Nauruan language
Encyclopedia
The Nauruan language is an Austronesian
language spoken in Nauru
. It is estimated that it has 7,000 speakers. Almost all speakers are bilingual in English
.
It is a member of the Micronesian
family of Austronesian languages. Its ISO 639
codes are 'na' and 'nau'. Nauruan is a UN
recognized language.
phonemes. Nauruan makes phonemic contrasts between velarized and palatalized labial consonants (which are also geminated
). Velarization is not apparent before long back vowels and palatalization is not apparent before non-low front vowels.
Between a vowel and word-final /mˠ/, an epenthetical [b] appears.
Non-open vowels (that is, all but /aa/, /a/, /ɑɑ/ /ɑ/) become non-syllabic when preceding another vowel, as in /e-oeeoun/ → [ɛ̃õ̯ɛ̃õ̯ʊn] ('hide').
Stress is on the penultimate syllable when the final syllable ends in a vowel, on the last syllable when it ends in a consonant, and initial with reduplications.
The letters c, f, h, l, s, v, x, y and z were not included. With the growing influence of foreign languages (most of all German
, Tok Pisin
and Kiribati) more letters were incorporated into the Nauruan alphabet. In addition, phonetic differences of a few vowels arose, so that umlaut
s and other similar sounding sounds were indicated with a tilde
.
to make the language easier to read for Europeans and Americans. It was intended to introduce as many diacritic
al symbols as possible for the different vowel sounds to state the variety of the Nauruan language in writing. It was decided to only introduce a grave accent in the place of the former tilde
, so that the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" were replaced by "ò" and "ù". The "ã" was substituted with "e".
Further, "y" was introduced in order to differentiate words with the English "j" (e.g. puji). Thus words like ijeiji changed to iyeyi. In addition, "ñ" (which represented the velar nasal
) was replaced with "ng", in order to differentiate the Spanish
Ñ
, "bu" and "qu" were replaced with "bw" and "kw" respectively, "ts" was replaced with "j" (since it represented a pronunciation similar to English "j"), and the "w" written at the end of words was removed.
These reforms were only partly carried out: the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" are still written with tildes. However today the letters "ã" and "ñ" are only seldom used and are replaced with "e" and "ng", as it is prescribed by the reform. Likewise the writing of the double consonants "bw" and "kw" has been implemented. Although the "j" took the place of "ts", certain spellings still use "ts." For example, the districts Baiti
and Ijuw
(according to the reform Beiji and Iyu) are still written with the old writing style. The "y" has largely become generally accepted.
Today the following 29 Latin letters are used.
in 1888, and until the introduction of publication of the first texts written in Nauruan. The variations were largely so different that people of various districts
often had problems understanding each other completely. With the increasing influence of foreign languages and the increase of Nauruan texts, the dialects blended into a standardized language, which was promoted through dictionaries and translations by Alois Kayser
and Philip Delaporte
.
Today there is significantly less dialectal variation. In the district of Yaren
and the surrounding area there is an eponymous dialect spoken, which is only slightly different.
published his pocket German-Nauruan dictionary
(http://www.trussel.com/kir/naudel.htm Taschenwörterbuch Deutsch–Nauruisch). The dictionary is small (10.5 × 14 cm), with 65 pages devoted to the glossary and an additional dozen to phrases, arranged alphabetically by the German
. Approximately 1650 German words are glossed in Nauruan, often by phrases or synonymous forms. There are some 1300 'unique' Nauruan forms in the glosses, including all those occurring in phrases, and ignoring diacritical marks. The accents used there are not common; just one accent (the tilde
) is in use today.
(Genesis, 1.1–1.8):
1Ñaga ã eitsiõk õrig imim, Gott õrig ianweron me eb. 2Me eitsiõk erig imin ñana bain eat eb, me eko õañan, mi itũr emek animwet ijited, ma Anin Gott õmakamakur animwet ebõk. 3Me Gott ũge, Enim eaõ, me eaõen. 4Me Gott ãt iaõ bwo omo, me Gott õekae iaõ mi itũr. 5Me Gott eij eget iaõ bwa Aran, me E ij eget itũr bwa Anũbũmin. Ma antsiemerin ma antsioran ar eken ũrõr adamonit ibũm. 6Me Gott ũge, Enim tsinime firmament inimaget ebõk, me enim ekae ebõk atsin eat ebõk. 7Me Gott eririñ firmament, mõ õ ekae ebõk ñea ijõñin firmament atsin eat ebõk ñea itũgain firmament, mõ ũgan. 8Me Gott eij egen firmament bwe Ianweron. Ma antsiemerin ma antsioran ar eke ũrõr karabũmit ibũm.
It is notable that the Nauruan vocabulary contains a few German loanwords (e.g. Gott, God
; and Firmament, celestial sphere
), which is traced back to the strong influence of German
missionaries
. There are also Latin
loanwords such as "õrig" (from Lat. origo, beginning) that appear.
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
language spoken in Nauru
Nauru
Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...
. It is estimated that it has 7,000 speakers. Almost all speakers are bilingual in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
.
It is a member of the Micronesian
Micronesian languages
The family of Micronesian languages is a branch of the Oceanic languages. It consists of twenty languages, the nineteen Micronesian Proper languages and Nauruan...
family of Austronesian languages. Its ISO 639
ISO 639
ISO 639 is a set of standards by the International Organization for Standardization that is concerned with representation of names for language and language groups....
codes are 'na' and 'nau'. Nauruan is a UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
recognized language.
Consonants
Nauruan has 16–17 consonantConsonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
phonemes. Nauruan makes phonemic contrasts between velarized and palatalized labial consonants (which are also geminated
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
). Velarization is not apparent before long back vowels and palatalization is not apparent before non-low front vowels.
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental1 | Dorsal Dorsal consonant Dorsal consonants are articulated with the mid body of the tongue . They contrast with coronal consonants articulated with the flexible front of the tongue, and radical consonants articulated with the root of the tongue.-Function:... |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| palatalized Palatalization In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate.... |
velarized Velarization Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of three diacritics:... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
post-velar | labial | |||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... 2 |
mʲ | mˠ | n | ŋ | (ŋʷ) | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | pʲ | pˠ | t | k | kʷ | |
| voiced | bʲ | bˠ | d | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... 3 |
ʝ | ɣʷ | |||||
| Rhotic Rhotic consonant In phonetics, rhotic consonants, also called tremulants or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek letter rho, including "R, r" from the Roman alphabet and "Р, p" from the Cyrillic alphabet... |
r4 rʲ5 | ||||||
- Dental stops /t/ and /d/ become [tʃ] and [dʒ] respectively before high front vowels.
- Nasals also contrast in length.
- The approximants become fricatives in "emphatic pronunciation." transcribes them as ⟨j⟩ and ⟨w⟩ but also remarks that they contrast with the non-syllabic allophones of the high vowels.
- Depending on stress, /r/ may be a flap or a trill.
- The precise phonetic nature of /rʲ/ is unknown. transcribes it as ⟨r̵⟩ and speculates that it may pattern like palatalized consonants and be partially devoiced.
Between a vowel and word-final /mˠ/, an epenthetical [b] appears.
Vowels
There are 12 phonemic vowels (six long, six short). In addition to the allophony in the following table from , a number of vowels reduce to [ə]:| Phoneme | allophones | Phoneme | allophones |
|---|---|---|---|
| /ii/ | [iː] | /uu/ | [ɨː ~ uː] |
| /i/ | [ɪ ~ ɨ] | /u/ | [ɨ ~ u] |
| /ee/ | [eː ~ ɛː] | /oo/ | [oː ~ ʌ(ː) ~ ɔ(ː)] |
| /e/ | [ɛ ~ ʌ] | /o/ | [ʌ] |
| /aa/ | [æː] | /ɑɑ/ | [ɑː] |
| /a/ | [æ ~ ɑ] | /ɑ/ | [ɑ ~ ʌ] |
Non-open vowels (that is, all but /aa/, /a/, /ɑɑ/ /ɑ/) become non-syllabic when preceding another vowel, as in /e-oeeoun/ → [ɛ̃õ̯ɛ̃õ̯ʊn] ('hide').
Stress is on the penultimate syllable when the final syllable ends in a vowel, on the last syllable when it ends in a consonant, and initial with reduplications.
Writing system
In the Nauruan written language, 17 letters were originally used:- The five vowelVowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s: a, e, i, o, u - Twelve consonantConsonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s: b, d, g, j, k, m, n, p, q, r, t, w
The letters c, f, h, l, s, v, x, y and z were not included. With the growing influence of foreign languages (most of all German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin
Tok Pisin is a creole spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an official language of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in that country...
and Kiribati) more letters were incorporated into the Nauruan alphabet. In addition, phonetic differences of a few vowels arose, so that umlaut
I-mutation
I-mutation is an important type of sound change, more precisely a category of regressive metaphony, in which a back vowel is fronted, and/or a front vowel is raised, if the following syllable contains /i/, /ī/ or /j/ I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or...
s and other similar sounding sounds were indicated with a tilde
Tilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
.
Attempt at language reform of 1938
In 1938 there was an attempt by the Nauruan language committee and Timothy DetudamoTimothy Detudamo
Timothy Detudamo was a Nauruan politician and linguist. He was the father of Buraro Detudamo. He is known as the founder of modern Nauruan society.-Religious and linguistic activities:In his younger years he was a pastor....
to make the language easier to read for Europeans and Americans. It was intended to introduce as many diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
al symbols as possible for the different vowel sounds to state the variety of the Nauruan language in writing. It was decided to only introduce a grave accent in the place of the former tilde
Tilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
, so that the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" were replaced by "ò" and "ù". The "ã" was substituted with "e".
Further, "y" was introduced in order to differentiate words with the English "j" (e.g. puji). Thus words like ijeiji changed to iyeyi. In addition, "ñ" (which represented the velar nasal
Velar nasal
The velar nasal is the sound of ng in English sing. It is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is N....
) was replaced with "ng", in order to differentiate the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
Ñ
Ñ
Ñ is a letter of the modern Latin alphabet, formed by an N with a diacritical tilde. It is used in the Spanish alphabet, Galician alphabet, Asturian alphabet, Basque alphabet, Aragonese old alphabet , Filipino alphabet, Chamorro alphabet and the Guarani alphabet, where it represents...
, "bu" and "qu" were replaced with "bw" and "kw" respectively, "ts" was replaced with "j" (since it represented a pronunciation similar to English "j"), and the "w" written at the end of words was removed.
These reforms were only partly carried out: the umlauts "õ" and "ũ" are still written with tildes. However today the letters "ã" and "ñ" are only seldom used and are replaced with "e" and "ng", as it is prescribed by the reform. Likewise the writing of the double consonants "bw" and "kw" has been implemented. Although the "j" took the place of "ts", certain spellings still use "ts." For example, the districts Baiti
Baiti
Baiti is a district in the Pacific nation of Nauru. It belongs to Ubenide Constituency.-Former villages:-Location and features:It is located in the northwest of the island. Baiti is a part of the constituency of Ubenide.-See also:* Geography of Nauru...
and Ijuw
Ijuw
Ijuw is a district in the country Nauru, located in the north-east region of the island.-Location and features:It borders district Anabar to the north and Anibare to the south. Ijuw is a part of the constituency Anabar....
(according to the reform Beiji and Iyu) are still written with the old writing style. The "y" has largely become generally accepted.
Today the following 29 Latin letters are used.
- VowelVowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s: a, ã, e, i, o, õ, u, ũ - SemivowelSemivowelIn phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s: j - ConsonantConsonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, p, q, r, s, t, w, y, z
Dialects
According to a report published in 1937 in Sydney, there was a diversity of dialects until Nauru became a colony of GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1888, and until the introduction of publication of the first texts written in Nauruan. The variations were largely so different that people of various districts
Districts of Nauru
||There are 14 districts in the Republic of Nauru. Each one consists of a number of traditional villages, many of which are uninhabited or destroyed nowadays.-See also:*List of cities in Nauru*ISO 3166-2:NR...
often had problems understanding each other completely. With the increasing influence of foreign languages and the increase of Nauruan texts, the dialects blended into a standardized language, which was promoted through dictionaries and translations by Alois Kayser
Alois Kayser
Alois Kayser was a German/French Roman Catholic missionary who spent almost 40 years on Nauru and wrote a Nauruan grammar . In 1943 he was deported along with most of the Nauruan population by the Japanese to Micronesia, where he died...
and Philip Delaporte
Philip Delaporte
Reverend Philip Adam Delaporte was a German born American Protestant missionary who translated numerous texts from German into Nauruan. Delaporte was sent to Nauru with his family in November 1899, and returned to America in 1917.-Missionary:...
.
Today there is significantly less dialectal variation. In the district of Yaren
Yaren
Yaren, in earlier times Makwa/Moqua, is a district and constituency of the Pacific nation of Nauru. It is the de facto capital of Nauru.Yaren is located in the south of the island . Its area is 1.5 km², and its population was 1,100 in 2003...
and the surrounding area there is an eponymous dialect spoken, which is only slightly different.
Delaporte's Nauruan Dictionary
In 1907, Philip DelaportePhilip Delaporte
Reverend Philip Adam Delaporte was a German born American Protestant missionary who translated numerous texts from German into Nauruan. Delaporte was sent to Nauru with his family in November 1899, and returned to America in 1917.-Missionary:...
published his pocket German-Nauruan dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
(http://www.trussel.com/kir/naudel.htm Taschenwörterbuch Deutsch–Nauruisch). The dictionary is small (10.5 × 14 cm), with 65 pages devoted to the glossary and an additional dozen to phrases, arranged alphabetically by the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. Approximately 1650 German words are glossed in Nauruan, often by phrases or synonymous forms. There are some 1300 'unique' Nauruan forms in the glosses, including all those occurring in phrases, and ignoring diacritical marks. The accents used there are not common; just one accent (the tilde
Tilde
The tilde is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character comes from Portuguese and Spanish, from the Latin titulus meaning "title" or "superscription", though the term "tilde" has evolved and now has a different meaning in linguistics....
) is in use today.
Sample text
The following example of text is from the BibleBible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
(Genesis, 1.1–1.8):
1Ñaga ã eitsiõk õrig imim, Gott õrig ianweron me eb. 2Me eitsiõk erig imin ñana bain eat eb, me eko õañan, mi itũr emek animwet ijited, ma Anin Gott õmakamakur animwet ebõk. 3Me Gott ũge, Enim eaõ, me eaõen. 4Me Gott ãt iaõ bwo omo, me Gott õekae iaõ mi itũr. 5Me Gott eij eget iaõ bwa Aran, me E ij eget itũr bwa Anũbũmin. Ma antsiemerin ma antsioran ar eken ũrõr adamonit ibũm. 6Me Gott ũge, Enim tsinime firmament inimaget ebõk, me enim ekae ebõk atsin eat ebõk. 7Me Gott eririñ firmament, mõ õ ekae ebõk ñea ijõñin firmament atsin eat ebõk ñea itũgain firmament, mõ ũgan. 8Me Gott eij egen firmament bwe Ianweron. Ma antsiemerin ma antsioran ar eke ũrõr karabũmit ibũm.
It is notable that the Nauruan vocabulary contains a few German loanwords (e.g. Gott, God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
; and Firmament, celestial sphere
Celestial sphere
In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an imaginary sphere of arbitrarily large radius, concentric with the Earth and rotating upon the same axis. All objects in the sky can be thought of as projected upon the celestial sphere. Projected upward from Earth's equator and poles are the...
), which is traced back to the strong influence of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
. There are also Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
loanwords such as "õrig" (from Lat. origo, beginning) that appear.
A few phrases
| Nauruan | Gloss |
|---|---|
| Anubumin | Night |
| Aran | Day |
| Bagadugu | Ancestors |
| (E)kamawir Omo | Best wishes |
| Ebok | Water |
| Firmament | Earth; celestial sphere |
| Gott | God |
| Ianweron | Heaven |
| Iao | Light |
| Iow | Peace |
| Itur | Darkness |
| orig | Beginning |
| Tarawong (ka) | Goodbye |