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162-604: Wake Island ( Marshallese : Ānen Kio , lit.   'island of the kio flower '), also known as Wake Atoll , is a coral atoll in the Micronesia subregion of the Pacific Ocean . The atoll is composed of three islets – Wake, Wilkes, and Peale Islands – surrounding a lagoon encircled by a coral reef. The nearest inhabited island is Utirik Atoll in the Marshall Islands , located 592 miles (953 kilometers) to

324-506: A y , which does not otherwise exist in the Marshallese alphabet. One source of orthographic variation is in the representation of vowels. Pure monophthongs are written consistently based on vowel quality. However, short diphthongs may often be written with one of the two vowel sounds that they contain. (Alternate phonetic realizations for the same phonemic sequences are provided purely for illustrative purposes.) Modern orthography has

486-466: A 21-gun salute , the flag was raised, and a brass plate was affixed to the flagstaff with the following inscription: Although the proposed Wake Island route for the submarine cable would have been shorter by 137 miles (220 km), the Midway Islands and not Wake Island was chosen as the location for the telegraph cable station between Honolulu and Guam. Rear Admiral Royal Bird Bradford, chief of

648-610: A Micronesian language , is a member of the Eastern Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian languages . The closest linguistic relatives of Marshallese are the other Micronesian languages, including Gilbertese , Nauruan , Pohnpeian , Mokilese , Chuukese , Refaluwash , and Kosraean . Marshallese shows 50% lexical similarity with Gilbertese , Mokilese , and Pohnpeian . Within the Micronesian archipelago, Marshallese—along with

810-439: A basalt rock base. As most local coral growth stops at about 45 m (148 ft) below the ocean surface, such a massive stony coral base suggests a gradual isostatic subsidence of the underlying extinct volcano, which itself rises 3,000 m (9,800 ft) from the surrounding ocean floor. Shallow water fossils taken from just above Enewetak's basalt base are dated to about 55 mya . High boulder and sand ridges indicate

972-532: A schooner from Yokohama in Japan and that they were gathering guano and drying fish . The captain suspected they were also engaged in pearl hunting . The Japanese revealed that one of their parties needed medical attention, and the captain determined from their descriptions of the symptoms that the illness was most likely beriberi . They informed Captain Croskey that they did not need any provisions or water and expected

1134-438: A voiced fricative articulation as [ zʲ ] (or [ ʑ ] or [ ʝ ] ) but not when geminated . /tʲ/ is used to adapt foreign sibilants into Marshallese. In phonetic transcription, this article uses [ tʲ ] and [ zʲ ] as voiceless and voiced allophones of the same phoneme. Marshallese has no distinct /tʷ/ phoneme. The dorsal consonants /k ŋ kʷ ŋʷ/ are usually velar but with

1296-491: A ] rather than cardinal [ ɑ ] for the open back unrounded vowel . Naan (2014) is the only reference providing a vowel trapezium for its own vowels, and differs especially from the other vowel models in splitting the front allophones of /i/ into two realizations ( [ ɪ ] before consonants and [ i ] in open syllables), merging the front allophones of /ɛ/ and /e/ as [ ɛ ] before consonants and [ e ] in open syllables, merging

1458-438: A base for surface vessels. Picking suggested clearing the channel to the lagoon for "loaded motor sailing launches" so that parties on shore could receive supplies from passing ships, and he strongly recommended that Wake be used as a base for aircraft. Picking stated, "If the long heralded trans-Pacific flight ever takes place, Wake Island should certainly be occupied and used as an intermediate resting and fueling port." In 1923,

1620-445: A bias in certain spelling choices in which both possibilities are equally clear between two non-approximant consonants. In a syllable whose first consonant is rounded and whose second consonant is palatalized, it is common to see the vowel between them written as one of a ō ū , usually associated with a neighboring velarized consonant: The exception is long vowels and long diphthongs made up of two mora units, which are written with

1782-402: A common test for phonemicity. For example, [mʲæ] ( mā , 'breadfruit'), [mʲɑ] ( ma , 'but'), and [mʲɒ] ( mo̧ , 'taboo') are separate Marshallese words. However, the uneven distribution of glide phonemes suggests that they underlyingly end with the glides (thus /mʲæj/ , /mʲæɰ/ , /mʲæw/ ). When glides are taken into account, it emerges that there are only 4 vowel phonemes. When

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1944-541: A different process, assuming the same height of whichever vowel is on the opposite side of that glide, forming a long vowel with it across the otherwise silent glide. Epenthetic vowels do not affect the rhythm of the spoken language, and can never be a stressed syllable. Phonetic transcription may indicate epenthetic vowels between two non-glides as non-syllabic, using IPA notation similar to that of semi-vowels . Certain Westernized Marshallese placenames spell out

2106-513: A fair harbor for vessels of 18 feet (5 m) draught." On June 23, 1902, USAT  Buford , commanded by Captain Alfred Croskey and bound for Manila , spotted a ship's boat on the beach as it passed closely by Wake Island. Soon thereafter, the Japanese launched the boat on the island and sailed out to meet the transport. The Japanese told Captain Croskey that they had been put on the island by

2268-449: A front unrounded vowel [æ ɛ e i] , then a vowel allophone associated with the back unrounded vowels (notated in this article as [ɑ ʌ ɤ ɯ] ) may also occur in the vowel nucleus. Because the cumulative visual complexity of notating so many diphthongs in phonetic transcriptions can make them more difficult to read, it is not uncommon to phonetically transcribe Marshallese vowel allophones only as one predominant monophthongal allophone, so that

2430-442: A history of severe storms and are a feature of the islets. Inland on the wider islets are sand and rubble flats, while back from the lagoon sides are low sand and gravel ridges. Soils are mostly very immature, a mixture of coarser coral sand and gravel of various textures with very little humus accumulation. The lagoon is shallow, probably not exceeding 30 meters (98 ft) depth, and has many coral heads and patch reefs, some reaching

2592-977: A joint expedition by the then Bureau of the Biological Survey (in the U.S. Department of Agriculture ), the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum and the United States Navy was organized to conduct a thorough biological survey of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands , then administered by the Biological Survey Bureau as the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation . On February 1, 1923, Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace contacted Secretary of Navy Edwin Denby to request Navy participation and recommended expanding

2754-1211: A large consonant inventory, and each consonant has some type of secondary articulation ( palatalization , velarization , or rounding ). The palatalized consonants are regarded as "light", and the velarized and rounded consonants are regarded as "heavy", with the rounded consonants being both velarized and labialized . (This contrast is similar to that between "slender" and "broad" consonants in Goidelic languages , or between "soft" and "hard" consonants in Slavic languages .) The "light" consonants are considered more relaxed articulations. Although Marshallese has no voicing contrast in consonants, stops may be allophonically partially voiced ( [p → b] , [t → d] , [k → ɡ] ), when they are between vowels and not geminated . (Technically, partially voiced stops would be [p̬~b̥] , [t̬~d̥] , [k̬~ɡ̊] , but this article uses voiced transcriptions [ b ] , [ d ] , [ ɡ ] for simplicity.) Final consonants are often unreleased . Glides /j ɰ w/ vanish in many environments, with surrounding vowels assimilating their backness and roundedness . That

2916-465: A military base on the atoll. On August 19, the first permanent military garrison, elements of the U.S. Marine Corps' First Marine Defense Battalion , totaling 449 officers and men, were stationed on the island, commanded by Navy Cmdr. Winfield Scott Cunningham . Also on the island were 68 U.S. Naval personnel and about 1,221 civilian workers from the American firm Morrison-Knudsen Corp. The base plan

3078-458: A naval assault was attempted but rebuffed on December 11, 1941. The island continued to be bombed, and the Japanese amassed a larger invasion fleet. There was a 50-plane air raid on December 21, 1941. The Japanese returned on December 23, 1941, with a much larger amphibious force and captured the island. The Japanese occupied it until September 1945. On December 8, 1941 (December 7 in Hawaii, the day of

3240-436: A o ō o̧ , or as i before one of either u ū . The approximant is never written before any of ā e i . A stronger raised palatal glide [ i̯ ] , phonemically analyzed as the exotic un-syllabic consonant-vowel-consonant sequence /ji̯j/ rather than plain /j/ , may occur word-initially before any vowel and is written i . For historical reasons, certain words like io̧kwe may be written as yokwe with

3402-457: A site for nuclear weapons testing as a part of Operation Hardtack , but due to the number of improvements required to develop it, was passed over in favor of reusing the Bikini, Enewetak, and Nevada test sites. The atoll came under renewed consideration for use during Operation Dominic , but by that time the potential for political fallout from nuclear testing within a United Nations Trust Territory

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3564-592: A small quantity of the quicksilver. On July 29, 1870, the British tea clipper Dashing Wave , under the command of Captain Henry Vandervord, sailed out of Fuzhou en route to Sydney . On August 31, "the weather was very thick, and it was blowing a heavy gale from the eastward, attended with violent squalls, and a tremendous sea." At 10:30 pm, breakers were seen, and the ship struck the reef at Wake Island. The vessel began to break up overnight, and at 10:00 am,

3726-580: A stopover for trans-Pacific flying boat routes. In December 1941 at the opening of the Pacific Theatre of World War II Japan seized the island where it remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in September 1945. In 1972, Pan American Airways ceased using the island for trans-Pacific layovers due to the adoption of the Boeing 747 into their fleet. With the withdrawal of Pan American Airways,

3888-438: A submarine blockade instead of an amphibious invasion of Wake Island. The Japanese-occupied island (called Ōtorishima (大鳥島) or Big Bird Island by them for its birdlike shape) was bombed several times by American aircraft; one of these raids was the first mission for future United States President George H. W. Bush . The island was also bombed with leaflets and even small rubber rafts, with the idea that someone could escape from

4050-697: A unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument . Wake Island derives its name from British sea captain Samuel Wake, who rediscovered the atoll in 1796 while in command of the Prince William Henry . The name is sometimes attributed to Captain William Wake, who also is reported to have discovered the atoll from the Prince William Henry in 1792. Peale Island is named for the naturalist Titian Peale , who visited

4212-519: A vowel phoneme appears between consonants with different secondary articulations, the vowel often surfaces as a smooth transition from one vowel allophone to the other. For example, jok 'shy', phonemically /tʲɛkʷ/ , is often realized phonetically as [tʲɛ͡ɔkʷ] . It follows that there are 24 possible short diphthongs in Marshallese: These diphthongs are the typical realizations of short vowels between two non-glide consonants, but in reality

4374-543: A vowel to separate the consonants, while Ralik adds a vowel before the consonants (and pronounced an unwritten consonant phoneme /j/ before the vowel). For example, the stem kkure 'play' becomes ikkure in Rālik Marshallese and kukure in Ratak Marshallese. Marshallese is the official language of the Marshall Islands and enjoys vigorous use. As of 1979, the language was spoken by 43,900 people in

4536-467: A whole were transferred to American administration in the wake of battles with Japanese forces in 1944. In September, 1945, as a part of the post-war repatriation of Japanese from their former Pacific possessions, a landing party was dispatched on LCI(L) 601 from Kwajalein to Bokak Atoll, and in conjunction with a PBM Mariner searched for potential survivors. Two days of search failed to turn up any survivors, human remains, or graves. While en route from

4698-423: A word like /nʲæɰætʲ/ , the vowel transitions from [ æ ] to [ ɑ ] and then back to [ æ ] , as [nʲæ͡ɑɑ͡ætʲ] . In condensed phonetic transcription, the same word can be expressed as [nʲɑɑtʲ] or [nʲɑːtʲ] . Syllables in Marshallese follow CV, CVC, and VC patterns. Marshallese words always underlyingly begin and end with consonants. Initial, final, and long vowels may be explained as

4860-539: A word like [tʲɛ͡ɔkʷ] can be more simply transcribed as [tʲɔkʷ] , in a condensed fashion. Before Bender's (1968) discovery that Marshallese utilized a vertical vowel system, it was conventional to transcribe the language in this manner with a presumed inventory of 12 vowel monophthong phonemes, and it remains in occasional use as a more condensed phonetic transcription. This article uses phonemic or diphthongal phonetic transcriptions for illustrative purposes, but for most examples it uses condensed phonetic transcription with

5022-477: Is 129 km (50 sq mi) (including reef flat). The atoll is roughly crescent-shaped, measuring about 18 km (11 mi) by 9 km (5.6 mi), and oriented in a north–south direction. The atoll reef is unbroken except for a 20 m (66 ft) wide channel in the west. Ten islets lie on the eastern and southeastern reef. The more important named islets, from north to south, are North Island, Kamwome, Bwdije, Sibylla, Bokak, and Bwokwla. Sibylla

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5184-473: Is a low, sparse scrub forest of tree heliotrope ( Heliotropium foertherianum ), 2–6 m (6 ft 7 in – 19 ft 8 in) tall, with occasional taller trees. The understory typically comprises beach maupaka ( Scaevola taccada ), or sparse endemic bunchgrass , ʻihi ( Portulaca molokiniensis ), ʻilima ( Sida fallax ), or alena ( Boerhavia herbstii ), the latter being more abundant on broken coral gravel. A small stand of Pisonia grandis

5346-445: Is actually pronounced [rˠɯmˠɑːzʲɛlˠ] as if it were Rūm̧ajel‌̧ . In the most polished printed text, the letters L‌̧ l‌̧ M̧ m̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ O̧ o̧ always appear with unaltered cedillas directly beneath, and the letters Ā ā N̄ n̄ Ō ō Ū ū always appear with unaltered macrons directly above. Regardless, the diacritics are often replaced by ad hoc spellings using more common or more easily displayable characters. In particular,

5508-589: Is administered by the Department of the Interior and managed by the United States Air Force. While there are no permanent residents, approximately 300 people are on the island at any given time, primarily military personnel and contractors. The natural areas of Wake are a mix of tropical trees, scrub, and grasses that have adapted to the limited rainfall. Thousands of hermit crabs and rats live on Wake, and in

5670-481: Is an atoll , with a group comprising three islands with a central lagoon. Wetmore named the southwest island for Charles Wilkes , who had led the original pioneering United States Exploring Expedition to Wake in 1841. The northwest island was named for Titian Peale , the chief naturalist of that 1841 expedition. Juan Trippe , president of the world's then-largest airline, Pan American Airways (PAA), wanted to expand globally by offering passenger air service between

5832-488: Is considered to be another sighting of Wake Island. On December 20, 1841, the United States Exploring Expedition , commanded by US Navy Lieutenant Charles Wilkes , arrived at Wake on USS  Vincennes and sent several boats to survey the island. Wilkes described the atoll as "a low coral one, of triangular form and eight feet [2.4 m] above the surface. It has a large lagoon in the centre, which

5994-407: Is found on Kamwome Islet and in another very small stand on Sibylla. Pure stands of very dense beach naupaka shrubland, sometimes with tree heliotrope, are predominant and cover 50-75% of southern, and nearly 100% of northeastern Sibylla. Heliotropium , Scaevola , and Sida dominated shrublands and the sandy bunchgrass savanna ( Lepturus spp.) represent the finest examples of such vegetation in

6156-437: Is motivated by the limited surface distribution of these phonemes as well as other evidence that backness and roundedness are not specified phonemically for Marshallese vowels. In fact, the consonant /ɰ/ never surfaces phonetically but is used to explain the preceding phenomenon. ( /j/ and /w/ may surface phonetically in word-initial and word-final positions and, even then, not consistently. ) Bender (1968) explains that it

6318-408: Is not more specific. The Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) describes these as heavy dental nasals . Consonants /rʲ/ , /rˠ/ and /rʷ/ are all coronal consonants and full trills . /rˠ/ is similar to Spanish rr with a trill position just behind the alveolar ridge , a postalveolar trill [r̠ˠ] , but /rʲ/ is a palatalized dental trill [r̪ʲ] , articulated further forward behind

6480-413: Is not phonemic as the epenthetic vowel itself is not phonemic, but is still phonetically predictable given the two nearest other vowels and whether one or both of the cluster consonants are glides. Bender (1968) does not specifically explain the vowel heights of epenthetic vowels between two non-glides, but of his various examples containing such vowels, none of the epenthetic vowels has a height lower than

6642-489: Is noted as the first time a U.S. submarine launched its torpedoes in the Pacific war. The Japanese are known to have lost one of the submarines they sent as part of the operation. Still, it was because two of their submarines accidentally collided with one another on December 17, sinking one. Japanese submarine Ro-66 was on the surface 25 nautical miles (46 km; 29 mi) southwest of Wake Island – bearing 252 degrees from

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6804-542: Is the largest, measuring approximately 7.2 km (4.5 mi) in length and up to 305 m (334 yd) in width. Kamwome Islet to the north-east of Sibylla is the second largest, while Bokak (Taongi), after which the atoll is named, lies to the south of Sibylla. Based on the results of drilling operations on Enewetak (Eniwetok) Atoll, in the nearby Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands, Bokak may include as much as 1,400 m (4,600 ft) of reef material atop

6966-486: Is unrounded. Default outcomes of *l and *n are palatalized; they become velarized or rounded before *a or sometimes *o if there is no high vowel in an adjacent syllable. Then, roundedness is determined by the same rule as above. Marshallese is written in the Latin alphabet . There are two competing orthographies. The "old" orthography was introduced by missionaries. This system is not highly consistent or faithful in representing

7128-797: The Marshallese-English Online Dictionary (but not the print version), or MOD, uses the following characters: As of 2019, there are no dedicated precomposed characters in Unicode for the letters M̧ m̧ N̄ n̄ O̧ o̧ ; they must be displayed as plain Latin letters with combining diacritics , and even many Unicode fonts will not display the combinations properly and neatly. Although L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ exist as precomposed characters in Unicode, these letters also do not display properly as Marshallese letters in most Unicode fonts. Unicode defines

7290-524: The Nita Maru (later renamed Chūyō) . Many of those who stayed were those who were too badly wounded, and some were civilian contractors who knew how to operate the machinery on the island. A significant source of the prisoner war experience on Wake were the accounts in the commanding officer logs for Wilcox and Russel. In September 1942, another 265 were taken off Wake including Wilcox and Russel; not including those that had died or been executed, that left 98 on

7452-559: The Philippine Clipper (NC14715).  On October 25, the Hawaii Clipper (NC14714) landed at Wake with the first paying airline passengers ever to cross the Pacific. In 1937, Wake Island became a regular stop for PAA's international trans-Pacific passenger and airmail service, with two scheduled flights per week, one westbound from Midway and one eastbound from Guam. Pan Am also flew Boeing 314 Clipper flying boats, in addition,

7614-686: The Allied Powers in the First World War ) which included the already Japanese-held Micronesia islands north of the equator that were part of the former colony of German New Guinea of the German Empire ; these include the modern nation/states of Palau , The Federated States of Micronesia , The Northern Mariana Islands and The Marshall Islands . In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan restricted access to its mandated territory and began to develop harbors and airfields throughout Micronesia in defiance of

7776-551: The American Expeditionary Forces in western Europe during World War I , stopped at Wake on USAT  Thomas and hoisted a 45-star U.S. flag that was improvised out of sail canvas . With limited freshwater resources, no harbor, and no plans for development, Wake Island remained a remote uninhabited Pacific island in the early 20th century. However, a large seabird population attracted Japanese feather collecting. The global demand for feathers and plumage

7938-483: The Libelle shipwreck survivors on Guam. He also ordered the schooner Ana , owned and commanded by his son-in-law George H. Johnston, to be dispatched with first mate Kausch to search for the missing gig and then sail on to Wake Island to confirm the shipwreck story and recover the buried treasure . Ana departed Guam on April 10 and, after two days at Wake Island, found and salvaged the buried coins, precious stones, and

8100-521: The Marshallese people , it is spoken by nearly all of the country's population of 59,000, making it the principal language. There are also roughly 27,000 Marshallese citizens residing in the United States , nearly all of whom speak Marshallese, as well as residents in other countries such as Nauru and Kiribati . There are two major dialects, the western Rālik and the eastern Ratak . Marshallese,

8262-566: The Secretary of the Navy , requesting a five-year lease on Wake Island with an option for four renewals. Given the potential military value of PAA's base development, on November 13, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley ordered a survey of Wake by USS  Nitro and on December 29 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6935, which placed Wake Island and also Johnston , Sand Island at Midway and Kingman Reef under

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8424-620: The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which prohibited both the United States and Japan from expanding military fortifications in the Pacific islands. With Trippe's planned Pan American Airways aviation route passing through Wake and Midway, the U.S. Navy and the State Department saw an opportunity to project American air power across the Pacific under the guise of a commercial aviation enterprise. On October 3, 1934, Trippe wrote to

8586-484: The atoll , made extensive zoological and botanical observations, and gathered specimens for the Bishop Museum while the naval vessel under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Wilder King conducted a sounding survey offshore. Other achievements at Wake included examinations of three abandoned Japanese feather poaching camps, scientific observations of the now extinct Wake Island rail , and confirmation that Wake Island

8748-572: The attack on Pearl Harbor ), at least 27 Japanese Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" medium bombers flown from bases on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands attacked Wake Island, destroying eight of the 12 Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter aircraft belonging to USMC Fighter Squadron 211 on the ground. The Marine garrison's defensive emplacements were left intact by the raid, which primarily targeted the aircraft. On December 9 and 10, there were more air attacks, and two Japanese bombers were shot down. However,  the bombing of Wilkes Island detonated an ammunition dump,

8910-635: The front teeth . The MED and Willson (2003) describe the rhotic consonants as " retroflex ", but are not clear how this relates to their dental or alveolar trill positions. (See retroflex trill .) This article uses [ rʲ ] , [ rˠ ] and [ rʷ ] in phonetic transcription. The heavy lateral consonants /lˠ/ and /lʷ/ are dark l like in English feel , articulated [ ɫ ] and [ ɫʷ ] respectively. This article uses [ lˠ ] and [ lʷ ] in phonetic transcription. The velarized consonants (and, by extension,

9072-571: The reef heron . Migratory birds present included the bristle-thighed curlew , turnstone , wandering tattler , golden plover , and the sanderling . The densest bird populations are on three islets to the north of Sibylla: North (Kita), Kamwome and an unnamed islet. Bokak is the only known breeding ground of Christmas shearwater and possibly Bulwer's petrel. Terrestrial species includes the Polynesian rat on Sibylla. The more aggressive black rat appears to be absent, despite wrecked fishing vessels on

9234-491: The 13th Independent Mixed Regiment (1,939 men) under the command of Col. Shigeji Chikamori. Fearing an imminent invasion, the Japanese reinforced Wake Island with more formidable defenses. The American captives were ordered to build a series of bunkers and fortifications on Wake. The Japanese brought in an 8-inch (200 mm) naval gun which is often incorrectly reported as having been captured in Singapore. The U.S. Navy established

9396-562: The 20 survivors and transport them to Yokohama . In his 1921 book Sea-Power in the Pacific: A Study of the American-Japanese Naval Problem , Hector C. Bywater recommended establishing a well-defended fueling station at Wake Island to provide coal and oil for United States Navy ships engaged in future operations against Japan. On June 19, 1922, the submarine tender USS  Beaver landed an investigating party to determine

9558-531: The 2nd Brigade, Philippine Expeditionary Force , of the Eighth Army Corps, stopped at Wake Island and raised the United States flag while en route to the Philippines on the steamship liner SS China . On January 17, 1899, under orders from President William McKinley , Commander Edward D. Taussig of USS  Bennington landed on Wake and formally took possession of the island for the United States. After

9720-761: The Bokak lagoon as a dump for millions of tons of solid waste. The proposal involved shipping 3.5 million tons of waste the first year and up to 25 million tons and 30 ships after five years. In August, 2003, two ham radio enthusiasts from Texas camped on Sibylla Island for 76 hours to inaugurate the first Taongi ham station, call sign V73T, and assigned the IOTA reference number OC-263. The station transmitted from coordinates 14°36.574′N 168°59.977′E  /  14.609567°N 168.999617°E  / 14.609567; 168.999617 . The Dominion of Melchizedek , an unrecognized micronation , claims sovereignty over Bokak, based on

9882-573: The Germans before them, the Japanese colonial administration did not attempt to exploit the atoll, and the Northern Radak Marshallese continued to hunt and fish unmolested. As a part of the 1940s Japanese militarization of the Marshall Islands, a small seaplane and communication outpost was established on Sibylla Island. During the early stages of the World War II, USN submarines operating in

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10044-465: The Japanese began an assault on Wake Island. At the time, there were about 500 Marines, 1100 civilian contractors, and dozens of Pan-Am airline employees and passengers. Shortly after a bombing raid that killed dozens, the Pan Am Flying Boat took off with the passengers and many employees. Three days later, the Japanese began a multi-ship amphibious invasion led by a cruiser, which was turned away at

10206-411: The Japanese schooner to return in a month or so. The Japanese declined an offer to be taken on the transport to Manila and were given some medical supplies for the sick man, some tobacco, and a few incidentals. After USAT Buford reached Manila, Captain Croskey reported the Japanese presence at Wake Island. He also learned that USAT Sheridan had a similar encounter at Wake with the Japanese. The incident

10368-688: The Marshall Islanders treated Ānen Kio similar to a game preserve for hunting and gathering food and that no one permanently lived there, similar to land usage practices on Bokak Atoll and Bikar Atoll . He also speculated that the islanders may have stopped traveling to Wake Atoll in the mid-1800s, around the time the first missionaries arrived in the Marshalls. However, the atoll's remoteness and lack of fresh water may have prevented permanent pre-modern human habitation, and no ancient artifacts have been discovered. The first recorded discovery of Wake Island

10530-625: The Marshall Islands. in 2020 the number was closer to 59,000. Additional groups of speakers in other countries including Nauru and the United States increase the total number of Marshallese speakers, with approximately 27,000 Marshallese-Americans living in the United States Along with Pohnpeian and Chuukese , Marshallese stands out among Micronesian languages in having tens of thousands of speakers; most Micronesian languages have far fewer. A dictionary and at least two Bible translations have been published in Marshallese. Marshallese has

10692-500: The Marshalls and probably the entire Pacific region. The aquatic vegetation of the shallow edges of the lagoon consists of sparse coralline algae , encrusting fragments of coral and shells, and patches of green seaweed . The atoll supports a large population of sea and shorebirds, with up to 26 species present. Species breeding during 1988 included the brown booby , red-footed booby , great frigatebird , red-tailed tropicbird , sooty tern , white tern , brown noddy , and possibly

10854-513: The Martin M130. Wake Island is credited with being one of the early successes of hydroponics , which enabled Pan American Airways to grow vegetables for its passengers, as it was costly to airlift in fresh vegetables and the island lacked natural soil. Pan Am remained in operation up to the day of the first Japanese air raid in December 1941, forcing the U.S. into World War II . The last flight out

11016-525: The Navy Claude A. Swanson formally granted Pan American Airways permission to construct facilities at Wake Island. To construct bases in the Pacific, PAA chartered the 6,700-ton freighter SS North Haven , which arrived at Wake Island on May 9, 1935, with construction workers and the necessary materials and equipment to start to build Pan American facilities and to clear the lagoon for a flying boat landing area. The atoll's encircling coral reef prevented

11178-481: The U.S. Navy's Bureau of Equipment, stated before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce on January 17, 1902, that "Wake Island seems at times to be swept by the sea. It is only a few feet above the level of the ocean, and if a cable station were established there, costly work would be required; besides, it has no harbor, while the Midway Islands are perfectly habitable and have

11340-574: The US to Asia in April, 1953, LST 1138, later commissioned as USS  Steuben County , dropped anchor at Bokak to search for rumored Japanese stragglers. The landing party noted the remains of the wartime outpost, but found no signs of any current occupants. In 1954, the experience of large scale fallout from the Castle Bravo nuclear test on Bikini Atoll led to a pre-planned aerial survey of atolls adjacent to

11502-706: The United States and China. To cross the Pacific Ocean, his planes would need to island-hop, stopping at various points for refueling and maintenance. He first tried to plot the route on his globe , but it showed only open sea between Midway and Guam . Next, he went to the New York Public Library to study 19th-century clipper ship logs and charts and he "discovered" a little-known coral atoll , Wake Island. To proceed with his plans at Wake and Midway, Trippe would need to be granted access to each island and approval to construct and operate facilities; however,

11664-529: The Wake hospital was destroyed, and many other buildings were damaged. Meanwhile, the Japanese naval landing force was on its way from Roi in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands and would arrive at Wake on December 11, 1941. On the night of December 10, the US submarine USS Triton engaged an enemy destroyer near Wake while on patrol; it fired torpedoes, but in the battle neither vessel was sunk. This

11826-517: The abstract nature of these phonemes differently, with Bender treating the front unrounded surface realizations as their relaxed state that becomes altered by proximity of velarized or rounded consonants, while Choi uses central vowel symbols in a neutral fashion to notate the abstract phonemes and completely different front , back and rounded vowel symbols for surface realizations. Bender (1968, 1969), MED (1976) and Willson (2003) recognize four vowel phonemes, but Choi (1992) observes only three of

11988-644: The acquisition of Guam and the Philippines resulting from the conclusion of the Spanish–American War that same year, the United States began to consider unclaimed and uninhabited Wake Island, located approximately halfway between Honolulu and Manila , as a good location for a telegraph cable station and coaling station for refueling warships of the rapidly expanding United States Navy and passing merchant and passenger steamships. On July 4, 1898, United States Army Brigadier General Francis V. Greene of

12150-509: The added presence (+ATR) or absence (-ATR) of advanced tongue root . Bender (1968) assigns central vowel symbols for the surface realizations that neighbor velarized consonants, but the MED (1976), Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) largely assign back unrounded vowel symbols for these, with the exception that the MED uses [ ə ] rather than cardinal [ ɤ ] for the close-mid back unrounded vowel , and Choi (1992) and Willson (2003) use [

12312-415: The air. It flew to Midway, then Pearl Harbor, then back to the US. The flight with passengers and 26 Pan-Am employees left in such a hurry that 1 passenger, 1 employee, and 35 Guam staff were left behind. It departed about two hours after the air raid. Except for one other Marine that a PBY flew out on the December 21, these were the last to leave Wake island before the Japanese capture on the 23rd. The US plan

12474-446: The approximants are generally not articulated as glides, and Choi (1992) does not rule out a deeper level of representation. In particular, /V/ short vowels occupy one unit of time, and /VGV/ long vowels (for which /G/ is an approximant phoneme) are three times as long. As a matter of prosody , each /C/ consonant and /V/ vowel phonemic sequence carries one mora in length, with the exception of /C/ in /CV/ sequences where

12636-456: The area would periodically note patrols by Japanese aircraft. In March, 1943, the 20 man garrison was removed to Wake Island because of the lack of food and their general inability to sustain themselves on Bokak. Air elements of the USAAF , USN , and USMC bombed the (abandoned) facility on April 23, 1944. The base became part of the vast US Naval Base Marshall Islands . The Marshall Islands as

12798-547: The atoll Halcyon Island in honor of his ship. In 1823, Captain Edward Gardner , while in command of the Royal Navy 's whaling ship HMS Bellona , visited an island at 19°15′00″N 166°32′00″E  /  19.25000°N 166.53333°E  / 19.25000; 166.53333 , which he judged to be 20–25 miles (32–40 kilometers) long. The island was "covered with wood, having a very green and rural appearance". This report

12960-481: The atoll – to recharge her batteries in a heavy squall in the predawn darkness of December 17, 1941, when her lookouts suddenly sighted Ro-62 , also on the surface and recharging batteries. Both submarines attempted to back off, but it was too late to avoid a collision, and Ro-62 rammed Ro-66 at 20:20 Japan Standard Time . Ro-66 sank at 19°10′N 166°28′E  /  19.167°N 166.467°E  / 19.167; 166.467  ( Ro-66 ) with

13122-402: The capital of the Marshall Islands, and 280 km (170 mi) north-northwest of Bikar Atoll , the closest atoll, making it the most northerly and most isolated atoll of the country. Wake Island is 348 mi (560 km) north-northwest. The land area is 3.2 km (1.2 sq mi), and the lagoon measures 78 km (30 sq mi). It consists of 36 islets. The total area

13284-469: The control of the Department of the Navy. Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell designated Wake Island as a bird sanctuary to disguise the Navy's military intentions. USS Nitro arrived at Wake Island on March 8, 1935, and conducted a two-day ground, marine, and aerial survey, providing the Navy with strategic observations and complete photographic coverage of the atoll . Four days later, on March 12, Secretary of

13446-435: The crew launched the longboat over the leeward side . In the chaos of the evacuation, the captain secured a chart and nautical instruments but no compass. The crew loaded a case of wine, some bread, and two buckets, but no drinking water. Since Wake Island appeared to have neither food nor water, the captain and his 12-man crew quickly departed, crafting a makeshift sail by attaching a blanket to an oar. With no water, each man

13608-470: The crew of the submarine tender USS  Beaver in 1922 and USS  Tanager in 1923. Although feather collecting and plumage exploitation had been outlawed in the territorial United States, there is no record of any enforcement actions at Wake Island. In January 1908, the Japanese ship Toyoshima Maru , en route from Tateyama , Japan, to the South Pacific , encountered a heavy storm that disabled

13770-554: The crew sailed in the 22-foot (7 m) longboat under the command of First Mate Rudolf Kausch, and the remainder of the crew sailed with Captain Tobias in the 20-foot (6 m) gig . On April 8, 1866, the longboat reached Guam after 13 days of frequent squalls , short rations, and tropical sun. The gig, commanded by the captain, was lost at sea. The Spanish governor of the Mariana Islands, Francisco Moscoso y Lara, welcomed and aided

13932-432: The date, October 2, was the eve of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi , the captain named it St Francis Island ( Spanish : Isla San Francisco ) The ships were in need of water and the crew was suffering from scurvy , but after circling the island it was determined that Wake was waterless and had "not a cocoanut nor a pandanus " and "there was nothing on it but sea-birds , and sandy places covered with bushes." (It

14094-407: The diphthongs themselves are not phonemic, and short vowels between two consonants with different secondary articulations can be articulated as either a smooth diphthong (such as [ɛ͡ʌ] ) or as a monophthong of one of the two vowel allophones (such as [ɛ ~ ʌ] ), all in free variation. Bender (1968) also observes that when the would-be diphthong starts with a back rounded vowel [ɒ ɔ o u] and ends with

14256-442: The eastern Ratak Chain and the western Rālik Chain . These two chains have different dialects, which differ mainly lexically , and are mutually intelligible . The atoll of Ujelang in the west was reported to have "slightly less homogeneous speech", but it has been uninhabited since 1980. The Ratak and Rālik dialects differ phonetically in how they deal with stems that begin with double consonants. Ratak Marshallese inserts

14418-408: The eastern and north eastern reefs. The snake-eyed skink and large hermit crabs are common. In general, the aquatic fauna population is healthy, but of low diversity, possibly due to the atoll's isolation. Researchers have not seen any marine turtles, but Polynesian custom regarding harvesting assumed their presence. Examples of the giant clam family Tridacnidae are very abundant, except for

14580-614: The end of the war, the Japanese garrison surrendered and said the POWs had been killed in a bombing attack; however, that story broke down when some of the officers wrote notes explaining the true story, and Sakaibara confessed to the mass execution. The island's Japanese garrison was composed of the IJN 65th Guard Unit (2,000 men), Japan Navy Captain Shigematsu Sakaibara and the IJA units, which became

14742-414: The epenthetic vowels: Epenthetic vowels in general can be omitted without affecting meaning, such as in song or in enunciated syllable breaks. This article uses non-syllabic notation in phonetic IPA transcription to indicate epenthetic vowels between non-glides. The short vowel phonemes /æ ɛ e i/ and the approximant phonemes /j ɰ w/ all occupy a roughly equal duration of time. Though they occupy time,

14904-462: The expedition to Johnston , Midway and Wake, all islands not administered by the Department of Agriculture. On July 27, 1923, USS  Tanager , a World War I minesweeper , brought the Tanager Expedition to Wake Island under the leadership of ornithologist Alexander Wetmore , and a tent camp was established on the eastern end of Wilkes. From July 27 to August 5, the expedition charted

15066-429: The extreme high-water marks and the three-mile marine boundaries surrounding Wake. "Wake Island Naval Airspace Reservation" was also established to restrict access to the airspace over the naval defense sea area. Only U.S. government ships and aircraft were permitted to enter the naval defense areas at Wake Island unless authorized by the Secretary of the Navy . In January 1941, the United States Navy began constructing

15228-441: The first (unwritten) glide phoneme is dorsal rather than palatal. The spelling of grammatical affixes , such as ri- ( /rˠi-/ ) and -in ( /-inʲ/ ) is less variable despite the fact that their vowels become diphthongs with second member dependent on the preceding/following consonant: the prefix ri- may be pronounced as any of [rˠɯ͜i, rˠɯ, rˠɯ͜u] depending on the stem. The term Ri-M̧ajel‌̧ (" Marshallese people ")

15390-546: The first aircraft landing at Wake Island occurred when a PAA flying boat landed in the lagoon on a survey flight of the route between Midway and Wake. The second expedition of North Haven arrived at Wake Island on February 5, 1936, to complete the construction of the PAA facilities. A five-ton diesel locomotive for the Wilkes Island Railroad was offloaded, and the railway track was extended to run from dock to dock. Across

15552-418: The following three hundred years, but no attempt at settlement or establishment of food animals was noted, likely due to the arid conditions, and more fertile atolls nearby. The German Empire annexed the Marshall Islands in 1885 and added to the protectorate of German New Guinea in 1906. Using the justification that uninhabited atolls were unclaimed, the Germans seized Bokak as government property, despite

15714-430: The highest of either of their nearest neighboring vowels, and the epenthetic vowel actually becomes /ɛ̯/ if the two nearest vowels are both /æ/ . Naan (2014) does not take the heights of epenthetic vowels between non-glides into consideration, phonetically transcribing all of them as a schwa [ ə ] . But when one of the consonants in a cluster is a glide, the height of the epenthetic vowel between them follows

15876-441: The island by sea. In February 1942, there was a raid attack on Wake, which included naval bombardment and bombing by aircraft. On the first day of the attack on February 23, several targets on the island were struck, and in the waters nearby, two Japanese patrol boats were sunk, and four Japanese seamen recovered. The next day (February 24) a Japanese 4-engine patrol aircraft was shot down 5 miles east of Wake, and another patrol boat

16038-534: The island in 1841, and Wilkes Island is named for U.S. Naval officer Charles Wilkes , who led the U.S. expedition to Wake Atoll in 1841. The presence of the Polynesian rat on the island suggests that Wake was likely visited by Polynesian or Micronesian voyagers at an early date. In the Marshallese oral tradition, stories tell of Ānen Kio, or "island of the orange flower ," where men would collect albatross bones for tattooing rituals. Dwight Heine speculated that

16200-806: The island on December 23 before this could take place.  American and Japanese dead from the fighting between December 8 and 23 were buried on the island. The U.S. Navy attempted to provide support from Hawaii but suffered great losses at Pearl Harbor. The relief fleet they managed to organize was delayed by bad weather. The isolated U.S. garrison was overwhelmed by a reinforced and greatly superior Japanese invasion force on December 23. American casualties numbered 52 military personnel (Navy and Marine) and approximately 70 civilians killed. Japanese losses exceeded 700 dead, with some estimates ranging as high as 1,000. Wake's defenders sank two Japanese fast transports ( P32 and P33 ) and one submarine and shot down 24 Japanese aircraft. The US relief fleet, en route, on hearing of

16362-475: The island the Imperial Government expects that they should be properly protected as long as they are engaged in peaceful occupations." Wake Island was now clearly a territory of the United States , but the island was only occasionally visited by passing American ships during this period. One notable visit occurred in December 1906, when U.S. Army General John J. Pershing , later famous as the commander of

16524-550: The island's administration was taken over by the United States Air Force , which later used the atoll as a processing location for Vietnamese refugees during Operation New Life in 1975. Wake Island is claimed by the Marshall Islands but is administered by the United States as an unorganized and unincorporated territory and comprises part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands . The island

16686-528: The island's loss, turned back. In the aftermath of the battle, most of the captured civilians and military personnel were sent to POW camps in Asia. However, the Japanese enslaved some of the civilian laborers and tasked them with improving the island's defenses. At the end of the battle on December 23, 1,603 people, of whom 1,150 were civilians, were taken prisoner. Three weeks later, all but roughly 350–360 were taken to Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in Asia aboard

16848-495: The island. All but 100 of the POWs were sent away; the ones that remained were executed in 1943 after a U.S. bombing raid. In June 1945, the Allies allowed a Japanese hospital ship to evacuate about 1000 soldiers from Wake. The island was bombed many times by the Allies throughout the war but never invaded; it was surrendered to the U.S. in September 1945. The battle started with air attacks beginning on December 8, 1941. After three days,

17010-494: The island. With the departure of the officers, their logs of daily prisoners of life on Wake ended. Still, additional facts are known, including a new commanding officer of the island in December 1942. In July 1943, a prisoner of war was executed for stealing food, as ordered by Sakaibara; however, the identity of this POW is unknown. On October 7, 1943, the prisoners of war were executed on order of Sakaibara; they were marched into an anti-tank ditch and executed by machine gun fire. At

17172-737: The islands were not under the jurisdiction of any specific U.S. government entity. Meanwhile, U.S. Navy military planners and the State Department were increasingly alarmed by the Empire of Japan 's expansionist attitude and growing belligerence in the Western Pacific . Following World War I , the Council of the League of Nations had granted the South Seas Mandate ("Nanyo") to Japan (which had joined

17334-496: The lagoon on Peale, workers assembled the Pan American Hotel, a prefabricated structure with 48 rooms and wide porches and verandas . The hotel consisted of two wings built out from a central lobby , with each room having a bathroom with a hot-water shower. The PAA facilities staff included a group of Chamorro men from Guam who were employed as kitchen helpers, hotel service attendants, and laborers. The village on Peale

17496-401: The lagoon to Peale Island. Someone had earlier loaded railroad track rails onto North Haven by inspiration, so the men built a narrow-gauge railway to make it easier to haul the supplies across Wilkes to the lagoon. The line used a flatbed car pulled by a tractor. On June 12, North Haven departed for Guam, leaving behind various PAA technicians and a construction crew. Out in the middle of

17658-478: The lagoon, Bill Mullahey , a swimmer and free diver from Columbia University , was tasked with placing dynamite charges to blast hundreds of coral heads from a 1 mile (1,600 m) long, 300 yards (270 m) wide, 6 feet (2 m) deep landing area for the flying boats. In total some 5 short tons (4.5 metric tons) of dynamite were used over three months on the coral heads in the Wake Atoll lagoon. On August 17,

17820-551: The largest giant clam T. gigas . Smaller bivalves were present, but few Mollusks. The reef fish are primarily emperor breams , parrotfish , and red snappers . Also present are moray eel and grey reef shark . Approximately 100 stony coral species and two soft coral species are present. Although humans migrated to the Marshall Islands about 2000 years ago, there appear to be no traditional Marshallese artifacts present that would indicate any long term settlement. The harsh, desiccated climate, lack of potable water, and poverty of

17982-431: The late summer. Prevailing winds are north to north-easterlies. Bokak supports just nine plant species. All are native to the Marshall Islands and entirely undisturbed by introduced species . A combination of insufficient rainfall, excellent drainage, and high temperatures lead to an arid environment in which a freshwater Ghyben-Herzberg lens cannot form, and coconut palm is unable to grow. The most common formation

18144-472: The letters as having a cedilla , but fonts usually display them with a comma below because of rendering expectations of the Latvian alphabet . For many fonts, a workaround is to encode these letters as the base letter L l N n followed by a zero-width non-joiner and then a combining cedilla, producing L‌̧ l‌̧ N‌̧ n‌̧ . Bokak Atoll It is located 685 km (426 mi) north of Majuro Atoll ,

18306-418: The loss of 63 lives, including that of the commander of Submarine Division 27. Ro-62 rescued her three survivors, who had been thrown overboard from her bridge by the collision. The American garrison, supplemented by civilian construction workers employed by Morrison-Knudsen Corp., repelled several Japanese landing attempts. An American journalist reported that after the initial Japanese amphibious assault

18468-434: The loss of two destroyers by Wake's artillery. This action was widely reported as the first American battlefield success of the war. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy began a plan to resupply the island and evacuate the contractors; however, before this could happen, a much larger amphibious invasion took place on the island on December 23, 1941, losing two more ships and additional casualties. The Japanese stationed about 4,000 troops on

18630-409: The message. On December 12, in the early morning, a four-engined flying boat bombed Wake, but a Wildcat fighter aircraft was able to intercept and shoot it down. Later in the day, they were bombed again by 26 Nell aircraft (G3M twin-engine bombers), one of which was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. An F4F Wildcat on patrol late in the day sank a Japanese submarine that was near Wake. The next air raid

18792-443: The most relevant short vowel allophones roughly corresponding to Marshallese orthography as informed by the MED. Some syllables appear to contain long vowels: naaj 'future'. They are thought to contain an underlying glide ( /j/ , /ɰ/ or /w/ ), which is not present phonetically. For instance, the underlying form of naaj is /nʲæɰætʲ/ . Although the medial glide is not realized phonetically, it affects vowel quality; in

18954-485: The night of March 4, 1866, the 650-ton iron-hulled Libelle , of Bremen , struck the eastern reef of Wake Island during a gale . Commanded by Captain Anton Tobias, the ship was en route from San Francisco to Hong Kong with a cargo of mercury (quicksilver). After three days of searching and digging on the island for water, the crew recovered a 200 US gallons (760 L) water tank from the wrecked ship. Valuable cargo

19116-455: The only complete published Marshallese dictionary. Here is the current alphabet , as promoted by the Republic of the Marshall Islands . It consists of 24 letters. Marshallese spelling is based on pronunciation rather than a phonemic analysis. Therefore, backness is marked in vowels despite being allophonic (it does not change the meaning), and many instances of the glides /j ɰ w/ proposed on

19278-431: The past, cats were introduced to help control the rat population, which at one time was estimated at 2 million. The Wake Island rail , a small flightless bird, once lived on the atoll but went extinct during World War II. Many seabird species also visit Wake, although the thick vegetation has caused most birds to nest in a designated bird sanctuary on Wilkes Island . The submerged and emergent lands at Wake Island comprise

19440-404: The phonemes as having a stable quality, but theorizes that there may be a historical process of reduction from four to three, and otherwise ignores the fourth phoneme. For phonemic transcription of vowels, this article recognizes four phonemes and uses the front unrounded vowel /æ ɛ e i/ notation of the MED, following the approach of Bender (1969) in treating the front vowel surface realizations as

19602-419: The phonemic level are unwritten, because they do not surface as consonants phonetically. In particular, the glide /ɰ/ , which never surfaces as a consonant phonetically, is always unwritten. The letter w is generally used only in three situations: w is never written out word-finally or before another consonant. The palatal glide phoneme /j/ may also be written out but only as e before one of

19764-718: The phonemic level, and there are no distinct /pʷ mʷ/ phonemes. The pronunciation guide used by Naan (2014) still recognizes [p m] as allophone symbols separate from [pʲ pˠ mʲ mˠ] in these same conditions while recognizing that there are only palatalized and velarized phonemes. This article uses [pʲ pˠ mʲ mˠ] in phonetic transcriptions. The consonant /tʲ/ may be phonetically realized as [ tʲ ] , [t͡sʲ] , [ sʲ ] , [t͡ɕ] , [ ɕ ] , [ c ] , or [ ç ] (or any of their voiced variants [ dʲ ] , [d͡zʲ] , [ zʲ ] , [d͡ʑ] , [ ʑ ] , [ ɟ ] , or [ ʝ ] ), in free variation . Word-internally it usually assumes

19926-493: The practicality and feasibility of establishing a naval fueling station on Wake Island. Lt. Cmdr. Sherwood Picking reported that from "a strategic point of view, Wake Island could not be better located, dividing as it does with Midway, the passage from Honolulu to Guam into almost exact thirds." He observed that the boat channel was choked with coral heads and that the lagoon was very shallow and not over 15 feet (5 m) in depth, and therefore Wake would not be able to serve as

20088-539: The protests of the local chiefs (Iroji Lablab). As Japan's economic vigor expanded under the Meiji Emperor , the German administration noted Marshallese complaints of Japanese bird poaching, more from the view of protecting German sovereignty, rather than the interests of the islanders. In 1914, the Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands, and transferred German government properties to their own, including Bokak. Like

20250-414: The representative phonemes. On the phonetic level, Bender (1968), MED (1976), Choi (1992), Willson (2003) and Naan (2014) notate some Marshallese vowel surface realizations differently from one another, and they disagree on how to characterize the vowel heights of the underlying phonemes, with Willson (2003) taking the most divergent approach in treating the four heights as actually two heights each with

20412-716: The rest of the Micronesian language group—is not as closely related to the more ambiguously classified Oceanic language Yapese in Yap State , or to the Polynesian outlier languages Kapingamarangi and Nukuoro in Pohnpei State , and even less closely related to the non-Oceanic languages Palauan in Palau and Chamorro in the Mariana Islands . The Republic of the Marshall Islands contains 34 atolls that are split into two chains,

20574-598: The results of underlying glides not present on the phonetic level. Initial vowels are sometimes realized with an onglide [ j ] or [ w ] but not consistently: Only homorganic consonant sequences are allowed in Marshallese, including geminate varieties of each consonant, except for glides. Non-homorganic clusters are separated by vowel epenthesis even across word boundaries. Some homorganic clusters are also disallowed: The following assimilations are created, with empty combinations representing epenthesis. The vowel height of an epenthetic vowel

20736-480: The rounded allophones of /ɛ/ and /e/ as [ o ] , and indicating the front allophone of /æ/ as a close-mid central unrounded vowel [ ɘ ] , a realization more raised even than the front allophone of the normally higher /ɛ/ . For phonetic notation of vowel surface realizations, this article largely uses the MED's notation, but uses only cardinal symbols for back unrounded vowels. Superficially, 12 Marshallese vowel allophones appear in minimal pairs ,

20898-459: The rounded consonants) may be velarized or pharyngealized like the emphatic consonants in Arabic or Mizrahi Hebrew . Marshallese has a vertical vowel system of just four vowel phonemes , each with several allophones depending on the surrounding consonants. On the phonemic level, while Bender (1969) and Choi (1992) agree that the vowel phonemes are distinguished by height , they describe

21060-406: The sea". Peale collected an egg from a short-tailed albatross and added other specimens, including a Polynesian rat , to the natural history collections of the expedition. Wilkes also reported that "from appearances, the island must be at times submerged, or the sea makes a complete breach over it". Wake Island first received international attention with the wreck of the barque Libelle . On

21222-582: The ship and swept the captain and five of the crew overboard. The 36 remaining crew members landed on Wake Island, enduring five months of great hardship, disease, and starvation . In May 1908, the Brazilian Navy training ship Benjamin Constant , while on a voyage around the world, passed by the island and spotted a tattered red distress flag . Unable to land a boat, the crew executed a challenging three-day rescue operation using rope and cable to bring on board

21384-561: The ship from entering and anchoring in the shallow lagoon. The only suitable location for ferrying supplies and workers ashore was at nearby Wilkes Island; however, the chief engineer of the expedition, Charles R. Russell, determined that Wilkes was too low and, at times, flooded and that Peale Island was the best site for the Pan American facilities. To offload the ship, cargo was lightered (barged) from ship to shore, carried across Wilkes, and then transferred to another barge and towed across

21546-560: The soils indicate that the atoll will probably remain uninhabited. The atoll has traditionally been used for hunting and gathering, particularly seabirds, by inhabitants of other atolls in the northern Ratak chain. Along with the other uninhabited northern Ratak atolls of Bikar and Toke , Bokak was traditionally the hereditary property of the Iroji Lablab (chiefs) of the Ratak atoll chain. The exploitation of abundant sea turtles, birds, and eggs

21708-485: The sounds of Marshallese, but until recently, it had no competing orthography. It is currently widely used, including in newspapers and signs. The "new" orthography is gaining popularity especially in schools and among young adults and children. The "new" orthography represents the sounds of the Marshallese language more faithfully and is the system used in the Marshallese–English dictionary by Abo et al., currently

21870-458: The southeast. The island may have been found by prehistoric Austronesian mariners before its first recorded discovery by Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira in 1568. Ships continued visiting the area in the following centuries, but the island remained undeveloped until the United States claimed it in 1899. Significant development of the island didn't begin until 1935 when Pan American Airways constructed an airfield and hotel, establishing Wake Island as

22032-557: The start of hostilities, the waters around Wake were patrolled by two USN submarines, the USS Triton and the USS Tambor . Before the start of the war one of the USS Triton crew members became sick and was dropped off at Wake Island on December 1, 1941. He became a prisoner of war and survived WWII. The Triton was radioed about the start of the war when it surfaced to recharge its batteries and

22194-402: The subsequent Castle Romeo test, timed at one and four hours after the shot. The aircraft were equipped with gamma radiation detectors designed to measure ground contamination from altitudes of 61–152 m (200–500 ft). An overflight of Sibylla Island measured 1.0 mrem /hr (10 μGy ) an hour after the shot, dropping to 0.4 mrem/hr (4 μGy) three hours later. In 1957, Bokak was surveyed as

22356-574: The surface. The lagoon water level is up to 1 meter (3.3 ft) higher than the surrounding ocean due to an influx of wind-driven waters over the windward ocean reef and the presence of only one narrow reef passage on the leeward side. Water cascades over the coral-covered rim and flats of the sloping leeward reef. A massive algal ridge lines the outer edge of the windward reef, while the south and west reefs are coral-covered narrow flats where landings can be made in quiet weather. A very small algal rim, 100–150 mm (4–6 in) high, on lagoon shores of

22518-639: The tongue a little farther back [k̠ ɡ̠ ŋ̠ k̠ʷ ɡ̠ʷ ŋ̠ʷ] , making them somewhere between velar and uvular in articulation. All dorsal phonemes are "heavy" (velarized or rounded), and none are "light" (palatalized). As stated before, the palatal consonant articulations [ c ] , [ ɟ ] , [ ç ] and [ ʝ ] are treated as allophones of the palatalized coronal obstruent /tʲ/ , even though palatal consonants are physically dorsal. For simplicity, this article uses unmarked [k ɡ ŋ kʷ ɡʷ ŋʷ] in phonetic transcription. Bender (1969) describes /nˠ/ and /nʷ/ as being 'dark' r -colored, but

22680-437: The vowel carries one mora for both phonemes. All morae are thus measured in /CV/ or shut /C/ sequences: That makes Marshallese a mora-rhythmed language in a fashion similar to Finnish , Gilbertese , Hawaiian , and Japanese . Marshallese consonants show splits conditioned by the surrounding Proto-Micronesian vowels. Proto-Micronesian *k *ŋ *r become rounded next to *o or next to *u except in bisyllables whose other vowel

22842-423: The vowel quality closer to the phonetic nucleus of the long syllable: If the syllable is phonetically open, the vowel written is usually the second vowel in the diphthong: the word bwe [pˠɛ] is usually not written any other way, but exceptions exist such as aelōn̄ ( /ɰajɘlʲɘŋ/ [ɑelʲɤŋ] "land; country; island; atoll" ), which is preferred over * āelōn̄ because the a spelling emphasizes that

23004-463: The westernmost islets, on east-facing lagoon reef-fronts and on the windward edges of coral patches in the lagoon, may be a feature unique to Taongi. This rim is maintained by the constant flow of water over the reef flat. Bokak is the driest of the Marshall Islands atolls, having a semi-arid character. Mean annual temperature is approximately 28 °C (82 °F). Mean annual rainfall is less than 1,000 mm (39 in), and falls primarily during

23166-561: Was Martin M-130, which had just taken off on the flight to Guam when it was called on the radio about Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of World War II, so it returned to Wake. It was fueled up and was going to do a maritime patrol to search for the Japanese, when the Japanese bombing raid attacked and the aircraft took some light damage during the raid, but two of the air crew were wounded. It was stripped of seats and spare weight and filled with 40 people to evacuate. After three take-off attempts, it got in

23328-536: Was allotted a glass of wine daily until a heavy rain shower came on the sixth day. After 31 days of drifting westward in the longboat, they reached Kosrae (Strong's Island) in the Caroline Islands . Captain Vandervord attributed the loss of Dashing Wave to the erroneous way Wake Island "is laid down in the charts. It is very low, and not easily seen even on a clear night." With the annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and

23490-410: Was also recovered and buried on the island, including some of the 1,000 flasks of mercury, coins, and precious stones. After three weeks with a dwindling water supply and no sign of rescue, the passengers and crew decided to leave Wake and attempt to sail to Guam (the center of the then Spanish colony of the Mariana Islands ) on the two remaining boats from Libelle . Twenty-two passengers and some of

23652-483: Was beaten back with heavy losses on December 11, the American commander was asked by his superiors if he needed anything. Popular legend has it that Major James Devereux sent back the message, "Send us more Japs!" – a reply that became famous. After the war, when Major Devereux learned that he had been credited with sending such a message, he pointed out that he had not been the commander on Wake Island and denied sending it. "As far as I know, it wasn't sent at all. None of us

23814-612: Was brought to the attention of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles Darling , who at once informed the State Department and suggested that an explanation from the Japanese Government was needed. In August 1902, Japanese Minister Takahira Kogorō provided a diplomatic note stating that the Japanese Government had "no claim whatever to make on the sovereignty of the island, but that if any subjects are found on

23976-429: Was deemed too great. The atoll played a part in the disappearance of several men from Maui , Hawaii . On February 11, 1979, Scott Moorman and four companions set sail from Hana harbor in a 17-foot Boston Whaler , and went missing in subsequent high seas. The boat and buried remains of Moorman were discovered 3,760 km (2,340 mi) away on Bokak in 1988. In 1988, the US firm Admiralty Pacific proposed to use

24138-719: Was driven by the millinery industry and popular European fashion designs for hats, while other demand came from pillow and bedspread manufacturers. Japanese poachers set up camps to harvest feathers on many remote islands in the Central Pacific. The feather trade was primarily focused on Laysan albatross , black-footed albatross , masked booby , lesser frigatebird , great frigatebird , sooty tern and other species of tern. On February 6, 1904, Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans arrived at Wake Island on USS  Adams and observed Japanese collecting feathers and catching sharks for their fins. Abandoned feather poaching camps were seen by

24300-499: Was nicknamed "PAAville" and was the first "permanent" human settlement on Wake. By October 1936, Pan American Airways was ready to transport passengers across the Pacific on its small fleet of three Martin M-130 "Flying Clippers". On October 11, the China Clipper landed at Wake on a press flight with ten journalists on board. A week later, on October 18, PAA President Juan Trippe and a group of VIP passengers arrived at Wake on

24462-456: Was not complete at the time the war started, and work continued even during the battle of Wake. One shortcoming was that the hangars and bunkers were incomplete, so repairing damaged aircraft during the battle was hard. In November 1941, VMF-211 embarked 12 of its 24 F4F-3 Wildcats and 13 of its 29 pilots aboard USS  Enterprise for movement to Wake Island launching from the carrier and arriving at Wake on December 3. On December 8, 1941,

24624-437: Was on December 14, which included a bombing raid by several 4-engined flying boats, and later in the day, 30 Nells (G3M) struck the atoll, destroying a Wildcat that was under repair. The island was bombed again on December 15, killing one civilian worker. Wake was bombed again on December 16 by 33 Nells (G3M), and again on the 19th, though in that attack one was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and several more damaged. Before and at

24786-647: Was on October 2, 1568, by Spanish explorer and navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira . In 1567, Mendaña and his crew had set off on two ships, Los Reyes and Todos los Santos , from Callao , Peru , on an expedition to search for a gold-rich land in the South Pacific mentioned in Inca tradition. After visiting Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands , the expedition headed north and came upon Wake Island, "a low barren island, judged to be eight leagues in circumference". Since

24948-460: Was once believed there were six bilabial consonants because of observed surface realizations, /p pʲ pʷ m mʲ mʷ/ , but he determined that two of these, /p m/ , were actually allophones of /pʲ mʲ/ respectively before front vowels and allophones of /pˠ mˠ/ respectively before back vowels. Before front vowels, the velarized labial consonants /pˠ mˠ/ actually tend to have rounded (labiovelarized) articulations [pʷ mʷ] , but they remain unrounded on

25110-476: Was regulated by custom, and overseen by the Iroji. The first European to record sighting Bokak was Toribio Alonso de Salazar , a Spanish explorer, on August 22, 1526, who commanded Loaisa expedition after the death of Loaisa and Elcano . It was charted as San Bartolome . It was explored by Spanish naval officer Fernando Quintano in 1795. A number of other Western ships recorded landfall on or passage by Bokak over

25272-399: Was sent away on orders because he was required on Midway, thus Lt. Colonel Bayler became the last person to leave Wake Island before its loss. On December 21, 49 aircraft attacked Wake, striking from a Japanese carrier group.  During this time, there was a US Naval force on the way that was going to resupply Wake on December 24, but it did not work as planned as the Japanese 2nd wave took

25434-510: Was sunk by air attack in addition to also striking targets on Wake island. The raids would continue to reduce the danger of Wake being used as a launching point for a strike on Midway. Marshallese language Marshallese (Marshallese: Kajin M̧ajel‌̧ or Kajin Majōl [kɑzʲinʲ(i)mˠɑːzʲɛlˠ] ), also known as Ebon , is a Micronesian language spoken in the Marshall Islands . The language of

25596-431: Was that much of a damn fool. We already had more Japs than we could handle." In reality, Commander Winfield S. Cunningham , USN, was in charge of Wake Island, not Devereux. Cunningham ordered that coded messages be sent during operations. A junior officer had added "send us" and "more Japs" to the beginning and end of a message to confuse Japanese code breakers . This was put together at Pearl Harbor and passed on as part of

25758-399: Was to resupply Wake with a naval force and evacuate civilians, but the island fell to the Japanese while it was still en route. On February 14, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8682 to create naval defense areas in the central Pacific territories. The proclamation established the "Wake Island Naval Defensive Sea Area", encompassing the territorial waters between

25920-613: Was warned to stay away from the atoll, lest Wake's gunners target it. On December 10, the USS Triton had one engagement with a Japanese destroyer and fired the first US torpedoes of the Pacific War, though it did not sink. It escaped unscathed and went on to serve in the Pacific theater (it was later sunk in 1943). The submarine USS Tambor had to return to its home port in Hawaii in mid-December due to mechanical difficulties and had no engagements. A PBY Catalina flying boat arrived with mail delivery on December 20, 1941. When it left, one marine

26082-407: Was well filled with fish of a variety of species among these were some fine mullet ." He also noted that Wake had no fresh water but was covered with shrubs, "the most abundant of which was the tournefortia ." The expedition's naturalist , Titian Peale , noted that "the only remarkable part in the formation of this island is the enormous blocks of coral which have been thrown up by the violence of

26244-589: Was while attempting to relocate Wake according to Mendaña's description of its coordinates that James Cook first reached the Hawaiian Islands .) In 1796, Captain Samuel Wake of the merchantman Prince William Henry also came upon Wake Island, naming the atoll for himself. Soon thereafter, the 80-ton fur trading merchant brig Halcyon arrived at Wake and Master Charles William Barkley , unaware of Captain Wake's visit and other prior European contact, named

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