Kosrae

Kosraean, also spelled Kusaiean, is an Austronesian language of the Micronesian Proper group, where it forms a branch of its own, spoken only on Kosrae, the easternmost of the Carolines. The island was settled no later than the early first millennium, and from about 1250 its rulers were buried in the pyramid tombs of Leluh, a walled town whose noble houses governed a stratified, matrilineal society.

Alvaro de Saavedra made the first recorded European sighting in 1529, and Spain claimed Kosrae from 1668, yet no colonial power actually occupied the island in this period.

The first Europeans to land were the French circumnavigators of La Coquille, led by Louis-Isidore Duperrey, who anchored at Okat in June 1824 and walked across to Lelu. Kosraean remained a purely spoken language, with no written record made before the nineteenth century was well advanced.