Micronesia in other languages: Palikir and the four states

Micronesia, Mikronesien, Mikronīsía: the small islands

The name is Greek in origin and the Greek form shows it best: Μικρονησία (Mikronīsía) joins μικρός, small, and νῆσος, island. Most languages keep it close to that shape. 15 write Micronesia, as English, Italian and Spanish do; Finnish, Basque and Norwegian have Mikronesia, German Mikronesien and the Slavic languages Микронезия (Mikronezija) or Mikronezja.

In the scripts of Asia the name is usually a sound-for-sound transcription of the English form. Hindi writes माइक्रोनेशिया (Māikronīšiyā) with the English ai, Japanese ミクロネシア (Mikuroneshia) and Korean 미크로네시아, while Chinese 密克羅尼西亞 (Mīkèluōníxīyà) spells it with six characters chosen for their sound. Arabic lists four spellings, among them مايكرونيزيا and ميكرونيسيا, and Urdu three.

The name covers more than the country. Micronesia is also a subregion of Oceania, some 2,000 small islands in the north-western Pacific, and the Federated States occupy only part of it, the eastern Caroline Islands. The full name keeps the two apart.

Truk and Chuuk, Moen and Weno: names that changed

Chuuk was long known as Truk, and ISO 3166-2 keeps the older name in its code FM-TRK. The capital of the state, on the island of the same name, was Moen and is now Weno. Pohnpei is FM-PNI, Kosrae FM-KSA and Yap FM-YAP.

Two capitals lie close together on Pohnpei. Palikir is the national capital, and Kolonia is the capital of Pohnpei State. Older lists, this one included, gave Palikir for both.

Patriots of Micronesia, the national anthem

Patriots of Micronesia has been the anthem of the Federated States of Micronesia since 1991. It is sung in English.