Proto-Micronesian (abbreviated as PMc) is the reconstructed ancestor of the

Micronesian languages The Micronesian languages form a family of Oceanic languages. The twenty languages are known for their lack of plain labial consonant and have instead two series, palatalized and labio-velarized labials, similar to the related Kanak languages ...

. It belongs to the

Oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

branch of the

Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

. It was first reconstructed in detail by Byron W. Bender in 2003.

Descendants

Proto-Micronesian is the ancestor of almost all of the languages of

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

, except for Chamorro, Palauan, Yapese, and the two

Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austr ...

Nukuoro Nukuoro is an atoll in the Federated States of Micronesia. It is a municipality of the state of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. It is the secondmost southern atoll of the country, after Kapingamarangi. They both are Polynesian outli ...

and

Kapingamarangi Kapingamarangi is an atoll and a municipality in the state of Pohnpei of the Federated States of Micronesia. It is by far the most southerly atoll or island of the country and the Caroline Islands, south of the next southerly atoll, Nukuoro, an ...

, which are only distantly related to Proto-Micronesian. With regards to subgrouping by Jackson (1986), it was thought that Nauruan fell outside the Nuclear Micronesian group. However, Hughes (2020) argues instead for the classification of Nauruan as a Nuclear Micronesian language, either as a primary branch of Micronesian, a subgrouping with

Kosraean Kosraean ( ; sometimes rendered Kusaiean) is the language spoken on the islands of Kosrae (Kusaie), a nation-state of the Federated States of Micronesia, Caroline Islands. In 2001 there were approximately 8,000 speakers in Micronesia, and 9,060 ...

, or belonging within Central Micronesian.

Phonology

The consonants of Proto-Micronesian, according to Jackson, are: : The values of ''*S'', ''*T'', and ''*Z'' are unknown, the latter only occurring in two words: ''*kiaZo'' "outrigger boom" and ''*laZe'' "kind of coral". The vowels of Proto-Micronesian, according to Jackson and Hughes, are: :

Descendants

Phonology

Example sentence

Further reading

References

External links