Gilbertese language


Gilbertese or taetae ni Kiribati, also Kiribati, is an Austronesian language spoken mainly in Kiribati. It belongs to the Micronesian branch of the Oceanic languages.

Name

The word Kiribati, the current name of the islands, is the local adaptation of the previous European name "Gilberts". Early European visitors, including Commodore John Byron, whose ships happened on Nikunau in 1765, had named some of the islands the Kingsmill or Kings Mill Islands but in 1820 they were renamed, in French, les îles Gilbert by Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern, after Captain Thomas Gilbert, who, along with Captain John Marshall, had passed through some of these islands in 1788.
Frequenting of the islands by Europeans and Chinese dates from whaling and oil trading from the 1820s, when no doubt Europeans learnt to speak it, as I-Kiribati learnt to speak English and other languages foreign to them. However, it wasn't until Hiram Bingham II took up missionary work on Abaiang in the 1860s that the language began to take on the written form known nowadays. For example, Bingham was the first to translate the Bible into Gilbertese, and wrote several hymn books, short dictionaries and commentaries in the language of the Gilbert Islands.
The official name of the language is te taetae ni Kiribati, or 'the Kiribati language', but the common name is te taetae n aomata, or 'the language of the people'.
The first complete and comprehensive description of this language was published in Dictionnaire gilbertin–français of Father :fr:Ernest Sabatier, a Catholic priest. This complete dictionary was later translated into English by Sister Olivia.

Speakers

Over 96% of the 110,000 people living in Kiribati declare themselves I-Kiribati and speak Gilbertese. Gilbertese is also spoken by most inhabitants of Nui, Rabi Island, and some other islands where I-Kiribati have been relocated, after the Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme or emigrated.
Unlike some other languages in the Pacific region, the Gilbertese language is far from extinct, and most speakers use it daily. 97% of those living in Kiribati are able to read in Gilbertese, and 80% are able to read English.

Countries by number of Gilbertese speakers

  1. Kiribati, 110,000
  2. Fiji, 5,300 cited 1988
  3. Solomon Islands, 4,870 cited 1999
  4. New Zealand, 2,115 cited 2013
  5. Tuvalu, 870 cited 1987
  6. Hawaii, 141

    Linguistics and study

The Gilbertese language has two main dialects: the Northern and the Southern dialects. The main differences between them are in the pronunciation of some letters. The islands of Butaritari and Makin also have their own dialect. It differs from the standard Kiribati in some vocabulary and pronunciation.

Dialect listing

Proto-Oceanic
Proto-Micronesian
Gilbertese122

1 Sometimes when reflecting Proto-Micronesian.
2 Sometimes when reflecting Proto-Micronesian.

Phonology

Gilbertese contrasts 13 consonants and 10 vowels sounds
  1. is lenited and assibilated to before
  2. The labiovelar fricative may be a flap or an approximant, depending on the context.
  3. does not occur in the syllable coda
FrontBack
Close1
Mid
Open

  1. Short and may become semivowels when followed by more sonorous vowels. → . Kiribati has syllabic nasals, although syllabic and can be followed only by consonants that are homorganic.
The pronounciation is closer to except after velarized BW and MW.
Quantity is distinctive for vowels and nasal consonants but not for the remaining sounds so that ana contrasts with aana as well as anna . Other minimal pairs include:
ShortTranslationLongtranslation
te ben ripe coconutte been pen
ti wetii only
on fulloon turtles
te atu bundlete atuu head
tuanga to telltuangnga to tell him/her

Grammar

Gilbertese has a basic verb–object–subject word order.

Nouns

Any noun can be formed from a verb or an adjective by preceding it with the definite article "te".
Nouns can be marked for possession. Plurality is only marked in some nouns by lengthening the first vowel.
There is no marked gender. Biological gender can be marked by adding mmwaane or aiine to the noun. The absence of gender creates a difficulty with the words brother/sister.
For human nouns, the linker 'n' may be used.
Agentive nouns can be created with the particle tia or taan.

Articles

The article 'te' is neither definite or indefinite, it just marks that the next word is a noun and that it's singular, although it can be translated as "the" most times. The plural article is optional since there are many other ways to express plurality, namely in demonstratives, numerals, etc.
MasculineFeminine
Personal articlete — Na Nan Nang form could be used in Butatari and Makinnei

The personal articles are used before personal names. The masculine form is 'te' before names beginning with , 'tem' before , 'ten' before and 'teng' before .

Pronouns

Pronouns have different forms according to case: nominative, accusative, emphatic, genitive.
NominativeAccusativeEmphaticGenitivePossessive
suffixes
1Si, n-aingaiau-u
2Sko-kongkoeam-m
3Se-angaiaana-na/n
1Pti-irangairaara-ra
2Pkam-ngkamiingkamiiamii-mii
3Pa-ia/ingaiiaaia-ia

Demonstratives

The basic 'aei' simply means "this", 'anne" is "that", 'arei' is "that over there" and are used after the noun. 'Aikai' is "these" and so on. The masculine "teuaei" means "this man", the feminine "neiei" means "this woman", and the inanimate "te baei" means "this thing". There's only feminine singular. The human plural serves for mixed groups.

Adverbs

"Ngkai" is "now", "ngkanne" is "then" and "ngkekei" is "later". "Ikai" is "here", "ikanne" is "there" and "ikekei" is "over there".

Verbs

Verbs do not conjugate according to person, number, tense, aspect or mood. This verbal categories are indicated by particles. Nonetheless, there's a passive suffix -aki like in:
  • E kabooa te raiti He bought the rice.
  • E kabooaki te raiti The rice was bought.
Any adjective can also be an intransitive verb. Transitive verbs can be formed by the circumfix ka- -a creating a causative ver, e.g. "uraura" becomes "kaurauraa". Tense is marked by adverbs. However, the default interpretation of the unmarked verb is a past tense. Below is a list of verbal particles:
  • a
  • tabe n
  • nang
  • na
  • a tib'a
  • a tia n

    Copula verbs

There are no verbs corresponding to English "to be", so a stative verb must be used or a zero copula strategy:
Te tia mmwakuri teuaarei.
A workman that man.
That man is a workman.
However there's a locative copula verb "mena":
E mena iaon te taibora te booro.
The ball is on the table

Existential verb

There's also no corresponding verb to "to have", instead an existential verb meaning "there to be" is used - iai.

Reduplication

Reduplication is used to mark aspect.
  • Partial reduplication marks the habitual aspect for example "nako" and "naanako".
  • Full reduplication shows the continuative aspect, e.g. "koro", "korokoro".
  • Mixed: "kiba", "kiikiba", "kibakiba", "kikibakiba".
Adjectives can also be formed by reduplication with the meaning of "abundant in " - "karau", "kakarau".

Negation

The main negator is the particle "aki" placed after the pronoun and before the verb. The negator "aikoa" is for counterexpected situations.
Ko aki taetae : you don’t speak.

Numerals

Gilbertese uses classifiers for counting with numerals like southeast Asian languages. These classifiers are suffixes to the numerals: -ua, -man, -kai, -ai, -waa, -baa among many others. It is a decimal system with -bwi as a "10 counting" suffix. Zero is just the word for 'nothing'.
RootWith -ua classifier
0akea-
1teteuana
2uo/uauoua
3tentenua
4aaua
5nimanimaua
6onoonoua
7ititiua
8wanwaniua
9ruairuaiua
10tetebwina

Written Gilbertese

The Gilbertese language is written in the Latin script, which was introduced in the 1860s when Hiram Bingham Jr, a protestant missionary, first translated the Bible into Gilbertese. Previously, the language was unwritten. Long vowels and consonants are since Independence represented by doubling the character, and a few digraphs are used for the velar nasals and velarized bilabials. Bingham Jr and the first Roman Catholic missionaries did not indicate in their script the vowel length by doubling the character. The discrepancies between Protestant and Roman Catholic spelling were an issue since 1895 Neither they had clearly distinguished the pronunciation of the vowel /a/ after velarized bilabials, like and , that result in discrepancies between old scripts and modern scripts. For example, the word maneaba should be written mwaneaba or even mwaaneaba and the atoll of Makin, Mwaakin. The Kiribati Protestant Church also recently used a different script for these two velarized bilabials, “b’a” and “m’a” forms are found in Protestant publications.
LetterAAABBWEEEIIIKMMMMWNNNNGNGNGOOORTUUUW

Translating Kiribati

One difficulty in translating the Bible was references to words such as "mountain", a geographical phenomenon unknown to the people of the islands of Kiribati at the time. Bingham decided to use "hilly", which would be more easily understood. Such adjustments are common to all languages as "modern" things require the creation of new words. For example, the Gilbertese word for airplane is te wanikiba, "the canoe that flies".
Catholic missionaries arrived at the islands in 1888 and translated the Bible independently of Bingham, resulting in differences that would be resolved only in the 20th century. In 1954, Father Ernest Sabatier published the bigger and more accurate Kiribati to French dictionary : Dictionnaire gilbertin–français, 981 pages. It remains the only work of importance between the Kiribati and a Western language. It was then reversed by Frédéric Giraldi in 1995, creating the first French to Kiribati dictionary. In addition, a grammar section was added by Father Gratien Bermond. This dictionary is available at the French National Library and at the headquarters of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Issoudun.

Useful phrases

  • Hello – Mauri
  • Hello – Ko na mauri
  • Hello – Kam na mauri
  • How are you? – Ko uara?
  • How are you? – Kam uara?
  • Thank you – Ko rabwa
  • Thank you – Kam rabwa
  • Goodbye – Ti a boo

    Text sample

Ao ti teuana aia taetae ka-in aonaba ma aia taeka ngkekei. Ao ngke a waerake, ao a kunea te tabo teuana ae aoraoi n te aba are Tina; ao a maeka iai. Ao a i taetae i rouia ni kangai, Ka-raki, ti na karaoi buatua, ao ti na kabuoki raoi. Ao aia atibu boni buatua, ao aia raim boni bitumen. Ao a kangai, Ka-raki, ti na katea ara kawa teuana, ma te taua, ae e na rota karawa taubukina, ao ti na karekea arara ae kakanato; ba ti kawa ni kamaeaki nako aonaba ni kabuta. Ao E ruo Iehova ba E na nora te kawa arei ma te taua arei, ake a katei natiia aomata. Ao E taku Iehova, Noria, te botanaomata ae ti teuana te koraki aei, ao ti teuana aia taetae; ao aei ae a moa ni karaoia: ao ngkai, ane e na aki tauaki mai rouia te b’ai teuana ae a reke nanoia iai ba a na karaoia. Ka-raki, ti na ruo, ao tin a kakaokoroi aia taetae iai, ba a aonga n aki atai nako aia taeka. Ma ngaia are E kamaeia nako Iehova mai iai nako aonaba ni kabuta: ao a toki ni katea te kawa arei. Ma ngaia are e aranaki ka Babera; ba kioina ngke E bita aia taetae ka-in aonaba ni kabaneia iai Iehova: ao E kamaeia nako Iehova mai ai nako aonaba ni kabuta.