Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia.
[citation needed] The phoneme /h/ is represented with the letter ⟨h⟩; however, it is realized phonetically as [h], [x], or [s], depending on the following vowel.
[example needed] The vowel phonemes are the same as in other Polynesian languages, long and short versions of each: Verbal particles are placed before the verb they modify.
Possession in Marquesan is marked by prepositional particles affixed to the noun phrase which they modify.
"On the other hand, o and no indicate possession where the possessor is subordinate, passive, inferior to, or lacking in control over the possessed: ÙPFVkavebringmaihitherkoe2SGiDOtēnāthatkahudressnoforiaherÙ kave mai koe i tēnā kahu no iaPFV bring hither 2SG DO that dress for her"You have brought that dress for her (to wear).
"Locative constructions in Marquesan follow this pattern (elements in parentheses are optional): Huʻi-ʻiaturn-PASSatuDIRt-oART-POSSia3SGkeobottomʻiLDtaiseaHuʻi-ʻia atu t-o ia keo ʻi taiturn-PASS DIR ART-POSS 3SG bottom LD sea"Its bottom is turned seawards.
Comparative data on the various dialects of Marquesan can be found in the Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia (Charpentier & François 2015).
The table below compares a selection of words in various dialectal varieties of Marquesan, according to the Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia,[12] with their pronunciation in the IPA.
North Marquesan, like South Island Māori dialects of New Zealand, prefers /k/.
(Tahitian and formal Samoan have no /k/ whatsoever, and the /k/ in modern Hawaiian is pronounced either [k] or [t] and derives from Polynesian *t.) The dialects of Ua Huka are often incorrectly classified as North Marquesan; they are instead transitional.
While the island is in the northern Marquesas group, the dialects show more morphological and phonological affinities with South Marquesan.