Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Calling all Yap experts

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Micronesia, Federated States of

Is "Brobet" a title of some kind in Yap? Could you say that Yapese are native English speakers? In my short experience on Pohnpei, FSM, I thought that the natives of the island learned Pohnpeian as their first language. I would assume that it's the same on Yap.

Not really important questions. There is a new poster on an email list I'm on and he says his name is soandso and his title is Brobet. He says he's a native English speaker. I'm thinking it's a regular in disguise. Dr. Google didn't help me out with this one. Maybe 5Waldos or someone else can.

I would say that it is pretty much the same on Yap. Although, as in Pohnpei, English is the official language, Yapese is everywhere and usually the first language. And I think that there are other langauages or dialects from the outer islands.

As far as "Brobet"- I don't recognize the word, but then, I don't think I know a single word of Yapese. Yap is a society with a lot of clan distinctions, but I only ever heard them referred to as high clan and low clan.

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