n Pohnpei, the official language designation is shared by English and Pohnpeian--one of eight major indigenous languages in the F.S.M.  A member of the Austronesian language family, Pohnpeian is closely related to many of the other Micronesian languages.  The language is grouped with Pingelapese, Mwoakilloan (Mokilese), and Ngatikese (spoken on the outer atolls) to form the Ponapeic sub-family.  Pohnpeian is spoken by roughly 35,000 people on Pohnpei Island, on outer islands and in other locations throughout Micronesia. It has a fairly simple structure with twenty characters in the alphabet (four of which are digraphs), representing twenty-one phonemes (sounds):

a e i o oa u k l m mw n ng p pw r s d t w

Dialects

There are two major Pohnpeian dialects on Pohnpei Island.  The Kitti dialect is spoken in Kitti municipality, and the Northern dialect is used everywhere else.  The main differences between the two dialects are phonological--Northern Pohnpeian employs two different vowel sounds for the written /e/, whereas Kitti employs only one.  Additionally, many words written in Northern with /e/ are pronounced as /oa/ in Kitti.  Ngatikese is often considered a third dialect, because over 90% of its vocabulary is identical to main-island Pohnpeian.

Relation to Other Island Languages

Lexical similarities can be found between Pohnpeian and languages across Micronesia and the Pacific in general.  

Of Micronesian languages outside Ponapeic, Chuukese seems to be most similar, sharing about 36% of its lexicon with Pohnpeian.  Pingelapese and Mokilese are 75-80% lexically similar to Pohnpeian.  Modern Pohnpeian has also adopted a wide variety of loan words from the languages of the island's colonizers--Spain, Germany, Japan and the U.S.

Other Languages

In addition to Pohnpeian and English, varying minorities on Pohnpei Island speak Chamorro, Chuukese, Fijian, French, Japanese, Kapingamarangi (in Kolonia), Korean, Kosraean, Mandarin Chinese, Mortlockese (mostly in Sokehs and Madolenihmw), Mwoakilloan, Nukuoro, Palauan, Pingelapese, Tagalog, and Yapese.  The average local person speaks at least  two languages.  Many people are multi-lingual.

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• Text by Alex Zuccarelli, 2003.
• Image/Photo credits: All images property of  Alex Zuccarelli.

 Primary Sources

• Ashby, Gene
  1993. Pohnpei: Island Argosy. Rainy Day Press: Eugene.
• Bonvillain, Nancy
  2000. Language, Culture and Communication: the Meaning of Messages, 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River.
• Finegan, Edward
  1999. Language: Its Structure & Use. Harcourt Brace College Publishers: Fort Worth.
• Levy, Neil M.
  1996. Micronesia Handbook. Moon Publications, Inc.: Chico.
• Rehg, Kenneth L. and Damian G. Sohl
  1981. Ponapean Reference Grammar. Pali Language Texts. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
• Rehg, Kenneth L. and Damian G. Sohl
  1979. Ponapean-English Dictionary. Pali Language Texts. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.

On-Line Resources (in no particular order)

• Pohnpei State Facts – mymicronesia.com
• Languages of Micronesia from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 14th Edition
• World Travel Guide Net: FSM
• CIA World Factbook