Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun The
Austronesian language of theMarshall Islands ; also calledMarshall and Ebon. - noun An inhabitant of the
Marshall Islands . - adjective Of or pertaining to the
Marshall Islands , its people, or its language.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In the Marshallese language spoken by the Micronesians of Bikini Atoll, bikini is a compound word formed of pik, meaning “flat surface”—in reference to the low-lying form of the coral reef atoll, as opposed to the mountainous shapes of islands formed by volcanoes—and ni, “coconut.”
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Global English iIn a playful folk etymology, speakers of Marshallese have given new meaning as a compound word because it sounds like iia + kwe, “rainbow” and “you.”
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What about the inhabitants of Bikini Atoll, where some of the fewer than eighty thousand people speak varieties of Marshallese, languages of the Austronesian family?
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A more accurate transliteration of Marshallese might have forgone the b for a p, or spelled the word as the Marshallese do: Pikinni.
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Global English iIn a playful folk etymology, speakers of Marshallese have given new meaning as a compound word because it sounds like iia + kwe, “rainbow” and “you.”
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In the Marshallese language of Bikini Atoll, iju means “star.”
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In the Marshallese language spoken by the Micronesians of Bikini Atoll, bikini is a compound word formed of pik, meaning “flat surface”—in reference to the low-lying form of the coral reef atoll, as opposed to the mountainous shapes of islands formed by volcanoes—and ni, “coconut.”
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In Marshallese, the language of Bikini Atoll, hello and bye alike are conveyed in the word kwe, which also means love.i In English, the expression bye was once similarly fulsome: God be with you.
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A more accurate transliteration of Marshallese might have forgone the b for a p, or spelled the word as the Marshallese do: Pikinni.
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In Marshallese, the language of Bikini Atoll, hello and bye alike are conveyed in the word kwe, which also means love.i In English, the expression bye was once similarly fulsome: God be with you.
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