- This paper is based on fieldwork done while the author was an employee of the Department of Education of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1953–1959. An orthography based on the analysis here presented was used for numerous vernacular publications of the Department from 1955 through 1959; more recent publications follow the traditional orthography (for details of which see Note 2 below).
- New Testament: ak Kalimur Ekäl an ar Iroij im Dri Lomor Jisös Kraist, New York, American Bible Society, 1885. Portions of the above and of the Old Testament were printed earlier in Honolulu (Mark, 1863; The Gospels and Acts, 1865 and 1875; Mark and John, 1873; Genesis, 1878) and in New York (Genesis, Jonah, Psalms, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, 1881). Later New York printings include revised editions in 1895, 1899 (including a revised Psalms), 1914 (including the Old Testament books mentioned above, revised, and Isaiah), and 1931. The 1914 edition was entitled Mätön Kalimur eo mokta kab Kalimur Ekäl; Jeje ko re Kwojarjar (Marshall Island Scriptures) and was reprinted in 1933, 1939, 1945, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1959, and 1960. According to records of the American Bible Society 5000 copies of the New Testament and Psalms and 9200 copies of the Marshall Island Scriptures have been published since 1914. A parallel Marshallese-English edition of the New Testament only was published in 1948. Other Protestant Mission publications included an A-B-C book (Buk in A, Honolulu, 1863), a geography text (Buk in Jeokrapi, New York, 1864), an arithmetic book (Buk in Bwinbwin, Kusaie, 1935), and a hymn book (Buk in Al kob Tun ko ¯ön ro Dri Aili¯ in Marshall, Boston, 1944). (The author wishes to acknowledge assistance from the Navy Dictionary (see Note 5 below) and the American Bible Society in compiling this bibliographical information.) These together with some Roman Catholic mission publications (see Note 3 below) constitute the bulk of all materials published in Marshallese up until 1955 and have been instrumental in shaping what we term in this paper the traditional orthography. In addition to the consonant symbols shown for it in Table 1, and the five Roman vowel letters, the traditional orthography also uses A and o modified by diacritics.
- August Erdland, Wörterbuch und Grammatik der Marshall-Sprache nebst ethnographischen Erläuterungen und kurzen Sprachübungen (Berlin, 1906), pp. 195–200. Earlier publications of the Roman Catholic Mission such as the Katekismus erik a Buk in Kemelele an Jesus Krist (Jakobus López de Rego Adm. Apost., no date) follow Fr. Erdland's orthography in that u is used following consonants to indicate labialization; later ones such as a mimeographed Marshallese-English dictionary issued in 1953 follow the traditional use of w.
- “Phonetics of the Micronesian Language of the Marshall Islands,” American Anthropologist XIII (1911), pp. 380–393.
- Marshallese-English and English-Marshallese Dictionary. 14th Naval District, District Intelligence Office, Marshall-Gilberts Area, 1945, 2 vols. Setting the trend for most postwar researches in Marshallese phonology to follow, the comments on the sounds (pp. v-xv and xxvii) emphasize the need for spelling reform; entries are made in the traditional orthography and followed by a “phonetic respelling” which favors diacritics to digraphs, using the postposed apostrophe for palatalization of b, m, n, l, and r. Since some entries use the combinations bw, mw, and even (one each) lw and ñw without the same combinations appearing in the inventory in the introduction, such are evidently considered clusters rather than digraphs.
- “Notes on Marshallese Consonant Phonemes,” Language XXI (1945), pp. 267–270.
- “Marshallese Phonemes and Orthography (A tentative proposal).” Both this sheet and Mason's map to which it is attached are dated December, 1950, and later appeared (the map in reduced form) in Leonard Mason, “Anthropology-Geography Study of Arno Atoll, Marshall Islands,” Atoll Research Bulletin (The Pacific Science Board, National Research Council, Washington, 1952), pp. 20–21.
- Wahween Jibehhleh Kajin Marshall (Guide to Marshallese Spelling), Office of the High Commissioner, Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, 1951. Proposed an orthography which used digraphs where Roman symbols did not suffice. In addition to the consonant symbols shown in Table 1, Smith suggested the following for vowels: i, e, eh, ah; uh, ih, oh, a; u, uv, o, av. The vowel or the last symbol of the digraph was repeated to show vowel length: ii, ee, ehh, ahh; uhh, ihh, ohh, aa; uu, uvv, oo, avv. Thus /lale/ ‘see’ became /dladleh/, /bidudu/ ‘soft, easy’ became /bidruvdruv/, and /jibeele/ ‘spell’ assumed its shape in the title of the volume. Resulting shapes of words departed so far from customary ones that the orthography was not acceptable to Marshallese educators, and the booklets were not distributed.
- “Report on Orthographic Problems in Marshallese,” November, 1952, given limited circulation in typescript. Recognizes that neither Elbert's nor Smith's suggestions for spelling reform have been accepted and attempts a compromise using diacritics for vowels, and some diacritics, some digraphs for consonants. (See Table.)
- Choose new content alerts to be informed about new research of interest to you
- Easy remote access to your institution's subscriptions on any device, from any location
- Save your searches and schedule alerts to send you new results
- Export your search results into a .csv file to support your research