Mrq

Description: North Marquesan is the Marquesic, East Central Polynesian language spoken in the northern Marquesas Islands. The three most noticeable differences between it and South Marquesan are its preference for /k/ in some cases where South Marquesan uses /n/ and /ʔ/ (glottal stop) and its complete replacement of the /f/ of South Marquesan with /h/. This difference can be seen in such pairs as North Marquesan exhibits some particularly interesting characteristics. It alone seems to have taken "the other path" in the simplification of Proto-Polynesian nasalized consonants. Where most Polynesian languages simplified *mb to /m/, North Marquesan has /p/, and where most simplified *nd to /n/, North Marquesan has /t/. While some Polynesian languages maintained the velar nasal /ŋ/, many have lost the distinction between the nasals /ŋ/ and /n/, merging both into /n/. North Marquesan, however, prefers /k/. Another notable feature of North Marquesan is that from it, it appears that Proto-Polynesian had a consonant cluster *kt, or perhaps a palatal stop (as is the case with all comparative and reconstructive linguistics, this is the subject of some debate)... Whatever that cluster or stop might have..... full article at Wikipedia Location of Marquesan, North Language Speakers http://llmap.org/languages/mrq/static_map.png?width=400&height=300&kilroywashere=.png

Overview Main Country: French Polynesia Spoken In: Regions: Oceania ISO 639-3 Code: mrq Classification Taxonomy Central-Eastern Group   Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Group     Oceanic Group       Central-Eastern Oceanic Group         Remote Oceanic Group           Central Pacific Group             East Fijian-Polynesian Group               Polynesian Group                 Nuclear Polynesian Group                   East Nuclear Group                     Central East Group                       Marquesic Group                         Marquesan, North Language