| Chuukese | |
|---|---|
| Trukese | |
| Chuuk | |
| Native to | Federated States of Micronesia |
| Region | Chuuk |
| Ethnicity | Chuukese |
Native speakers | 51,330 (2000 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Federated States of Micronesia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | chk |
| ISO 639-3 | chk |
| Glottolog | chuu1238 |
Chuukese /tʃuːˈkiːz/, also rendered Trukese /trʌˈkiːz/,[2] is a Trukic language of the Austronesian language family spoken primarily on the islands of Chuuk in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia. There are communities of speakers on Pohnpei, Guam, and the Hawaiian Islands as well. Estimates show that there are about 45,900 speakers in Micronesia.[1]
Phonology
Chuukese has the unusual feature of permitting word-initial geminate (double) consonants. The common ancestor of Western Micronesian languages is believed to have had this feature, but most of its modern descendants have lost it.[3]
Truk and Chuuk are a difference in orthography, and both older tr and current ch transcribe the sound [ʈʂ].
| Bilabial | Labial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p pʷ | t | k | ||||
| Affricate | ʈʂ | ||||||
| Fricative | plain | f | s | ||||
| tense | fː | sː | |||||
| Nasal | plain/labialized | m mʷ | n | ŋ | |||
| tense/labialized | mː mːʷ | ŋː | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||
Consonants are doubled in Chuuk, when they have a voiceless sound. Some consonant combinations are frequently denasalized between vowels when doubled.[4][5]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɯ | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ʌ | o | |
| Low | æ | a | ɔ | |
References
- ^ a b Chuukese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
- ^ "Reflexes of initial gemination in Western Micronesian languages" (PDF). University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2005.
- ^ Goodenough, Sugita, Ward H., Hiroshi (1990). Trukese-English Dictionary Pwpwuken Tettenin Fóós: Chuuk-Ingenes.
- ^ Yunick, Stanley (2000). Linguistics, TESL, and language planning in Micronesia. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, Volume 30, Number 1: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. pp. 194–195.
External links
- Chuukese Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (Archive)
- Howard, Jocelyne. "CHUUKESE TRANSLATIONS." University of Hawaii.
- Kaipuleohone have archive materials for Chuukese including written materials, audio recordings, and additional audio recordings from Brian Diettrich's MA thesis.
- Portland State University Multicultural Topics in Communications Sciences & Disorders | Chuukese