Learn Marshallese Through Topics You Actually Care About

LingoBear creates short Marshallese passages on topics you choose. Tap any word for an instant English translation and build your vocabulary as you read. Micronesian (Oceanic) language of the Marshall Islands, Latin script with diacritic underscored letters (ļ, m̧, ņ, o̧), vertical vowel system, ~55,000 speakers.

Tap any word for instant translation

Every word in your Marshallese reading passage is clickable. Get English translations and grammar help — useful for the unusual vertical vowel system.

Read about topics you choose

Type any topic and LingoBear generates a fresh Marshallese reading passage — useful when textbooks are concentrated in the Marshall Islands.

What is Marshallese and where is it spoken?

Marshallese (Kajin M̧ajeļ) is a Micronesian language of the wider Austronesian family, official with English in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. About 55,000 people speak it across the islands and in diaspora communities in Hawaii and Arkansas. It has two main dialects, Rālik (sunset) and Ratak (sunrise), each spoken on the western and eastern atoll chains respectively.

What's unusual about Marshallese phonology?

Marshallese has a vertical four-vowel system: vowels are distinguished only by height (high, mid-high, mid-low, low), with backness determined by surrounding consonants. The modern spelling uses cedillas and underdots — for example ļ (palatalised l), m̧ (rounded m) and ņ (velarised n) — to write a rich consonant inventory of roughly 19 phonemes.