Editing Marquesan language (section)

==Phonology==
The most striking feature of the Marquesan languages is their almost universal replacement of the {{IPA|/r/}} or {{IPA|/l/}} of other Polynesian languages by a {{IPA|/ʔ/}} (glottal stop).<ref name="sounds"/>

Like other Polynesian languages, the phonology of Marquesan languages is characterized by a scarcity of consonants and a comparative abundance of vowels. The consonant phonemes are:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! [[Plosive]]
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|ʔ}}
|-
! [[Fricative]]
| {{IPA link|f}} {{IPA link|v}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
! [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
| {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|
|-
! [[Liquid consonant|Liquid]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|}

Of this small number of consonants, {{IPA|/ŋ/}} is found only in eastern Nuku Hiva (Tai Pi Marquesan), and {{IPA|/f/}} is found only in South Marquesan dialects. In writing, the phoneme {{IPA|/ŋ/}} is written {{angbr|n(g)}}, and {{IPA|/ʔ/}} is written '''{{okina}}''', the [[{{okina}}okina]].

Unlike most Austronesian languages, the {{IPA|/ŋ/}} is not an isolated nasal: it is found only in conjunction with a following {{IPA|/k/}}. So, whereas the [[Samoan language|Samoan]] word for 'bay' is {{lang|sm|faga}}, pronounced {{IPA|[ˈfa.ŋa]|lang=sm}}, it is {{lang|mrq|hanga}} in Tai Pi Marquesan, and is pronounced {{IPA|/ˈha.ŋka/}}. This word is useful to demonstrate one of the more predictable regular consonantal differences between the northern and southern dialects: in North Marquesan, the word is {{lang|mrq|haka}}, and in South Marquesan, it is {{lang|mqm|hana}}.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

The phoneme {{IPA|/h/}} is represented with the letter {{angbr|h}}; however, it is [[Allophone|realized]] [[Phonetics|phonetically]] as {{IPA|[h]}}, {{IPA|[x]}}, or {{IPA|[s]}}, depending on the following vowel.{{example needed|date=January 2022}}

The vowel phonemes are the same as in other Polynesian languages, long and short versions of each:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
!rowspan=2|
!colspan=2| [[Front vowel|Front]]
!colspan=2| [[Central vowel|Central]]
!colspan=2| [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
!Long || Short
!Long || Short
!Long || Short
|-
![[Close vowel|High]]
|iː
|i
|
|
|uː
|u
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|eː
|e
|
|
|oː
|o
|-
![[Open vowel|Low]]
|
|
|aː
|a
|
|
|}