Marquesan language

The most striking feature of the Marquesan languages is their almost universal replacement of the /r/ or /l/ of other Polynesian languages by a /ʔ/ (glottal stop).[3]

Like other Polynesian languages, the phonology of Marquesan languages is characterized by a scarcity of consonants and a comparative abundance of vowels. The consonant phonemes are:

Of this small number of consonants, /ŋ/ is found only in eastern Nuku Hiva (Tai Pi Marquesan), and /f/ is found only in South Marquesan dialects. In writing, the phoneme /ŋ/ is written ⟨n(g)⟩, and /ʔ/ is written ʻ, the ʻokina.

Unlike Samoan, the /ŋ/ is not an isolated nasal: it is found only in conjunction with a following /k/. So, whereas the Samoan word for 'bay' is faga, pronounced [ˈfa.ŋa], it is hanga in Tai Pi Marquesan, and is pronounced /ˈha.ŋka/. This word is useful to demonstrate one of the more predictable regular consonantal differences between the northern and southern dialects: in North Marquesan, the word is haka, and in South Marquesan, it is hana.

The phoneme /h/ is represented with the letter ⟨h⟩; however, it is realized phonetically as [h], [x], or [s], depending on the following vowel.

The vowel phonemes are the same as in other Polynesian languages, long and short versions of each:

A E F H I K M N O P R S T U V ʻ

a e f h i k m n o p r s t u v ʻ [4]

North Marquesan is spoken in the northern islands (Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou, and Ua Huka), and South Marquesan in the southern islands (Hiva Oa, Tahuata, and Fatu Hiva). In Ua Huka, which was almost entirely depopulated in the 19th century and repopulated with people from both the Northern and Southern Marquesas, the language shares traits of both North Marquesan and South Marquesan. Comparative data on the various dialects of Marquesan can be found in the Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia (Charpentier & François 2015).[3]

The most noticeable differences between the varieties are Northern Marquesan /k/ in some words where South Marquesan has /n/ or /ʔ/ (glottal stop), and /h/ in all words where South Marquesan has /f/.

The table below compares a selection of words in various dialectal varieties of Marquesan, according to the Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia,[15] with their pronunciation in the IPA. Tahitian and Hawaiian are also added for comparison.

The northern dialects fall roughly into four groups:

• Tai Pi, spoken in the eastern third of Nuku Hiva, and according to some linguists, a separate language, Tai Pi Marquesan
• Teiʻi, spoken in western Nuku Hiva
• Eastern Ua Pou
• Western Ua Pou

The southern dialects fall roughly into three groups:

• Pepane: Eastern Hiva ʻOa and Ua Huka
• Fatu Hiva
• Nuku: Western Hiva ʻOa and Tahuata

North Marquesan exhibits some original characteristics. While some Polynesian languages maintained the velar nasal /ŋ/, many have lost the distinction between the nasals /ŋ/ and /n/, merging both into /n/. North Marquesan, like South Island Māori dialects of New Zealand, prefers /k/. Another feature is that, while some Polynesian languages replace *k with /ʔ/, North Marquesan has retained it. (Tahitian and formal Samoan have no /k/ whatsoever, and the /k/ in modern Hawaiian is pronounced either [k] or [t] and derives from Polynesian *t.)

The dialects of Ua Huka are often incorrectly classified as North Marquesan; they are instead transitional. While the island is in the northern Marquesas group, the dialects show more morphological and phonological affinities with South Marquesan. The North Marquesan dialects are sometimes considered two separate languages: North Marquesan and Tai Pi Marquesan, the latter being spoken in the valleys of the eastern third of the island of Nuku Hiva, in the ancient province of Tai Pi. Puka-Pukan, spoken in Puka-Puka and the Disappointment Islands in northeastern Tuamotu, is a dialect of South Marquesan, and should not be confused with the homonymous Pukapukan language spoken in Pukapuka, one of the Cook Islands.

• Cablitz, Gabriele H. (2006). Marquesan: A Grammar of Space. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs. Vol. 169. Mouton de Gruyter.
• "Grammaire et dictionnaire de la langue des Îles Marquises". Mgr Dordillon's Marquesan language dictionary (in French) (Reissued ed.). Société des études océaniennes, Pape’ete. 1999 [1904]. Archived from the original on 2005-03-14.
• Mutu, Margaret & Teìkitutoua, Ben (2002). Ùa Pou : aspects of a Marquesan dialect. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-526-6.
• Charpentier, Jean-Michel; François, Alexandre (2015). Atlas Linguistique de Polynésie Française — Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia (in French and English). Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie Française. ISBN 978-3-11-026035-9.
• Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Bulletins.

• Online version of the Grammaire et dictionnaire de la langue des Iles Marquises – Marquisien–Français (Paris, Institut d'Ethnologie, 1931) (in French)
• Aperçu de la langue des îles Marquises et de la langue taïtienne, accompagné d'un vocabulaire inédit de la langue taïtienne (Johann Buschmann & Guillaume de Humboldt, Berlin, 1843) (in French)
• DoBeS — Marquesan language
• Box of 458 index cards of plant and animal names archived with Kaipuleohone