Mokilese language

Last updated
Mokilese
Mwoakilloa
Native to Micronesia
Region Mwoakilloa
Native speakers
(1,500 cited 1979–2010) [1]
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mkj
Glottolog moki1238
ELP Mokilese
Lang Status 20-CR.svg
Mokilese is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Mokilese, also known as Mwoakilloan, Mwokilese, or Mwoakilese, is a Micronesian language originally spoken on Mwoakilloa, Federated States of Micronesia. Of the 1200 Mokilese speakers, only about 500 live on Mwoakilloa. [2]

Contents

Introduction

History

Mokilese originated from the Mokil (or Mwoakilloa) Atoll, but speakers have also migrated approximately 100 miles west, to the Pohnpei Islands, and parts of the United States. Mwoakilloa and Pohnpei are both geographically part of the Caroline Islands just above Papua New Guinea. Mwoakilloa is a district of the outlying islands of Pohnpei of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Before Western contact, Mokilese only had contact with its neighboring islands: Pohnpei, Pingelap, Kosrae, and the Marshall Islands. After Spanish explorers "rediscovered" Mokil Atoll, they colonized it in 1886 (Hezel, 1992). Shortly after they lost the Spanish-American War in 1898, they sold it to Germany (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). Later, in 1914, it was seized by Japan and heavily fortified during World War II, until Japan surrendered and passed it on to the United States in August 1945 (Hezel, 1992). Thereafter, it became a part of the UN trust territory under U.S. jurisdiction in 1947 until the trust territory dissolved in 1986 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014).

Population

Mokilese is both the name of the Mokil population and the language which they speak. It is currently spoken on Mokil Atoll, the Pohnpei Islands, and in some parts of the United States. There are only approximately 1,500 speakers of this language left. 1,050 of whom reside in Micronesia; a little over 900 in Pohnpei and less than 150 in Mokil Atoll. The other 450 speakers are scattered across the United 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).

Classification

Mokilese is a Micronesian language, and therefore, a part of the Austronesian language family. Mokilese belongs to the Pohnpeic subgrouping, and is the sister language of Pingelapese and Pohnpeian. Mokilese shares approximately 79% lexical similarity with Pingelapese, and 75% with Pohnapeian (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013).

Phonology

Consonants

Mokilese has the following simple consonant phonemes:

Consonants in Mokilese [3]
Labial Alveolar Dorsal
Bilabial Labio-velar
Nasal m mʷ n ŋ
Stop p pʷ d k
Fricative s
Approximant l j
Trill r

In addition Mokilese contrasts between simple and geminate consonants and each consonant above has a geminate pair. [3] For example likkoau (clothes) contrasts with likoau (chapped). Geminate consonants only occur between vowels. [3]

Vowels

Mokilese has 7 simple phonemic vowels distinguishing between short and long varieties of each.

Vowels in Mokilese [3]
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 also allows triphthongs, which is rare among the Pacific languages.

Syllable structure

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):

  1. In Mokilese, a sequence of consonants within a word does not normally belong to the same syllable, because it is difficult[ clarification needed ] to produce a sequence like CCV. If two consonants come together within a word, place a syllable boundary between them. (Remember that ng is a single consonant even though it is written with two letters.)
    angkoa 'anchor' ang-koa
    dipkelkel 'to stumble' dip-kel-kel
    janjal 'clear' jan-jal
  1. If a single consonant occurs between two vowels within a word, place a syllable boundary before the consonant.
    dangahnga 'lazy' da-ngah-nga
    widek 'to pour' wi-dek
    pere 'room' pe-re
  1. If two vowels come together within a word, place a syllable boundary between them.
    duhrion 'kind of tree' duh-ri-on
    injinjued 'sad' in-jin-ju-ed
    kia 'to not want' ki-a

Historical sound changes

Mokilese reflexes of Proto Oceanic consonants [4]
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_}
  1. 1 2 3 Before /a/.
  2. 1 2 3 4 In the Pohnpeic languages, geminate obstruents are realized as homorganic nasal-obstruent clusters.
  3. 1 2 Often before /i/.
  4. 1 2 The reflex is *∅ sporadically before PMc *e.

Grammar

Basic word order

The basic word 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-that That 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).

Reduplication

There are many forms of reduplication in Mokilese. The most common reduplication form is a reduplication of the first CVC of a word.

Next, there's the CVh reduplication form. This is the reduplication of the first CV of a word and lengthening of the vowel with /h/.

Another reduplication form Mokilese has is VCC. When reduplicating VC, the consonant is also geminated.

There is also the CV reduplication, which reduplicates the first CV of a word. However, sometimes the CV reduplication can become CVV.

Lastly, there is also the CVC reduplication form. CVC reduplicates the last CVC of a word rather than the first, and it is also a suffix, unlike the other forms, which are prefixes.

Numerals

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 consist of a numeral prefix and a numeral classifier. Most of the numeral prefixes are similar across the four different sets, 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
Onee-we-mene-pase-kif
Tworia-wroah-menrah-pasriah-kij
Threejilu-wjil-menjil-pasjil-kij
Fourpah-wpah-menpah-paspah-kij
Fivelimoa-wlim-menlim-paslim-kij
Sixwono-wwon-menwon-paswon-kij
Seveniju-wij-menij-pasij-kij
Eightwalu-wwal-menwal-paswal-lij
Nineduoa-wdoh-mandoh-pasdoh-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 because there are only so many things that they would need to count in millions or billions.

Vocabulary

Indigenous vocabulary

Loanwords

Mokilese has borrowed numerous words from languages of foreigners who traveled into Micronesia, as well as from other Micronesian languages. Some Micronesian languages that influenced Mokilese were Pohnpeian, Marshallese, Pingelapese, and Kusaiean (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 all loanwords 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 from Pohnpeian:

Words derived from Marshallese:

Word derived from Marshallese:

Mokilese also borrowed words from foreign languages such as German, Spanish, Japanese, and English. These borrowings occurred due to colonization. The first of these languages to come in contact with Mokilese was Spanish, which occurred in the 16th century, when Spanish explorers discovered Micronesia (Hezel, 1992). Then they colonized the Mokil Atoll in 1886. Shortly after, Spain sold the island to Germany after they lost the Spanish–American War in 1898 (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014). Later, in 1914, the island was seized by Japan in 1919, and heavily fortified during World War II, until they surrendered and passed it on to United 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 for Spanish and German because their contact durations were shorter.

Word derived from Spanish:

Word derived from German:

Word derived from Japanese:

Word derived from English (before WWII):

Word derived from English (after WWII):

Endangerment

Vitality

Mokilese is an endangered language. It is only spoken at home, and the language acquisition is getting worse with each generation. This is because the younger generations are not fluent speakers, they prefer learning Pohnpeian and English instead, so only the elders and adults are actually fluent (Poll, 2013). This is just for the Mokilese speakers in Pohnpei and Mokil 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). On top of that, Mokilese not only does not have government recognition, there is not even a single school that teaches Mokilese (Poll, 2013).

Materials

Not only is the Mokilese language endangered, it also 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.

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of the Federated States of Micronesia</span>

Demographic features of the population of the Federated States of Micronesia include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects. The indigenous population of the Federated States of Micronesia, which is predominantly Micronesian, consists of various ethnolinguistic groups. English has become the common language. Population growth remains high at more than 3%, but is ameliorated somewhat by net emigration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuvaluan language</span> Polynesian language spoken in Tuvalu

Tuvaluan, often called Tuvalu, is a Polynesian language closely related to the Ellicean group spoken in Tuvalu. It is more or less distantly related to all other Polynesian languages, such as Hawaiian, Māori, Tahitian, Samoan, Tokelauan and Tongan, and most closely related to the languages spoken on the Polynesian Outliers in Micronesia and Northern and Central Melanesia. Tuvaluan has borrowed considerably from Samoan, the language of Christian missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.

Carolinian is an Austronesian language originating in the Caroline Islands, but spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands. It is an official language of the Carolinian people. Carolinian is a threatened language according to the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat), but available data is scarce. There are approximately 3,100 native speakers in the world. Carolinian has 95% lexical similarity with Satawalese, 88% with Woleaian and Puluwatese; 81% with Mortlockese; 78% with Chuukese, 74% with Ulithian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marshallese language</span> Micronesian language of the Marshall Islands

Marshallese, also known as Ebon, is a Micronesian language spoken in the Marshall Islands. Spoken by the ethnic Marshallese people, the language is spoken by nearly the country's entire population of 59,000, making it the principal language of the country. There are also roughly 27,000 Marshallese citizens residing in the United States, nearly all of whom speak Marshallese, as well as in other countries including Nauru and Kiribati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pohnpeic languages</span> Language from Austronesian language

Pohnpeic, also rendered Ponapeic, is a subgroup of the Chuukic–Pohnpeic branch of Micronesian in the Austronesian language family. The languages are primarily spoken in Pohnpei State of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Kapingamarangi is a Polynesian language spoken in the Federated States of Micronesia. It had 3,000 native speakers in 1995. The language is closely related to the Nukuoro language.

Wintu is a Wintu language which was spoken by the Wintu people of Northern California. It was the northernmost member of the Wintun family of languages. The Wintun family of languages was spoken in the Shasta County, Trinity County, Sacramento River Valley and in adjacent areas up to the Carquinez Strait of San Francisco Bay. Wintun is a branch of the hypothetical Penutian language phylum or stock of languages of western North America, more closely related to four other families of Penutian languages spoken in California: Maiduan, Miwokan, Yokuts, and Costanoan.

The Nukuoro language is a Polynesian Outlier language, spoken by about 1,200 people on Nukuoro Atoll and on Pohnpei, two islands of Pohnpei State within the Federated States of Micronesia. Nukuoro is a remote coral atoll with a population of about 150, where the primary language is Nukuoro. An additional several hundred Nukuoro speakers live in Kolonia, Pohnpei, with smaller diaspora communities elsewhere in Micronesia and in the United States. Most Nukuoro speakers, particularly those that live away from Nukuoro Atoll, are multilingual in Pohnpeian and/or English; some older Nukuoro speakers also know German or Japanese.

Woleaian is the main language of the island of Woleai and surrounding smaller islands in the state of Yap of the Federated States of Micronesia. Woleaian is a Chuukic language. Within that family, its closest relative is Satawalese, with which it is largely mutually intelligible. Woleaian is spoken by approximately 1700 people. Woleai has a writing system of its own, a syllabary based on the Latin alphabet.

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

The Pingelapese language is a Micronesian language native to Pingelap, an atoll belonging to the state of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. This atoll is the homeland to the Pingelapese people, consisting of a three-square mile range of uninhabited small coral islets, Daekae and Sukora, and the inhabited islet, Pingelap. These islands partially make up the Caroline Islands.

The Woleai or Caroline Island script, thought to have been a syllabary, was a partially Latin-based script indigenous to Woleai Atoll and nearby islands of Micronesia and used to write the Woleaian language until the mid-20th century. At the time the script was first noticed by Europeans, this part of Micronesia was known as the Caroline Islands, hence the name Caroline Island script.

Ottawa is a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of communities in southern Ontario and a smaller number of communities in northern Michigan. Ottawa has a phonological inventory of seventeen consonants and seven oral vowels; in addition, there are long nasal vowels the phonological status of which are discussed below. An overview of general Ojibwa phonology and phonetics can be found in the article on Ojibwe phonology. The Ottawa writing system described in Modern orthography is used to write Ottawa words, with transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) used as needed.

Takuu is a Polynesian language from the Ellicean group spoken on the atoll of Takuu, near Bougainville Island. It is very closely related to Nukumanu and Nukuria from Papua New Guinea and to Ontong Java and Sikaiana from Solomon Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mokil Atoll</span> Airport

Mwoakilloa (or Mokil previously named Wellington Island or Duperrey Island, after Louis Isidore Duperrey) is an inhabited atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. Geographically, it belongs to the Caroline Islands and is a district of the outlying islands of Pohnpei of the Federated States of Micronesia.

Kensiu (Kensiw) is an Austro-asiatic language of the Jahaic subbranch. It is spoken by a small community of 300 in Yala Province in southern Thailand and also reportedly by a community of approximately 300 speakers in Western Malaysia in Perak and Kedah states. Speakers of this language are Negritos who are known as the Mani people or Maniq of Thailand.

Wandala, also known as Mandara or Mura', is a language in the Chadic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family, spoken in Cameroon and Nigeria.

This article is about the phonology of Egyptian Arabic, also known as Cairene Arabic or Masri. It deals with the phonology and phonetics of Egyptian Arabic as well as the phonological development of child native speakers of the dialect. To varying degrees, it affects the pronunciation of Literary Arabic by native Egyptian Arabic speakers, as is the case for speakers of all other varieties of Arabic.

Mortlockese, also known as Mortlock or Nomoi, is a language that belongs to the Chuukic group of Micronesian languages in the Federated States of Micronesia spoken primarily in the Mortlock Islands. It is nearly intelligible with Satawalese, with an 18 percent intelligibility and an 82 percent lexical similarity, and Puluwatese, with a 75 percent intelligibility and an 83 percent lexical similarity. The language today has become mutually intelligible with Chuukese, though marked with a distinct Mortlockese accent. Linguistic patterns show that Mortlockese is converging with Chuukese since Mortlockese now has an 80 to 85 percent lexical similarity.

References

  1. ↑ Mokilese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Harrison, Sheldon; Albert, Salich (1976), Mokilese Reference Grammar (PDF), University Press of Hawaii, ISBN   0824804120, OL   4875789M
  4. ↑ Bender, Byron W. (2003). "Proto-Micronesian Reconstructions: 1". Oceanic Linguistics. 42 (1): 4, 5. doi:10.2307/3623449. JSTOR   3623449.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.