Carolinian is an Austronesian language originating in the Caroline Islands, but spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands. It is an official language (alongside English) of the Carolinian people. Carolinian is a threatened language according to the Catalogue of Endangered Languages (ELCat), but available data is scarce. There are approximately 3,100 native speakers in the world. Carolinian has 95% lexical similarity with Satawalese, 88% with Woleaian and Puluwatese; 81% with Mortlockese; 78% with Chuukese, 74% with Ulithian.
Classification
The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas occupies a chain of 14 islands in the Pacific, approximately 1,300 miles southeast of Japan. The total land area encompasses 183.5 square miles, and some islands are unpopulated. Most Carolinians live on Saipan, the largest island, although a very small island, Agrigan, is reported to be populated solely by Carolinians speaking Carolinian language.
Carolinian, more usually known as Saipan Carolinian, was born from several languages in the Carolinian language continuum, due to a century of migration from the western Carolinian atolls to the Northern Marianas island of Saipan. Spoken mostly by the Carolinian people, Carolinian is the most closely related dialect to Satawalese, Woleaian, and Puluwatese languages. In present day, Carolinian is changing quickly due to influence from English, which has dominated Micronesia since World War II. There are only a small percentage of Carolinian children left on Saipan who can confidently speak the traditional form of Carolinian.
History
Early history The Carolinian language is derived from closely related languages and dialects within the Austronesian language family. The first inhabitants of the Caroline Islands were the Austronesians, who migrated from Taiwan. European contact with the Caroline Islands began in 1652, and by the late 1600s, the Carolinians were already communicating with Europeans in their native language. Between 1795 and 1797, a Spanish official on Guam, Don Luis de Torres, studied the Carolinian language and identified its dialect continuum. Throughout the 1700s, multiple Carolinian drift voyages reached the Philippines and Guam, spreading Carolinian culture and language across these regions.
During the 1800s, inter-island travel persisted for various reasons, such as survival, communication, trade, and family relations, thereby maintaining the Carolinian language continuum. The evolution of the Carolinian language continued as the Carolinian people migrated to Saipan under Chamorro occupation. However, after the abandonment of Saipan around 1815, Carolinians had the island largely to themselves, and the first Carolinian-speaking group there became the initial speakers of Saipan Carolinian. Subsequent migrations introduced additional linguistic diversity, blending various languages over time.
Tracing the development of Saipan's language from 1815 to today is challenging due to inconsistent historical records. The Carolinian language on Saipan was in constant flux during the 19th century, shaped by ongoing migrations between Saipan and neighboring atolls. The lack of reliable data makes it difficult to establish a clear historical timeline.
Late history Significant demographic changes occurred in the Carolinian population of the Northern Mariana Islands after the 1850s, especially with the arrival of immigrants from atolls east of Satawal. Between 1865 and 1868, an English entrepreneur, H.G. Johnson, relocated about 1,500 Carolinians to the Marianas to work on plantations in Guam, Rota, and Tinian. The removal of these Carolinians from their original islands faced push-back up until the end of the 19th century, with groups such as the Spanish showing disapproval until the Tinian Carolinians eventually moved to Saipan.
When the Americans took control of Guam in 1898, the Carolinians in Maria Cristina village remained there, despite American efforts to make them abandon their traditional dress. Most migrations that shaped the Carolinian community on Saipan occurred by 1911, with the most significant influx from outer islands happening between 1905 and 1907. During this period, German ships transported hundreds of Mortlockese and other atoll dwellers to Saipan due to typhoon devastation on their home islands. However, this migration had minimal impact on the linguistic traits of the Carolinian language, as the new arrivals were settled away from established Carolinian villages. Many of these islanders eventually returned to their original homes once conditions improved, with only a few remaining on Saipan.
Today, Saipan Carolinians are dispersed throughout the island, including in new homestead areas like Kagman, developed by the government on the eastern shore. The 1970s marked the beginning of a reconnection between Saipan Carolinians and their outer-island roots, notably when a navigator made a voyage from the outer islands to Saipan in 1969 after a lapse of 60 to 70 years. However, the overwhelming influence of the U.S. and global culture, coupled with the introduction of modern media, has profoundly impacted the Carolinian language. While there remains interest in preserving native languages, the realities of modern life pose significant challenges to these efforts.
Cultures
According to the history of the language, some speakers consider it critical to show respect to the Carolinian culture, in particular for older people. Certain cultural norms may also affect the way the language is spoken. Carolinian women have historically been encouraged to use precise words when speaking to their brothers and other male relatives. It is also said that women are encouraged never to walk in front of male relatives, and to stoop down near male relatives who are sitting.
The Carolinian culture moreover has encouraged separation between genders in certain aspects of life. For example, a brother and sister would be discouraged from sharing dishes, and a dish used by a man should not be used by a woman, except for his mother. Women's bedrooms and private rooms are considered off-limits to male relatives. In certain locales, when a girl gets her first menstrual period, she is taken care of by older women, such as a grandmother, and placed in a special house. She is given orange face-paint, so the whole community will know she has come of age. In Saipan, these practices largely ceased during the Second World War. However, many Carolinians still practice these traditions today.
Respect is also expected to be shown between older men and younger men. For instance, younger men are expected not give their opinion in a meeting unless they are invited to do so by older men. Also, a husband is expected to respect his wife's brothers and male relatives. When the in-laws need something, a husband is encouraged to help out. For instance, if they ask to use his car, it is expected that he should let them use it, or he should bring food if there is a family party.
Phonology Consonant Phonemes Table
Labial Alveolar Retroflex Palatal VelarGlottal Stops p pː t tː kːbʷˠ, (pʷˠ)dɡ Affricate ʈ͡ʂːʲ Fricatives f fː s sː ʂ xh Nasals m mː n ŋ ŋːmʷˠ mʷˠː Liquids l lː, r ɻ Glides w j The table shows that alveolar ridge receives tongue-blade contact while the tongue tip makes contact at some place on the teeth. Vowel Phonemes Table
Front Central Back Diphthongs High i ʉ u iu, eu, æu, ɐu Mid e ɵ o ou, ɒu, ei, æi Low æ ɐ ɒ ɐi, ui, oi, ɒi
All of the consonants may appear initially, medially, and finally. In the final position, all the obstruents are obligatorily released. All consonants except one are unaspirated, and all stops and /x/ are lenis. The consonants /bw/ and /mw/ have coarticulated labial closure and rounding with a raising of the back of the tongue toward the velum. the /bw/ is usually spirantized to /βw/ medially. The /r/ is a trill, which is voiceless word-finally. Moreover, all of the following single consonants may also be geminate initially, medially and in their abstract representation, finally: /p, t, bw, f, s, m, mw, ŋ, l/. Geminate /bw/ is devoiced. In addition, Carolinian has geminate /kk/ but not single /k/. There are the five consonants /ş, x, r, w, j/, which may be geminated medially in productive reduplication. Geminate obstruents are tense and often give the impression of aspiration.
In addition to its native vocabulary, Carolinian has borrowed considerable vocabulary from Chamorro, English, and Japanese. This has led to the borrowing of some phonemes from these languages as well. Although these phonemes appear only in borrowed words, many of these words undergo regular Carolinian phonological rules, and the international segments are assigned in the same way as native speakers. For example, the Japanese word //, which means slipper, is borrowed into Carolinian and may be reduplicated. So /dzodzdzoori/ means to be wearing slippers.
Syllable structure The classic form of Carolinian syllables is either CV, CVC, CVVC, or CCVC.
Grammar Morphology Source Reduplication Gloss loka e lollokka she is wearing sandals xasulis e xaxxasulis He is wearing pants tou e tottou He is stabbing him siliila e sissiliils She is wearing a dress sooŋ e sossoŋ He is (being) angry mwuŋo e mwumwmwuŋo He is eating
Simple sentence structure Carolinian simple sentences contain two major constituents, which are the Subject Noun Phrase and the Predicate Phrase. The word order of Carolinian language is Subject-Verb-Object. The following are some example simple sentences.
Subject Noun Phrase Predicate Phrase 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Vocabulary Some researchers indicate that the Carolinian language is part of the western half of the Chuukic continuum. Its closest sister language is usually described as Satawalese. Carolinian has more in common with Woleaian- Mortlockese than with either Polowat-Pulusuk or Satawalese, but with Polowat-Pulusuk shows slightly more influence than Satawalese. The lexical stock of Chuukic languages can help determine Carolinian’s relationship to its source languages, as there is significant diversity among their lexicons. Even though each Chuukic language has a high lexical similarity of nearly 50% with other members of the continuum. the remaining 50% provides enough differences to refine Carolinian’s lines of lexical inheritance.
Past orthographies Most Saipan Carolinians are bilingual or trilingual. Their writing has reflected many foreign language orthographic systems. Despite the variations of Carolinian writing, the following generalizations can be made. First, the vulgarized consonants / bw, mw, pw / were often written as digraphs when the following vowels are unrounded. However, / w / or / u / was virtually never indicated before rounded vowels or word finally. This phenomenon can be traced to Chamorro writing, there is a rounded velar glide that occurs only after consonants and only before unrounded vowels. The Carolinians seem to have interpreted their vulgarized consonants as plain consonants followed by glides, like the Chamorro phones. For instance: means hole of for / /, but lib means hole for / / the form for / / means his house, but / / means your house, for / / means dirt, but po for / / means pound. The geminate consonants were not represented initially and finally, though some people wrote geminate consonants medially. This may be a result of Chamorro influence. The only geminates in Chamorro are medial and as a consequence only these geminates are reflected in writing. For example: pi / ppii / means sand lepi, leppi for / leppi / means beach sand mile, mille for / mille / means this one lol for / llɔl / means in it Carolinian are used to the 5 vowel symbols of the Roman alphabet. These were used to identify the 9 distinctive vowels of the Carolinian language. Long vowels were not represented maybe due to Chamorro impact, as there are no distinctive long vowels in that language. For example: fi / fii / means star