Pohnpeian language
| Pohnpeian | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Micronesia |
| Region | Pohnpei |
|
Native speakers
|
31,000 (2001) |
|
Austronesian
|
|
| Dialects | |
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | pohn1238 |
Pohnpeian or Ponapean is a Micronesian language spoken as the indigenous language of the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian has about 29,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom live in Pohnpei and its outlying atolls and islands. It is the second most widely spoken native language of the Federated States of Micronesia.
Pohnpeian features a "high language" including some specialized vocabulary, used in speaking about people of high rank.
Pohnpeian is most closely related to the Trukic languages of Chuuk (formerly Truk). Often, Ngatikese, Pingelapese and Mokilese of the Ponapeic dialect continuum are counted as dialects of Pohnpeian or as closely related languages. Pohnpeian shares 81% lexical similarity with Pingelapese, 75% with Mokilese, and 36% with Trukic Chuukese.
Ngatik Men's Creole is a creole of Ngatikese. It developed as a result of the 1837 Ngatik massacre, during which the island's male population was wiped out by the crew of Australian captain C.H. Hart and Pohnpeian warriors. Some of the Europeans and Pohnpeians settled and repopulated the island. Taking the local women as wives, the island formed a new culture and language, a mixture of English and Ngatikese. The language has also been relexified by Ngatikese.
...
Wikipedia