Marquesan phonology

The most striking feature of the Marquesan languages is their almost universal replacement of the or  of other Polynesian languages by a  (glottal stop).

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:

Of this small number of consonants, is found only in eastern Nuku Hiva (Tai Pi Marquesan), and  is found only in South Marquesan dialects. In writing, the phoneme is represented by n(g), and  is represented as ʻ.

Unlike Samoan, the is not an isolated nasal: it is found only in conjunction with a following. So, whereas the Samoan word for "bay" is faga, pronounced, it is hanga in Tai Pi Marquesan, and is pronounced. (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 haka, and in South Marquesan, it is hana).

The letter h is used to represent a wide range of sounds. It is sometimes realised phonetically as, and sometimes or , depending on the following vowel.

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