Dictionary and Grammar of the Language of Sa‘a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands

Abstract

THE Solomon Islands form the racial centre of the Oceanic world. On the south are the Melanesians, on the east the Polynesians, whilst westward the Melanesians blend with the Papuans, and northward the Micronesians link both Melanesians and Polynesians to the Indonesians. In the Solomons, also, are found remnants of a more primitive people who occupied the islands before their present inhabitants came from the west. But, although thus important, the peoples of this region have received comparatively little attention from anthropologists, and there are only partial records of customs, languages, and folk-lore. In this dictionary Dr. Ivens has put together his collections of words in representative languages of one part of the Solomon group. These are the Sa‘a, at the southern end of the large island of Malaita, and the Ulawa (Con-trariété Island of the charts), about thirty miles to the east of Sa‘a. Both languages come from a common stock, and the author has found it quite practicable to adjust grammar and dictionary to the same method of arrangement. The language fairly represents the speech of the island of Malaita, and, with the Tolo and Lau spoken to the north, forms a transition between the languages of San Cristoval and those of Guadalcanar and Florida.

Dictionary and Grammar of the Language of Sa'a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands.

By Walter G. Ivens. With appendices. Pp. vii + 249 + 11 plates. (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1918.)