Marshallese_language Marshallese_language

Marshallese language - Definition and Overview

The Marshallese language (Marshallese: Kajin M̧ajeļ) or Ebon is a Malayo-Polynesian language of the Marshall Islands.

Marshallese (Kajin M̧ajeļ)
Spoken in: Marshall Islands, Nauru
Total speakers: 43,900 (as of 1979)
Ranking: Not in top 100
Genetic
classification:
Austronesian

 Malayo-Polynesian
  Central-Eastern
   Eastern
    Oceanic
     Central-Eastern       Remote        Micronesian         Micronesian Proper          Marshallese

Official status
Official language of: Marshall Islands (with English)
Regulated by:
Language codes
ISO 639-1mh
ISO 639-2 mah
SILMZM


Information on Marshallese is scant but it appears to have had a change of orthography in recent times. It is written in a form of the latin script with some very unusual diacritic combinations.

Here is the (current) alphabet:

A Ā B D E I J K L Ļ M M̧ N Ņ N̄ O O̧ Ō P R T U Ū W
A ā b d e I j k l ļ m m̧ n ņ n̄ o o̧ ō p r t u ū w

Here is the Hail Mary in Marshallese Unicode. Compare with this scanned image (http://www.udayton.edu/mary/images/marshall.jpg) to see how it should look with all the diacritics in place.

Io̧kwe eok Maria, kwo lōn̄ kōn
menin jouj;
Iroo ej pād ippam̧.
Kwo jeram̧m̧an iaan kōrā raņ im
ejeram̧m̧an ineen lo̧jiōm̧, Jesus.
O Maria kwojarar, jinen Anij,
kwōn jar kōn kem rijjerawiwi.
Kiiō im ilo iien
amwōj mej. Amen.


One Marshallese word is yokwe, which means both hello and good-bye. It also means love. (Compare Hawaiian aloha.) This word may also be written lakwe and io̧kwe.

External links

Wikipedia
Wikipedia articles written in this language are located at the
Marshallese language Wikipedia

Example Usage of Marshallese

Nineteenthof12: Hahaha this Girl Didn't know I was Marshallese! hah. Now She Does. I Love Her Anyway. :)
MIOC1: ♥ChRiStO_MiNa♥ commented on LaJoJo's blog post 'Marshallese CAPTAIN AND HIS SINKING LITTLE BOAT': ♥ChRiS.. http://bit.ly/07slNDy
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