Gilbertese

Information about Gilbertese

Gilbertese (Taetae ni kiribati)
Spoken in:Kiribati, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu
Region:
Total speakers:102,000
Ranking:
Genetic classification:
Official status
Official language of:Kiribati
Regulated by:Kiribati Language Board
Language codes
ISO 639-1
ISO 639-2gil
SIL
See also: Language – List of languages


Gilbertese or Kiribati (sometimes Kiribatese, a mixture of both) is a language from the Austronesian family, part of the Oceanian branch and of the Nuclear Micronesian subbranch. It is a verb object subject language.

Name

The word Kiribati (1954) is just the modern rendition for "Gilberts", so most people do not care about translating this name in English, or not. Description of the language as Gilbertese or Kiribatese could be sometimes considered a relic of colonial days by some I-Kiribati (the people of Kiribati) (no reference for that last opinion).

The official description is taetae ni Kiribati, or 'the Kiribati language'.

The first complete description of this language (and the first time ever one prints kiribati in a print book) was in Dictionnaire gilbertin-français of Father Ernest Sabatier (981p, 1954), a Catholic priest. This Dictionary has been translated into English later by Sister Olivia (with the help of South Pacific Commission).

Speakers

About 105,000 people speak Gilbertese, 98,000 of whom live in Kiribati, about 97.2% of the entire population. The others are the inhabitants of Nui (Tuvalu), Rabi Island (Fiji), Mili (Marshall Islands) and some other islands where I-Kiribati have been relocated (Solomon Islands -notably Choiseul Province- and Vanuatu) or emigrated (to New Zealand and Hawaii mainly).

Unlike many in the Pacific region, the Kiribati language is far from extinct, and just about all speakers use it daily. Only 30% of Kiribati speakers are fully bilingual with English, meaning that the language is in no current danger of being swallowed by the latter.

Fishermen, sailors, farmers and people involved in the production of copra comprise the majority of Kiribati speakers.

Linguistics and study

The Kiribati language has two main dialects: the Northern dialect and the Southern dialect. The main differences between them are in the pronunciation of some words. The islands of Butaritari and Makin also have their own dialect. It differs from the standard Kiribati in both vocabulary and pronunciation.

Phonology

Kiribati has 10 consonants and 10 vowels (5 short, five long)[1]
Consonants
Bilabial Apical Velar
plain velarized
Nasalmmˠn?
Plosiveppˠt1k
Fricativeβˠ2
Flapɾ3
  1. /t/ is lenited to [s] before /i/
  2. The labiovelar fricative /βˠ/ may be a flap and an approximant, depending on the context.[2]
  3. /ɾ/ does not occur in the syllable coda[3]


Vowels
Front Back
Close1iu
Mideo
Opena
  1. Short /i/ and /u/ may become semivowels when followed by more sonorous vowels. /ie/ → [je] ('sail'). [4] Kiribati also possesses syllabic nasals, although syllabic /n/ and /ŋ/ can only be followed by consonants that are homorganic. [5]


Quantity is distinctive for vowels and nasal consonants but not for the remaining sounds so that ana (third person singular article) contrasts with aana ('its underside') as well as anna ('dry land'). Other minimal pairs include:[6]

Short Long
te ben ('ripe coconut')te been ('pen')
ti (1st person subj marker)tii ('only')
on ('full')oon ('the/some turtles')
te atu ('bundle')te atuu ('head')
tuanga ('to tell someone')tuangnga ('to tell')

Written Kiribati

The Kiribati language is written in the Latin alphabet, and has been since the 1840s, when Hiram Bingham Jr, a missionary, first translated the Bible into Kiribati. Previously, the language was unwritten.

One difficulty in translating the Bible was references to words such as "mountain", a geographical phenomenon unknown to the people of the islands of Kiribati at the time (only heard in the myths from Samoa). Bingham decided to use "hilly", which would be more easily understood. Such adjustments are common to all languages as "modern" things require creation of new words. The Gilbertese word for airplane is te wanikiba, "the canoe that flies".

Catholic missionaries would later arrive at the islands in 1888 and translate the Bible independently of Bingham, resulting in differences (Bingham wrote Jesus as "Iesu", while the Catholics wrote "Ietu") that would only be resolved in the 20th century (No 's' in the Kiribati alphabet). In 1954, Father Ernest Sabatier published the best English-Kiribati Dictionary: Dictionnaire Gilbertin-Français, 981p. (edited by South Pacific Commission in 1971).

Kiribati Alphabet[7]
LetterABEIKMNNGORTUW
IPA/ä//p//e//i//k//m//n//ŋ//o//ɾ//t//u//βˠ/

Useful phrases

  • Hello - Mauri
  • Hello - [singular] Ko na mauri
  • Hello - [plural] Kam na mauri
  • How are you? - Ko uara?
  • How are you? - [to several people] Kam uara?
  • Thank you - Ko rabwa
  • Thank you - [to several people] Kam rabwa
  • Goodbye - Ti a bo (we will meet)

Notes

1. ^ Blevins (1999:205-206)
2. ^ Blevins (1999:205-206)
3. ^ Blevins (1999:206)
4. ^ Blevins (1999:207)
5. ^ Blevins (1999:205-206)
6. ^ Blevins (1999:205-206)
7. ^ [1]

Bibliography

  • Blevin, Juliette (1999), "Trimoraic Feet in Gilbertese", Oceanic Linguistics 38(2): 203-230

External links

Motto
Te Mauri, Te Raoi ao Te Tabomoa
(English: Health, Peace and Prosperity)
Anthem
Teirake Kaini Kiribati


Capital South Tarawa

..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Rerevaka na Kalou ka Doka na Tui
Fear God and honour the Queen
Anthem
God Bless Fiji
..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"God's Will First"
Anthem
Nauru Bwiema


Capital none1

Largest city Yaren
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"To Lead is to Serve"
Anthem
God Save Our Solomon Islands
Royal anthem
God Save the Queen
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"Tuvalu mo te Atua"   (Tuvaluan)
"Tuvalu for the Almighty"
Anthem
Tuvalu mo te Atua
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"Long God yumi stanap" (In God we stand)
Anthem
Yumi, Yumi, Yumi


Capital Port Vila

..... Click the link for more information.
This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use. Languages are listed for secondary locations only when spoken by more than 1% of the population.
..... Click the link for more information.
A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Te Mauri, Te Raoi ao Te Tabomoa
(English: Health, Peace and Prosperity)
Anthem
Teirake Kaini Kiribati


Capital South Tarawa

..... Click the link for more information.
This is a list of bodies that regulate standard languages.

Afrikaans Die Taalkommissie, South Africa
Arabic Academy of the Arabic Language (مجمع اللغة العربية, Syria, Egypt, Jordan,
..... Click the link for more information.
ISO 639 is the set of international standards that lists short codes for language names.

ISO 639 consists of different parts, of which two parts have been approved and a third part that is in the final approval (FDIS) stage. The other parts are works in progress.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics), a Christian linguistic service organization which studies lesser-known languages primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in
..... Click the link for more information.
See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.


A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
..... Click the link for more information.
lists of languages:
  • List of languages by name
  • List of languages by writing system
  • List of languages by number of native speakers
  • Ethnologue list of most spoken languages

..... Click the link for more information.
See Language (journal) for the linguistics journal.


A language is a system of symbols and the rules used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon.
..... Click the link for more information.
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. It is on par with Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and Uralic as one of the best-established ancient language families.
..... Click the link for more information.
Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia.
..... Click the link for more information.
Micronesian languages is a branch of the Central-Eastern Oceanic languages. It consists of 20 languages, the 19 Micronesian Proper languages and Nauruan.

Components

  • Micronesian Proper languages

..... Click the link for more information.
In linguistic typology, Verb Object Subject or Verb Object Agent - commonly used in its abbreviated form VOS or VOA - represents the language-classification type in which the following sequence of the three constituents, in neutral expressions, is
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Te Mauri, Te Raoi ao Te Tabomoa
(English: Health, Peace and Prosperity)
Anthem
Teirake Kaini Kiribati


Capital South Tarawa

..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1920s  1930s  1940s  - 1950s -  1960s  1970s  1980s
1951 1952 1953 - 1954 - 1955 1956 1957

Year 1954 (MCMLIV
..... Click the link for more information.
Secretariat of the Pacific Community or SPC is a regional intergovernmental organization whose membership includes both nations and territories. It aims to "develop the technical, professional, scientific, research, planning and management capability of Pacific Island people
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Te Mauri, Te Raoi ao Te Tabomoa
(English: Health, Peace and Prosperity)
Anthem
Teirake Kaini Kiribati


Capital South Tarawa

..... Click the link for more information.
NUI is a TLA, which may stand for:
  • National University of Ireland
  • Normally unmanned installation
For the small Pacific island nation pronounced "Nui", see Niue
Nui
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
"Tuvalu mo te Atua"   (Tuvaluan)
"Tuvalu for the Almighty"
Anthem
Tuvalu mo te Atua
..... Click the link for more information.
Rabi (IPA: [ra mbi]) is a volcanic island in northern Fiji. It is an outlier to Taveuni (5 kilometers west), in the Vanua Levu Group. It covers an area of 66.
..... Click the link for more information.
Motto
Rerevaka na Kalou ka Doka na Tui
Fear God and honour the Queen
Anthem
God Bless Fiji
..... Click the link for more information.
Mili Atoll is an atoll of 92 islands in the Ratak Chain in the Pacific Ocean. It is a legislative district of the Marshall Islands. Its total land area is 6.15 mile² (16 km²) the second largest land area after Kwajelein, but it encloses a much smaller lagoon (compared to Kwajelien)
..... Click the link for more information.

..... Click the link for more information.

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.