Palauan Language:

Palau which is the official language of Republic of Palau is at present spoken all over the sixteen federal states of Micronesia. The ISO language code attributed to it is unique in nature. It is quite worth it to mention that no other spoken language and its dialects match this. Palau boasts of Indonesian heritage and is categorized as a Malayo-Polynesian language. Around eighty one percentage of the native population speak Palau whereas English is spoken flawlessly by almost all of them. With 85% literacy the Palauans rely very much on their language for communication.

The Palauan religion namely Modekngei has a great influence on the culture and attitude of the natives and they more or less reflect upon the language structure itself. The language is very rich in content with its large store of proverbs and idioms.

For instance a proverb in Palauan language goes like this:

"Lak bom ua chad era Ngerchemai el miltom ra uel el metom ra mlai."

The exact English meaning is:

Don't be like the man from Ngerchemai who lost both the turtle and the canoe.

The proverb is:

Don't bite off more than you can chew...don't be selfish.

During the period between 1970 and 1980 the Palau Orthography Committee devised a common writing code or writing system based on Latin alphabet, in collaboration with the scholars of University of Hawaii.

They reintroduced the orthographic structure of pre Chomskyan nature emphasizing the system of using one symbol for one sound. This resulted in the creation of an alphabet of ten Palauan consonants added by another two double consonants. Five consonants were lifted from foreign words and four double vowels were added to the existing five vowels. Thus these twenty vowel sequences collectively known as Diphthongs became the official orthography. English alphabets viz., b, t, d, k, ch, s, m, ng, r and l are used to spell the consonants, and the vowels are doubled in order to put emphasis and more length to the sound.

The Palauan Senate passed a bill in 2007 to the effect that all educational institutions coming under the jurisdiction of Palau must recognize the Palauan orthography. As per the provisions contained in the Bill an autonomous body namely Orthography Commission was instituted and was delegated the power to regulate and manage all modifications done to the official orthography.

This is a just a small outline of some spelling and pronunciation as used in Palauan orthography.

• The letters of the alphabet which are used to pronounce the consonants are b, t, d, k, ch, s, m, ng, r, and l.

• B is marked as b when used at the start of words and also before the letter l and remaining cases it is spelt as p.

• D is marked similar to th when it is used between vowels or even at the finish of a word.

• K, is pronounced more or less like g when used in between two vowels.

• If vowels are repeated then it means that the sound has to be held longer.

Now since you have the feel of the letters we shall try to learn a few basic words and phrases in the Palauan language. Below are a few basic words and phrases in Palauan language and their equivalent in English:

Alii-pronounced as ‘ah-lee’ means ‘hello’

Ungil Tautau – pronounced ‘oong-eel too-taow’ means ‘good morning’.

Ungil Odechosong-pronounced ‘oong-eel O-th-o-song’ similar to ‘good afternoon’

Ungil Kebesengei-pronounced ‘oong-eel keba-sung-ay’ similar to ‘good evening’

Keua ngerang? – pronounced ‘ka-wang a-rahng’ equivalent of ‘how are you?’

Ak mesisiich-pronounced ‘ahk-mes-ee-see-uh’ meaning ‘I am fine’

Ke kmal mesaul!-pronounced ‘kuk-mahl ma-sahl’ meaning ‘thank you’.

a renguk a ungil which means My heart is good

a rengul a klou which means His heart is big

a rengud a smeer which means Our heart is sick.

To Know more about the basic pharases and useful words in Palau please visit:

useful pharases and word

References:

To know more about Palau facts and figures of different aspects please visit:

Facts and figures of Palau

To know more about the country and its history please visit”

www.pacificworlds.com