Chuukese language

Chuukese
Trukese
Native to	Federated States of Micronesia
Region	Chuuk
Native speakers	51,000 (2000 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Micronesian Nuclear Micronesian Chuukic-Pohnpeic Chuukic Chuukese
Official status
Official language in	Federated States of Micronesia
Language codes
ISO 639-2	chk
ISO 639-3	chk
Glottolog	chuu1238[2]

Chuukese /tʃuːˈkiːz/, also rendered Trukese /trʌˈkiːz/,^[3] 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 and Guam 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.^[4]

Truk and Chuuk are a difference in orthography, and both older tr and current ch transcribe the sound [tʂ].

References

1. Chuukese at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Chuukese". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
4. "Reflexes of initial gemination in Western Micronesian languages". University of California, Los Angeles. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 24, 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2005.

External links

• Chuukese Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database (Archive)
• Howard, Jocelyne. "CHUUKESE TRANSLATIONS." (Archive) University of Hawaii.