name="w6" /> 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 to Marshallese orthography as informed by the MED.

Some syllables appear to contain long vowels: Template:Lang 'future'.<ref name="w7" /> They are thought to contain an underlying glide (Template:IPA, Template:IPA or Template:IPA), which is not present phonetically.<ref name="w7-8">Template:Harvp</ref><ref name="b22">Template:Harvp</ref> For instance, the underlying form of Template:Lang is Template:IPA.<ref name="w7" /> Although the medial glide is not realized phonetically, it affects vowel quality; in a word like Template:IPA, the vowel transitions from Template:IPAblink to Template:IPAblink and then back to Template:IPAblink, as Template:IPA.<ref name="clong">Template:Harvp</ref> In condensed phonetic transcription, the same word can be expressed as Template:IPA or Template:IPA.<ref name="b17-21" /><ref name="c22-25" /><ref name="w6" />

Phonotactics

Syllables in Marshallese follow CV, CVC, and VC patterns.<ref name="w7">Template:Harvp</ref> Marshallese words always underlyingly begin and end with consonants.<ref name="b22" /> Initial, final, and long vowels may be explained as the results of underlying glides not present on the phonetic level.<ref name="b22" /> Initial vowels are sometimes realized with an onglide Template:IPAblink or Template:IPAblink but not consistently:<ref name="c22">Template:Harvp</ref>

Only homorganic consonant sequences are allowed in Marshallese,<ref name="w4-5">Template:Harvp</ref> including geminate varieties of each consonant, except for glides.<ref name="c14" /> Non-homorganic clusters are separated by vowel epenthesis even across word boundaries.<ref name="w4-5" /> Some homorganic clusters are also disallowed:<ref name="w4-5" />

  • 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.<ref name="w5">Template:Harvp</ref>
  • †Obstruent-liquid and liquid-obstruent clusters besides Template:IPA and Template:IPA undergo epenthesis.<ref name="w5" />
  • Liquid-nasal clusters undergo nasal assimilation.<ref name="w5" />
  • Obstruent-nasal clusters undergo epenthesis (if coronal) or nasal assimilation (if non-coronal).<ref name="w5" />
  • 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.

Template:Col-begin Template:Col-break

Bilabials
↓→ Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA

Template:Col-break

Coronals
↓→ Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA † Template:IPA Template:IPA

Template:Col-break

Dorsals
↓→ Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA

Template:Col-break

Secondary
↓→ Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Template:IPA
Template:IPA Template:IPA

Template:Col-end

The vowel 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.<ref name="b22" /><ref name="w7" /> 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 Template:IPA if the two nearest vowels are both Template:IPA. Naan (2014) does not take the heights of epenthetic vowels between non-glides into consideration, phonetically transcribing all of them as a schwa Template:IPAblink.<ref name="naan" /> 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.<ref name="b22-23" /> Epenthetic vowels do not affect the rhythm of the spoken language, and can never be a stressed syllable.Template:Citation needed Phonetic transcription may indicate epenthetic vowels between two non-glides as non-syllabic,<ref name="b8">Template:Harvp</ref> using IPA notation similar to that of semi-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.

Timing

The short vowel phonemes Template:IPA and the approximant phonemes Template:IPA all occupy a roughly equal duration of time.<ref name="c27">Template:Harvp</ref> Though they occupy time, the approximants are generally not articulated as glides, and Choi (1992) does not rule out a deeper level of representation.<ref name="c71">Template:Harvp</ref> In particular, Template:IPA short vowels occupy one unit of time, and Template:IPA long vowels (for which Template:IPA is an approximant phoneme) are three times as long.<ref name="c65">Template:Harvp</ref>

As a matter of prosody, each Template:IPA consonant and Template:IPA vowel phonemic sequence carries one mora in length, with the exception of Template:IPA in Template:IPA sequences where the vowel carries one mora for both phonemes. All morae are thus measured in Template:IPA or shut Template:IPA sequences:<ref name="w8">Template:Harvp</ref>

That makes Marshallese a mora-rhythmed language in a fashion similar to Finnish, Gilbertese, Hawaiian, and Japanese.

Historic sound changes

Marshallese reflexes of Proto Oceanic consonantsTemplate:Sfnp
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
Marshallese Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA

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.

Orthography

File:Book of Mormon - Marshallese.jpg
Marshallese version of the Book of Mormon
File:Alphabet marshallais.jpg
Marshallese alphabet in a library

Marshallese is written in the Latin alphabet. There are two competing orthographies.<ref name="mx">Template:Harvp</ref> The "old" orthography was introduced by missionaries.<ref name="mx" /> This system is not highly consistent or faithful in representing the sounds of Marshallese, but until recently, it had no competing orthography.<ref name="r6">Template:Harvp</ref> It is currently widely used, including in newspapers and signs.<ref name="r6" /> The "new" orthography is gaining popularity especially in schools and among young adults and children.<ref name="mx" /> 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.<ref name="mx" /><ref name="r6" />

The current alphabet, as promoted by the Republic of the Marshall Islands, consists of 24 letters.

Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Orthographic consonants of Marshallese<ref name="alph">Template:Harvp</ref>
Labial Coronal Dorsal
Light Heavy Light Heavy Heavy
Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small Template:Small
Stop Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Nasal Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Rhotic Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Lateral Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Glide Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Orthographic vowels of Marshallese<ref name="alph" />
Unrounded Rounded
Front Back
Close Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Mid Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Open Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang

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 Template:IPA proposed on the phonemic level are unwritten, because they do not surface as consonants phonetically. In particular, the glide Template:IPA, which never surfaces as a consonant phonetically, is always unwritten.

The letter Template:Lang is generally used only in three situations:

  1. To mark a rounded consonant (one of Template:Lang) or approximant phoneme (Template:Lang) before a vowel that precedes an unrounded consonant phoneme (Template:Lang). Even then, if the consonant phoneme comes after a back rounded vowel Template:Lang and before another vowel, it is common to write one of Template:Lang instead of Template:Lang, but the rounded dorsal consonants Template:Lang are still written with Template:Lang in these circumstances.
  2. To mark a velarized bilabial consonant (either Template:Lang or Template:Lang) before a vowel that precedes a palatalized consonant phoneme (Template:Lang).
  3. To indicate a Template:IPAblink glide phonetically surfacing either word-initially or between two vowels.

Template:Lang is never written out word-finally or before another consonant.

The palatal glide phoneme Template:IPA may also be written out but only as Template:Lang before one of Template:Lang, or as Template:Lang before one of either Template:Lang. The approximant is never written before any of Template:Lang. A stronger raised palatal glide Template:IPAblink, phonemically analyzed as the exotic un-syllabic consonant-vowel-consonant sequence Template:IPA rather than plain Template:IPA, may occur word-initially before any vowel and is written Template:Lang. For historical reasons, certain words like Template:Lang may be written as Template:Lang<ref name="medYokwe" /> with a Template:Lang, which does not otherwise exist in the Marshallese alphabet.

One source of orthographic variation is in the representation of vowels. Pure monophthongs are written consistently based on vowel quality. However, short diphthongs 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.)

Modern orthography has a bias in certain spelling choices in which both possibilities are equally clear between two non-approximant consonants.

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 of Template:Lang, 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 word Template:Lang Template:IPA<ref>MED: Template:Lang</ref> is usually not written any other way, but exceptions exist such as Template:Lang (Template:IPA "land; country; island; atoll"<ref name="MEDaelon">MED: Template:Lang</ref>), which is preferred over Template:Lang because the Template:Lang spelling emphasizes that the first (unwritten) glide phoneme is dorsal rather than palatal.

The spelling of grammatical affixes, such as Template:Lang (Template:IPA<ref>MED: Template:Lang</ref>) and Template:Lang (Template:IPA) is less variable despite the fact that their vowels become diphthongs with second member dependent on the preceding/following consonant: the prefix Template:Lang may be pronounced as any of Template:IPA depending on the stem. The term Template:Lang ("Marshallese people") is actually pronounced Template:IPA as if it were Template:Lang.<ref>MED: Template:Lang</ref>

Display issues

In the most polished printed text, the letters Template:Lang always appear with unaltered cedillas directly beneath, and the letters Template:Lang always appear with unaltered macrons directly above. Regardless, the diacritics are often replaced by ad hoc spellings using more common or more easily displayable characters. In particular, the Marshallese-English Online Dictionary (but not the print version), or MOD, uses the following characters:<ref name="MED" />

Standard     MOD
Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang

As of 2019, there are no dedicated precomposed characters in Unicode for the letters Template:Lang; they must be displayed as plain Latin letters with combining diacritics, and even many Unicode fonts will not display the combinations properly and neatly. Although Template:Lang exist as precomposed characters in Unicode, these letters also do not display properly as Marshallese letters in most Unicode fonts. Unicode defines the letters as having a cedilla, but fonts usually display them with a comma below because of rendering expectations of the Latvian alphabet. For many fonts, a workaround is to encode these letters as the base letter Template:Lang followed by a zero-width non-joiner and then a combining cedilla, producing Template:Lang.

Both systems already require fonts that display Basic Latin (with Template:Lang) and Latin Extended-A (with Template:Lang). The standard orthography also requires Combining 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 with Latin-1 Supplement (with Template:Lang) and Latin Extended Additional (with Template:Lang). If a font comfortably displays both the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration and the Vietnamese 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 the Noto series displays Marshallese correctly.

Marshallese letters in various typefaces
Typeface Standard letters With
"mh"
code 		With
zero-width
non-joiner 		MOD alternates
Arial Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Arial Unicode MS Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Calibri Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Cambria Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Candara Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Charis SIL Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Code2000 Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Consolas Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Constantia Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Corbel Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Cormorant Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Courier New Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
DejaVu Sans Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
DejaVu Sans Mono Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
DejaVu Serif Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Gentium Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Gentium Basic Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Gentium Book Basic Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Gentium Plus Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Inconsolata Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Junicode Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Linux Libertine Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Lucida Sans Unicode Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Noto Sans Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Noto Sans Mono Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Noto Serif Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Open Sans Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Segoe UI Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Source Code Pro Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Source Sans Pro Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Source Serif Pro Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Tahoma Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ
Times New Roman Ā ā Ļ ļ M̧ m̧ Ņ ņ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ Ō ō Ū ū Ļ ļ Ņ ņ L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ Ḷ ḷ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ñ ñ Ọ ọ

Differences in orthography

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 and Template:Lang. 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:

Bender's orthography

In his 1968 publication Marshallese Phonology, linguist Byron 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 tutorial Spoken Marshallese,Template:Sfnp it appeared in a modified form alongside the "new" orthography in the 1976 Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) to which he contributed. Bender later collaborated with Stephen Trussel when the MED was adapted to website format as the Marshallese-English Online Dictionary (MOD), with Bender's orthography appearing in an again-modified form.

Phoneme Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA Template:IPA
Bender (1968) Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
MED (1976) Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang
MOD Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang Template:Lang

The MOD's version of Bender's orthography uses under-dot diacritics instead of the cedillas used both by the "new" orthography and by the 1976 MED's version of Bender's orthography, for reasons specific to the MOD's display issues.

In addition to plain sequences of phonemes, Bender's orthography recognizes a few special sequences, many of which relate to regular differences between the Rālik and Ratak dialects of Marshallese.

Grammar

Morphology

Nouns are not overtly marked as such, and do not inflect for number, gender, or case.<ref name="ws15">Template:Harvp</ref> Nouns are often verbalized and verbs nominalized without any overt morphological marker:<ref name="ws15" />

Template:Interlinear

Marshallese has determiners and demonstratives which follow the noun they modify.<ref name="ws16">Template:Harvp</ref> These are marked for number, and in the plural also encode a human/nonhuman distinction.<ref name="ws17">Template:Harvp</ref> For example, in the singular Template:Lang 'the pencil' and Template:Lang 'the boy' take the same determiner, but in the plural Template:Lang 'the pencils' and Template:Lang have different determiners.<ref name="ws17" /> Indefinites are an exception; in the singular they are expressed with the word Template:Lang 'one' before the noun (e.g. Template:Lang 'a song'), and there is no plural indefinite determiner.<ref name="ws17-18">Template:Harvp</ref>

The Marshallese demonstrative system has five levels:

  1. near the speaker (sg. Template:Lang / pl. human Template:Lang / pl. nonhuman Template:Lang)
  2. near the speaker and listener (Template:Lang)
  3. near the listener (Template:Lang)
  4. away from both speaker and listener (Template:Lang)
  5. distant but visible (Template:Lang).<ref name="ws17" />
Marshallese pronouns<ref name="ws18">Template:Harvp</ref>
Person absolutive /
emphatic		 objective
s 1 Template:Lang Template:Lang
2 Template:Lang Template:Lang
3 Template:Lang
pl 1 inc Template:Lang
1 exc Template:Lang
2 Template:Lang (Ralik)
Template:Lang (Ratak)
3 Template:Lang

Marshallese possesses two sets of 1st and 2nd person singular pronouns, known as "absolutive" or "emphatic" pronouns and as "objective" pronouns.<ref name="ws18" /> Marshallese 1st person plurals mark for clusivity.<ref name="ws18" /> Third person objective pronouns may only be used for humans; nonhumans instead take a null pronoun:<ref name="ws18" />

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

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.<ref name="ws19-21">Template:Harvp</ref> It is common in Oceanic languages for a special type of pronoun to be used in equational sentences and for topicalization or focus.<ref name="ws19-21" />

Template:Interlinear

Template:Interlinear

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.Template:Sfnp

Syntax

Marshallese, like many Micronesian languages, divides sentences into two types: predicational sentences and equational sentences.<ref name="wms">Template:Harvp</ref> Predicational sentences have SVO word order and a main verb:<ref name="wms" />

Template:Interlinear

In equational sentences, both the subject and predicate are noun phrases:<ref name="wms" />

Template:Interlinear

Vocabulary

Marshallese vocabulary<ref name="MED">Template:Harvp</ref>
(Rālik) Template:Lang; (Ratak) Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh Yes
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh Atoll, or island; the word for land in general
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh How are you? (Literally, "How is your life doing?") Notice that the Template:Lang assimilates before the Template:Lang.
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh (It) is good.
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh (It) is bad.
Template:Lang; Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh Hello, goodbye and love, similar to the Hawaiian aloha; also an expression of sympathy.<ref name="medYokwe">MED: Template:Lang</ref>
Template:Lang; Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh Iroij, the various paramount chieftains of Marshallese culture
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh No.
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh Thank you very much. Template:Lang alone means "thank you".
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh You're welcome. Literally "for kindness".
Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh Christian: The majority religion of the Marshall Islands

Cardinal numbers

This includes the cardinal numbers one through ten in the Rālik dialect. Where Ratak forms differ, they are listed in parentheses.

  1. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh
  2. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh
  3. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh
  4. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh
  5. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh
  6. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh (the Template:Lang is silent<ref name="r12">Template:Harvp</ref>)
  7. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh
  8. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh (Template:Lang)
  9. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh (Template:Lang)
  10. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh

Months

  1. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'January'
  2. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'February'
  3. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'March'
  4. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'April'
  5. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'May'
  6. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'June'
  7. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'July'
  8. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'August'
  9. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, also Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'September'
  10. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'October'
  11. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, also Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'November'
  12. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'December'

Weekdays

  1. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Sunday; Sabbath'
  2. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Monday'
  3. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Tuesday'
  4. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Wednesday'
  5. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Thursday'
  6. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, also Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, also Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Friday'
  7. Template:Lang Template:IPAc-mh, 'Saturday'

Marshallese atolls and islands

Other countries and places

Text examples

Modern orthography

Here is the Hail Mary in standard Marshallese orthography:

Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang

Older orthography

Here is the Lord's Prayer from the 1982 Marshallese Bible, which uses the older orthography:

Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang
Template:Lang

References

Template:Reflist

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Bender, Byron W. (1969). Vowel dissimilation in Marshallese. In Working papers in linguistics (No. 11, pp. 88–96). University of Hawaii.
  • Template:Cite journal
  • Template:Cite book
  • Hale, Mark. (2007) Chapter 5 of Historical Linguistics: Theory and Method. Blackwell
  • Template:Cite journal
  • Template:Cite journal
  • Pagotto, L. (1987). Verb subcategorization and verb derivation in Marshallese: a lexicase analysis.

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