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Pohnpeian

mahsen en Pohnpei

Pohnpeian is an Austronesian language spoken in Micronesia, by about 29 thousand people.

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Pohnpeian · 6.9°N 158.2°E

Pohnpeian is a Micronesian language spoken as the indigenous language of the island of Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands. Pohnpeian has approximately 30,000 (estimated) native speakers living in Pohnpei and its outlying atolls and islands with another 10,000-15,000 (estimated) living off island in parts of the US mainland, Hawaii, and Guam. It is the second-most widely spoken native language of the Federated States of Micronesia, the first being Chuukese.

Pohnpeian features a "high language", referred to as Meing or Mahsen en Meing including specialized vocabulary used when speaking to, or about people of high rank.

From Wikipedia · Pohnpeian language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Written down

Tohn sampa karos ipwiwei nan saledek oh duwepenehte nan arail wasa oh arail pwung. Arail marain oh pehm ih utakerail kahrehda korusie konehng sawaspene nin duwen pirien ehu.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR in Unicode).

Words in Pohnpeian

MeaningWordRomanization
waterpihl
dogkidi
fishmwahmw
birdmenpihr
pigpwihk
winewain
thank youkalahngan
houseihmw
newkapw
whitepwetepwet

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Grammar

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

Nearby languages

Elsewhere

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Glottolog · pohn1238 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · pon