Ebeye Island
| Native name: Epjā | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Geography | |
| Location | Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands |
| Adjacent bodies of water | Northern Pacific Ocean |
| Area | 0.36 km2 (0.14 sq mi) |
| Administration | |
Ebeye (/ˈiːbaɪ/ EE-by; Marshallese: Epjā, [ɛ̯ɛbʲ(ɛ)zʲææ̯]; locally, Ibae, [i̯i͡ɯbˠɑɑ̯ɛ̯ɛɛ̯], after the English pronunciation.) is the most populous island of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, as well as the center for Marshallese culture in the Ralik Chain of the archipelago. Settled on 80 acres (32 hectares) of land, it has a population of more than 15,000. Over 50% of the population is estimated to be under the age of 18.
When Christian missionaries first arrived in the Marshall Islands, they introduced Latin script writing and orthographized the Marshallese language. Originally, Ebeye was written Ebeje by Europeans (Epjā in modern orthography, pronounced [ɛ̯ɛbʲ(ɛ)zʲææ̯]), which (according to elders of the atoll) means "making something out of nothing." However, the colonial German administration mispronounced the J as if it were German language [j], and foreign observers recorded the resulting pronunciation as Ebeye. During the Japanese period, though, the island's pronunciation in katakana, Ebize (エビゼ?) [ebʲize], re-approximated Marshallese. After World War II, the Americans took possession of the regional mandate from Japan and mispronounced the island's name as /ˈiːbaɪ/ EE-by from its spelling. Because most of the modern Marshallese residents of Ebeye don't have family roots on the island, the American pronunciation has stuck, and is the usual name for Ebeye among the island's current population. This pronunciation has even been adapted to Marshallese orthography, so that there are now two synonymous Marshallese names for the island — officially and historically Epjā, and locally Ibae.
...
Wikipedia