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.
Pohnpeian features a "high language", referred to as or including specialized vocabulary used when speaking to, or about people of high rank.
Classification
Pohnpeian is most closely related to the Chuukic languages of Chuuk (formerly Truk). Ngatikese, Pingelapese and Mwokilese of the Pohnpeic languages are closely related languages to Pohnpeian. Pohnpeian shares 81% lexical similarity with Pingelapese, 75% with Mokilese, and 36% with Chuukese.
Pohnpeian employs a great deal of loanwords from colonial languages such as English, Japanese, Spanish, and German. However, these loanwords are neither spelled nor pronounced exactly the same as the source language. Examples of these loanwords include:
, meaning "frog", borrowed from the Japanese , , meaning "baseball", borrowed from the Japanese , , meaning "to win", borrowed from the Spanish , meaning "boat", borrowed from the English , meaning "to draw or paint a picture", borrowed from the German
Phonology
The modern Pohnpeian orthography uses twenty letters — sixteen single letters and four digraphs — collated in a unique order:
a e i o oa u h k l m mw n ng p pw r s d t w
As German missionaries designed an early form of the orthography, Pohnpeian spelling uses -h to mark a long vowel, rather like German: 'mountain'. The IPA equivalents of written Pohnpeian are as follows:
+ Consonants Bilabial Dental/Alveolar Laminal Palatal Velar Labiovelar Nasal Plosive Fricative Approximant Trill/Flap
+ Vowels Front Back High High-mid Low-mid Low
Phonotactics Pohnpeian phonotactics generally allow syllables consisting of consonants (C) and vowels (V) accordingly: V, VC, CV, CVC. This basic system is complicated by Pohnpeian orthographical conventions and phonological processes. Orthographically, is used to represent , though it is often unwritten; -u is realized as ; and indicates a long vowel (a spelling convention inherited from German). Thus, is pronounced , never . Consecutive vowels are glided with or , depending on the relative height and order of the vowels: is said ("to find") is said ("to have a runny nose") is said ("bad") is said ("cooled")
While the glide is never written other than as the glide may be written between and a non-high vowel: ("bad").
Words beginning in nasal consonant clusters may be pronounced as written, or with a leading prothetic vowel. The roundedness of the prothetic vowel depends on that of the adjacent consonant cluster and the first written syllable. For example: can be said ("blood") may be ("a while ago") is optionally ("twin") may be (a species of crab)
Pohnpeian orthography renders the consonant clusters and as and , respectively.
Substitution and assimilation Further phonological constraints frequently impact the pronunciation and spelling of consonant clusters, triggered variously by reduplication and assimilation into neighboring sounds. Sound changes, especially in reduplication, are often reflected by a change in spelling. However, processes triggered by affixes as well as adjacent words are not indicated in spelling. In order to inflect, derive, and pronounce Pohnpeian words properly, the order of operations must generally begin with liquid assimilation, followed by nasal assimilation, and end with nasal substitution.
First, liquid assimilation is seen most often in reduplication alongside spelling changes. By this process, liquids and are assimilated into the following alveolar (coronal) consonant: > ("contract").
The second process, nasal assimilation, presents two varieties: partial and complete. In partial nasal assimilation, assimilates with a following stop consonant to produce , , , , or . For example, the prefix nan- ("in") produces: , pronounced ("trade wind season") , pronounced ("between them") , pronounced ("inlet") Partial assimilation also occurs across word boundaries: is pronounced . The allophone of is written "n" in these cases.
In complete nasal assimilation, assimilates into adjacent liquid consonants to produce or : ("oversexed," spelling change from reduplication); is said ("season of plenty"). Complete nasal assimilation also occurs across word boundaries: is said ("will be beautiful").
The third process, nasal substitution, also presents two varieties. Both varieties of nasal substitution affect adjacent consonants of the same type: alveolar (coronal), bilabial, or velar. The first variety is often triggered by reduplication, resulting in spelling changes: is reduplicated to ("tired").
The second variety of nasal substitution, limited to bilabial and velar consonants, occurs across word and morpheme boundaries: is pronounced as if it were kalam pahn ("always will be") is pronounced as if it were souling kin soupisek ("Soulik is [habitually] busy") This second variety of the nasal substitution process is phonemically more productive than the first: it includes all results possible in the first variety, as well as additional cluster combinations, indicated below. Some alveolar pairs produce an intervening vowel, represented as V below. Not all clusters are possible, and not all are assimilative, however.
+ Alveolar (coronal) consonants -s -d -t -n -l -r s- ns — — — sVl sVr d- dVs nd — dVn dVl — t- tVs — nt tVn tVl tVr n- ns nd nt nn ll — l- ns nd nt — ll — r- ns nd nt nn ll rr
+ Bilabial consonants -p -pw -m -mw p- mp pw- mpw mmw m- mm mw-
+ Velar consonants -k -ng k- ngk ng- ngk ngng
By following the order of operations, reduplication of the word ("tired") progresses thus: (liquid assimilation) > (nasal substitution). In this case, the same result is achieved by nasal substitution alone.
+ Pohnpeian reflexes of Proto Oceanic consonants ProtoOceanic ProtoMicronesian ProtoChuukic-Pohnpeic ProtoPohnpeic Pohnpeian *mp *p *p *p p *mp,ŋp *pʷ *pʷ *pʷ pʷ *p *f *f *p, ∅ p, ∅ *m *m *m *m m *m,ŋm *mʷ *mʷ *mʷ mʷ *k *k *k *k k *ŋk *x *∅,r *∅,r ∅,r *ŋ *ŋ *ŋ *ŋ ŋ *y *y *y *y ∅,y *w *w *w *w w *t *t *t *j,∅{_i,u,e} s,∅{_i,u,e} *T *j *j s *s,nj *s *t *t t̻ *ns,j *S *t *t t̻ *j *Z ∅ *∅ ∅ *nt,nd *c *c * c t̺ *d,R *r *r *r r *l *l *l *l l *n *n *n *n n *ɲ *ɲ *ɲ *∅,n{high V_} ∅,n{high V_}
Grammar
Pohnpeian word order is nominally SVO. Depending on the grammatical function, the head may come before or after its dependents. Like many Austronesian languages, Pohnpeian focus marking interacts with transitivity and relative clauses (see Austronesian alignment). Its range of grammatically acceptable sentence structures is more generally (1) noun phrase, (2) verb phrase (3) other noun phrases, where the contents of the leading noun phrase may vary according to the speaker's focus. If the leading noun phrase is not the subject, it is followed by the focus particle . Normally, the object phrase is last among predicates:
Focus Pohnpeian Neutral Subject Object Noun phrase
Honorific speech
Honorific speech is used in several settings as a way of showing honor and respect to older ones, those who have been assigned titles, royalty, and in almost all religious settings. Depending on the second or third person, a given sentence may vary widely because honorific speech comprises a separate vocabulary, including all parts of speech and topics both lofty and mundane. Examples include: (to eat with the ) (high chief's wife) (chest; normally ) (armpit; normally ) (anus, normally ) (to joke, normally ) (to vomit) (an interjection) Although at times in the absence of a specific honorific word, the word is often used to indicate that the proceeding verb is honoric ( would translate to "God creates"). The word has no meaning by itself. However, when used as a prefix, it is a sure way to distinguish honorific speech ( has the meaning of "Give", would be the honorific version of the same word).
Nouns
Nouns may be singular, dual, or plural in number, and generally inflect by suffixing. Numerals usually follow the nouns they count, and agree in noun class. Groups of nouns and adjectives comprise noun phrases. Pohnpeian transitive sentences contain up to three noun phrases.
Inalienable, or direct, possession is marked by personal suffixes. Other forms of possession are indicated through possessive classifiers. The construct suffix -n appears in oblique positions, such as possessive phrases. Words ending in n, however, are followed by the clitic . Possessive phrases generally add this construct state to a classifier noun, followed by the possessor, and lastly the possessum. For example:
Some possessive classifiers, namely and , may precede the possessum:
Possessive classifiers can also occur with more than one following noun. The classifier itself may give a particular meaning to the possessum: means "pig" means "his (live) pig" means "his (butchered) pig" means "his pig (to eat)"
Determiners Determiners in Pohnpeian may occurs as enclitics which are bound morphemes or independent words and occur in three basic types: demonstrative modifiers, pointing demonstratives, and demonstrative pronouns. All of the determiners have a three-way diectic distinction of proximal (near the speaker), medial (near the listener), and distal (away from both the speaker and listener), as well as an emphatic/non-emphatic distinction. Demonstratives are generally, suffixed to or following the last word of a noun phrase. Orthographically singular clitics are suffixed to the word, while plurals are written as separate words.
Demonstrative modifiers Demonstrative modifiers occur as enclitics with nouns and always occupy the last element in a noun phrase.
+ Non-Emphatic Demonstrative Modifiers Singular Plural proximal -e(t) -ka(t) medial -en -kan distal -o -kau, -koa, -ko
The singular emphatic demonstrative modifiers are formed by suffixing the non-emphatic singular forms to appropriate numeral classifier for the noun, such as men- for animate nouns. The plural forms are always constructed by suffixing the non-emphatic plural form to pwu- regardless of the singular classifier.
+ Emphatic Demonstrative Modifiers(for animate nouns) Singular Plural proximal medial distal
Examples of the demonstrative modifiers in use are
+ Demonstrative modifier examples Non-Emphatic Emphatic Singular Plural Singular Plural 'this man by me' 'that man by you' 'that man over there'
Pointing modifiers Pointing modifiers are determiners that can stand alone in a noun phrase and are used in equational (non-verbal) sentences. They can also occur by themselves as one word sentences. They have both non-emphatic and emphatic forms.
+ Pointing modifiers Non-Emphatic Emphatic Singular Plural Singular Plural 'here, by me' 'there, by you' 'there, away from you and me'
Example uses of pointing modifiers: 'Here is your knife' 'Here are your knives' 'Here it is!' 'There they are! (away from you and me)
Demonstrative pronouns Demonstrative pronouns are determiners that can replace noun phrases in a verbal sentence. They have both non-emphatic and emphatic forms.
+ Demonstrative pronouns Non-Emphatic Emphatic Singular Plural Singular Plural 'this/these, by me' 'that/those, by you' 'that/those, away from you and me'
Examples of demonstrative pronouns in use: 'This is broken' 'He/she took it there away from you and me' 'Those are broken' 'He/she took it there by you'
Pronouns
+ Personal pronouns independent subject object 1st person singular dual/plural exclusive dual inclusive plural 2nd person singular dual plural 3rd person singular - dual plural