Marshallese

Marshallese -
=Kajin Majōl =


 * Basic Info**
 * Marshallese is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian language family which includes Samoan, Cebuano & Tagalog (Philippines), and Hawaiian.
 * Spoken in the Marshall Islands
 * Two different spelling systems currently at play
 * Includes a lot of "loan words" from other languages
 * Less than 100,000 speakers

The following comparisons are taken directly from this document: http://www.ritell.org/Resources/Documents/language%20project/Marshallese.pdf
 * Comparison to English**
 * Latin alphabet
 * "Students may have inverse question statements, instead of asking “where are you going?, they may ask, “you are going where?”
 * There is no word for “have” in Marshallese. Students may say “There is my notebook” instead of “I have my notebook”.
 * In Marshallese, many nouns are used as verbs. For example students may say “I church”, instead of “I am going to church.”
 * Students may not add an “s” to the end of plural nouns because plural nouns stay the same in Marshallese.
 * Verbs in Marshallese do not conjugate, there is nothing in Marshallese that means “-ing” or “ed”; the verbs stay the same in present, past, and future."


 * Links **
 * http://www.peterrg.com/Practical%20Marshallese.pdf - "Practical Marshallese" - A crash course in Marshallese
 * http://www.ritell.org/Resources/Documents/language%20project/Marshallese.pdf - An snapshot of the language and culture including specific difficulties for Marshallese learning English
 * http://www.freelang.net/online/marshallese.php - Online Marshallese/English dictionary
 * http://www.trussel2.com/MOD/index.htm - More expansive dictionary
 * http://mistories.org/ - Marshall Islands story projects - includes videos of life stories of Marshallese individuals - would be great to use with Marshallese students as a connection point to their heritage
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGg0v3GONrc&list=PLYkZ5t4kKocOeBVX-GshXMTUgm1NVqgi3&index=7 - Video sample of Marshallese


 * Helpful Phrases for Teachers **
 * http://www.rmiembassyus.org/Marshallese%20Phrasebook.htm - A list of common phrases with audiofiles (the audio doesn't work on a Mac)
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKp6yc_BnH0&list=PLYkZ5t4kKocOeBVX-GshXMTUgm1NVqgi3&index=2 - Video of common phrases
 * hello, goodbye - yokwe
 * How are you? - Ej et am mour?
 * Yes - aet
 * No, don't - jaab
 * please - jouj
 * What's your name? - Etam?
 * My name is - Eta in _
 * I'm sorry, excuse me - Jolok bwid
 * Thank you - Komol