A Micronesian language of the Marshall Islands — co-official with English in the central Pacific atoll nation.
Where it’s spoken
Marshallese (Kajin M̧ajeļ) is the native language of the Marshall Islands and a substantial diaspora in Hawaii, the US Pacific Northwest, and Arkansas. Two dialects — Rālik (western) and Ratak (eastern) — are mutually intelligible.
What it sounds like
A small consonant inventory but unusual: phonemic “heavy” and “light” consonant pairs with distinct vowel allophones. Marshallese is famous in linguistics for having no high front vowel /i/ at the surface — high vowels are conditioned by surrounding consonants.
How it’s written
The Latin alphabet with a set of diacritic marks (especially the underdot) developed in the 1970s by linguists working with native speakers. The greeting “Iọkwe” is widely used as both “hello” and “love” — and was the name of the Marshall Islands’ largest welcome celebration before the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests.
Find more languages by letter
Marshallese starts with M and ends with E. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Marshallese":