Chuukese language

Chuukese (/tʃuːˈkiːz/), also rendered Trukese (/trʌˈkiːz/),^[2] is a Chuukic language of the Austronesian language family spoken primarily on the islands of Chuuk in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia. There are communities of speakers in Pohnpei, and Guam. Estimates show that there are about 45,900 speakers in Micronesia.^[1]

Chuukese
Trukese
Chuuk
Native to	Federated States of Micronesia
Region	Chuuk
Ethnicity	Chuukese
Native speakers	(51,330 cited 2000 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Micronesian Nuclear Micronesian Chuukic–Pohnpeic Chuukic Chuukese
Writing system	Latin script
Official status
Official language in	Federated States of Micronesia
Language codes
ISO 639-2	chk
ISO 639-3	chk
Glottolog	chuu1238

Classification

Chuukese is an Austronesian language of the Micronesian subbranch. It is one of the dialects making up the Chuukic subgroup of Micronesian languages, together with its close relatives like Woleaian, and Carolinian.^[3]

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 different in orthography, and both older ⟨tr⟩ and current ⟨ch⟩ transcribe the sound [ʈʂ].

Chuukese consonants

		Labial		Alveolar	Postalveolar/ Palatal	Velar
		plain	lab.
Nasal	plain	m	mʷ	n		ŋ
	tense	mː	mːʷ			ŋː
Plosive/Affricate		p	pʷ	t	ʈʂ	k
Fricative	plain	f		s
	tense	fː		sː
Trill				r
Approximant		w		l	j

Consonants are doubled in Chuuk when they have a voiceless sound. Some consonant combinations are frequently denasalized between vowels when doubled.^[5][6][7]

Chuukese vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ʌ	o
Low	æ	a	ɒ

/ɨ/ can be heard as either central [ɨ] or back [ɯ].

Orthography

Chuukese is one of the few languages allowing for word initial double consonants:^[4]

Chuukese spelling
a	á	e	é	i	o	ó	u	ú	f	ff	s	ss	k	kk	m	mm	mw	mmw	n	ng	nng	p	pp	pw	ppw	r	ch	t	tt	w	y
IPA
ɐ	a	e	ə	i	o	ɑ	u	ɨ	f	fː	s	sː	k	kː	m	mː	mˠ	mˠː	nn̩	ŋ	ŋː	p	pː	p~b	pː	r	tʂ	t̪	t̪ː	w	j