North Marquesan is the Marquesic, East Central Polynesian language spoken in the northern Marquesas Islands.

The three most noticible differences between it and South Marquesan are its preference for /k/ in some cases where South Marquesan uses /n/ and // (glottal stop) and its complete replacement of the /f/ of South Marquesan with /h/.

This difference can be seen in such pairs as

North Marquesan <==> South Marquesan

haka <==> fana (bay)

ha`e <==> fa`e (house)

koe <==> `oe (you (singular))

North Marquesan exhibits some particularly interesting characteristics. It alone seems to have taken "the other path" in the simplification of Proto-Polynesian nasalized consonants. Where most Polynesian languages simplified *mb to /m/, North Marquesan has /p/, and where most simplified *nd to /n/, North Marquesan has /t/. While some Polynesian languages maintained the velar nasal /ng/, many have lost the distinction between the nasal /ng/ and /n/, merging both into /n/. North Marquesan, however, prefers /k/. Another interesting feature of North Marquesan is that from it, it appears that Proto-Polynesian had a consonant cluster *kt, or perhaps a palatal stop (as is the case with all comparative and reconstructive linguistics, this is the subject of some debate)... Whatever that cluster or stop might have been, it is realized in every modern Polynesian language as /t/...with the exception of North Marquesan, which uses /k/. Another feature is that, while almost every Polynesian language has dropped /k/ in many positions, replacing it with /ʔ/, North Marquesan has retained it. (Tahitian and Samoan have no /k/ whatsoever, and the /k/ in modern Hawaiian is actually a "new" way of pronouncing what, to this day, is /t/ on Niihau.)

The dialects fall roughly into four groups:

Tai Pi, spoken in the eastern third of Nuku Hiva, and according to some linguists, a separate language, Tai Pi Marquesan

Tei`i, spoken in western Nuku Hiva

Eastern Ua Pu

Western Ua Pu

Resources

Marquesan Legends (ISBN: B0006W3MXY)