SAIPAN CAROLINIAN, ONE CHUUKIC LANGUAGE BLENDED FROM MANY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN LINGUISTICS DECEMBER 2012 BY S. JAMES ELLIS Dissertation Committee: Kenneth L. Rehg, Chairperson Byron W. Bender William D. O‘Grady Yuko Otsuka David L. Hanlon Keywords: Saipan Carolinian, Blended Language, Chuukic, dialect chain, Carolinian language continuum, Language Bending, Micronesia i © Copyright 2012 by S. James Ellis ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No section of this extensive study is more difficult than this one. There is such a great number of Carolinians, many no longer with us, and many other friends who have had an important part of my life and this work. And yet, in view of the typical rush to submit this just under the wire, many of you will be unintentionally missed. I can only apologize to those of you whose names I fail to list here, and I can only promise that when this dissertation is properly published, in due time, I will include you and recognize your valuable contribution. Those that come to mind, however, as of this writing, are Jesus Elameto and his wife, Vicky, who were the first Carolinians I met, and who made me an always-welcome member of the family, and cheerfully assisted and supported every aspect of my work through all these years. During those early days of intelligibility-testing research in the late 80s I also want to mention the role of Project Beam and the Jesuit community and the string of contacts made possible through our common interest in maintaining Carolinian languages. Particularly coming to mind are two I spend many hours with and who are no longer here: Tony Tawerlimang and Richard Rosokow. I next must mention the late Frank Olopai, who did share and was expecting to continue sharing fully in this work… before leaving this earth way too early, and his family, for their great assistance and for putting up with this strange balding researcher hanging around. Others in my early years at PSS Central are also remembered fondly, Patrick Litulumar, Henry Kaipat, Carlos Pua and the whole team, not the least of which is Margareta Sarapao (who also passed away many years too early) and all of those who were involved in the Talaabog part of my work. The next era of my work on Saipan started in 1998, this time with my wife. We had one small boy and a baby girl in tow, with one more boy soon to come. Shortly after arriving I was invited whole-heartedly to set up shop at the Carolinian Affairs Office… a place I still call home whenever I come to Saipan… where I was immediately treated as one of the staff—the staff who assisted me in many many way (thank you each one). Frank Rabauliman was directing the office at that time and I have him (and his wife) to thank for tremendous personal kindness and encouragement, and for launching my research by drawing together the CARLA committee—all of whom were to become good friends and co-workers, especially Jack Ogomuro, Congressman Mel Faisao, Lino iii Olopai, Congresswoman Malua Peter, Bill Macaranas, Congressman Ray Tebuteb, and many others who volunteered their presence and crucial support, over many years, to the vision of CARLA (which stands for Carolinian and Related Languages Assistance), especially Angie Mangarero, Manny Mangarero, David Omar; but also Jose Roppul, Rosa Warakai, Augustin Tagabuel, Ana Somol, Pat Kapileo, Cindy Iginoef and all my precious brothers and sisters of Neo Catechumenal, especially Maggie and Connie, and Cursillo (especially Tony)….. plus all those whose names I will remember seconds after the final submission of this document. Saving one Carolinian for particularly special mention, however, is my brother Joe Limes. Joe has worked most closely with me all these years of working on the Carolinian dictionary and has stuck with me through thick and thin. Thanks bwii-bwii, and we sure have many more things to accomplish. Another friend as close as a brother who has been with me every step of the way on this dissertation is Rob Wilson and his wife Jill, eternal friends who, along with their kids, have been my second family for almost as long as I can remember. Rob is responsible for much of the graphics work in this dissertation, and is responsible for a huge amount of editing of the dissertation. Also having done some of the work on tables is Stefan Falk. His daughter, Anna, spent many hours helping me with old German wordlists. And in that regard, I have a huge debt of gratitude to David Wilkerson in English for tending to the translation of endless pages of wordlists and historical text, over the period of many months, of old German and French documents. And then, of course, there is the one responsible in the biggest way (apart only from myself) for this dissertation ever getting done. My chairman, Ken Rehg, a remarkable person, is also a dear friend who has been there to encourage me for many decades now. He is the one saddled with reading one (very) rough draft of this study after another. I would not be typing in the last few words of this dissertation were it not for Ken. I am also indebted to my many professors, committee members, and friends in the Linguistics Department, and that certainly includes Jen and Nora in the office. There are also a great number of people in SIL that have played indispensable roles of whom I dare not start listing lest many more pages be added to this already too big document: linguists, translators, administrators, and co-workers, especially Cameron iv and Ruthi Fruit who have kept the Carolinian vision alive. I am also eternally grateful for my late mom and dad who supported me ever second, and provided me with seven great brothers and one sister, and their great spouses and kids who are also a great support to me. As for the many many other partners (my support team, you know who you are) that have helped keep me and my family going for many years, all you in Sweden and Seattle: I deeply thank you. And now I come to the one who deserves the most credit for being there for me during the writing of this book and for everything I have to enjoy in life, my dear wife Carina. Thank you, Sweetie, for your life, your love and your incredible faithfulness. Thank you for the greatest three gifts that we share together with such unbounded joy: Jonas, Evelina, and Gabriel. I love you all. v ABSTRACT Saipan Carolinian, the language at the heart of this dissertation, was born from several languages in the Carolinian (Chuukic) language continuum when a century of migration from the western Caroline atolls to the Northern Marianas island of Saipan was launched, starting in 1815; spawned by devastating typhoons. Three languages (or dialect groupings) are the primary sources of Saipan Carolinian (SpnCRL): Woleaian- Lamotrekese (WOL), Satawalese (SAT), and Polowat-Pulusuk (POL). While SpnCRL is commonly viewed by its speakers and academics alike to be most similar to SAT, the current study contends that SpnCRL is a product of all three source languages; languages that while being very closely related are nonetheless separate languages. Thus, I use the term “blended language” to describe the unique character of SpnCRL (distinguishing it from a “mixed language”; a formalized term describing languages born from unrelated or remotely related languages). The morpho-syntax of SpnCRL comes from a common template shared by all Chuukic languages. Its phoneme inventory, however, is most similar to WOL, while its lexical inventory is most similar to POL—two languages that are unintelligible with each other. The original settlement of Arabwal on Saipan (later called Garapan) was dominated in the first half of the 19th century by migrants from atolls between and including Woleai and Satawal, and dominated in the second half of the 19th century by migrants from atolls east of Satawal—primarily Pulusuk and Pollap and atolls between them. This sequence of migration is stored in the linguistic code of today’s SpnCRL speakers by virture of their retention of phonemes from the earliest WOL settlers and vi their significant compounding, or amalgamation, of their lexicon due to the later POL migrations. Today, SpnCRL continues to change rapidly in the face of English, which has dominated Micronesia since WWII. There is only a small percentage of Carolinian children left on Saipan who can confidently speak the traditional form of SpnCRL. Before long, SpnCRL may even be more similar to English than to Chuukic; one language, in that event, that has illuminated, during its mere decades of existence, so much about the mysteries of language. vii Preface (Dissertation Summary) The present-day Saipanese Carolinians speak several mutually intelligible dialects which are evidently an accommodation of the original mutually unintelligible languages which their forebears took with them. (Quackenbush 1968:9) It is not likely that one would find total agreement on Saipan as to which of the outer Caroline Islands languages are the source(s) of the Saipan Carolinian language. Some say Saipan Carolinian (SpnCRL) is a “chop suey” kind of language, mixed from several of the atoll languages between and including, roughly, Woleai and Pollap. Others, including linguists such as Jackson (1983), have come to the conclusion SpnCRL is most similar to Satawalese, even though it has some influences from speech communities located anywhere in the Carolinian (Chuukic) continuum stretching from the southwest islands of Palau to the southern tip of the Mortlocks.