Solomon Islands

desc

→ Japanese: ソロモン諸島 (Soromon Shotō) (calque)

King Solomon
Solomon Islands
Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira

After King Solomon, whose mines of immense wealth Álvaro de Mendaña y Neira hoped to find when he named it in 1567 or 1568.

A country consisting of the majority of the Solomon Islands archipelago in Melanesia, in Oceania, as well as the Santa Cruz Islands. Official name: Solomon Islands. Capital and largest city: Honiara.


Papua New Guinea

→ Japanese: パプアニューギニア (Papua Nyū Ginia)

Possibly from Malay pepuah (“frizzy”, in reference to locals' hair) + New Guinea.

der

Independent State of Papua New Guinea#English

A country in Oceania. Official name: Independent State of Papua New Guinea. Capital and largest city: Port Moresby.


Vanuatu

Republic of Vanuatu
Republic of Vanuatu#English

A country and archipelago in Melanesia in Oceania. Official name: Republic of Vanuatu. Capital and largest city: Port Vila.


Fiji

→ Japanese: フィジー (Fijī)

Borrowed from Fijian Viti, from Proto-Central Pacific *viti "east, sunrise".

A country and archipelago of over 300 islands in Melanesia in Oceania. Capital and largest city: Suva.

Fidji

Fiji - a country in Oceania comprising over 300 islands


Vanuatuan

A person from Vanuatu or of Vanuatuan descent.


Vanuatuan

Of, from, or pertaining to Vanuatu, the Vanuatuan people or the Vanuatuan language.


Pijin

Borrowed from Pijin Pijin, from English pidgin, from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of business.

In full Solomon Islands Pijin, Solomon Pijin, or Solomons Pijin: a language spoken on the Solomon Islands, which is a form of Melanesian Pidgin.


kina

From Tolai kina (“oyster or clamshell”).

The national currency of Papua New Guinea, divided into 100 toea.


Established in the United Kingdom as the first emergency service number in the world, initially chosen because of its suitability at a time of rotary-dial telephones.

I don't know why they couldn't just keep it as it was! How hard is it to remember 911?
You mean 999...
I mean 999!
That's the American one!
Yeah!

2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 2

When you call 999 in the UK, the operator usually answers the phone with "Emergency. Which service?"

The telephone number for emergency services in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Burma, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sudan, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Dominica, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, and the Seychelles.

三条九 (saam¹ tiu⁴ gau², literally “triple nine”)


CFP franc

The currency of French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna.


vatu

The unit of currency is the vatu (VUV) with no minor unit. There are coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 50 and 100 vatu, and notes of 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 vatu. In March 1996 UK£1 = 172 vatu; US$1 = 113 vatu and DM1 = 76.38 vatu.

1998, Ademuni Odeke, Bareboat Charter (Ship) Registration, page 355:

In November 1998 the Reserve Bank reintroduced the SRD^([Statutory Reserve Deposit]) at the rate of 10 percent on vatu deposits and reduced the PRA^([Prescribed Reserve Asset]) to 6 percent.

2000, International Monetary Fund, IMF Staff Country Report 00/129 Vanuatu - Recent Economic Developments, page 14:

2007, Island States: Small Island States Handbook, Volume 1: Development Strategy and Programs, International Business Publications, USA, page 145,
One estimate in 2007 for the total value of cattle heads sold was 135 million vatu; cattle were first introduced into the area from Australia by British planter James Paddon.


New Pomerania

German New Guinea
German New Guinea#English

Former name of New Britain. Used when the island was part of German New Guinea.


Selected by the European Union as the 3-digit number fastest to dial on cellular and rotary phones without the likelihood of accidental dialing caused by hanging up a landline telephone, sometimes interpreted by phone networks as a 1.

When you call 112 in the United Kingdom, the call is automatically rerouted to 999 operators.

The telephone number for emergency services on all GSM cell phones and in the EU, Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Ukraine, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome, the Seychelles, Uganda, East Timor, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, North Macedonia, Vatican City, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and Saint Vincent.

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

The telephone number for law enforcement in South Korea, Norway, Colombia, Serbia, Lebanon, Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Papua New Guinea, and Mauritius.


toea

A unit of currency, equivalent to one hundredth of a Papua New Guinean kina.


yaqona

en-noun

yaqona (usually uncountable, plural yaqonas)


Solomon Islander

Solomon Islander (plural Solomon Islanders)


Fiji Hindi

The Indo-Iranian language spoken by people of Indian descent in Fiji.


wantok

Borrowed from Tok Pisin wantok, from English one talk, that is, a speaker of the same language.

I refer to the classes of settlers thus distinguished as ‘wantok’ (although their members did not always have the same mother tongue), and the areas from which they came as ‘home areas’. […] There were 7 groups of wantok among the Situm block-holders and 4 among the Gobari holders.

1971, A[nton] Ploeg, The Situm and Gobari Ex-servicemen’s Settlements, Canberra, A.C.T.: New Guinea Research Unit, Australian National University, →ISBN, page 23:

In Saraga, there are more wantoks (3.16) per household than in Bumbu (2.7). […] Like Bumbu, almost 80 percent approves of their wantoks living with them but half of the respondents would not like to see an increase in the wantoks in their houses.

1989, Ramesh Manadhar, Lohia Henao, “The Role of ‘Wantok’ in Housing the Squatters in Papua New Guinea”, in Vitor Abrantes, Oktay Ural, editors, Innovative Housing Practices: Better Housing through Innovative Technologies and Financing: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Pergamon Press, →ISBN, page 89:

If one steals or cheats to help a wantok one feels not guilty or one might feel ethically obliged to fight to support a wantok without considering whether the wantok is right or wrong.

1990, Jeanette Conway, Ennio Mantovani, Marriage in Melanesia: A Sociological Perspective (Point Series; no. 15), Goroka, Papua New Guinea: Melanesian Institute, →OCLC, page 162:

The vernacular still plays an important role in Melanesian notions of cultural identity, as reflected in the concept of wantok 'one who speaks the same language', and thus has primacy over a lingua franca, but Tok Pisin has become increasingly important as a language defining wantoks: […]

1990, Rick J. Goulden, The Melanesian Content in Tok Pisin (Pacific Linguistics Series B; 104), Canberra, A.C.T.: Australian National University, →ISBN, page 9:

In fact, because the RSL township was to be constructed on a seemingly empty plain, BAI could plan it to minimize these wantok ties and the paybacks such ties were thought to generate. But BAI wanted to do more than to avoid building a wantok-ridden town. It also wanted to avoid building a "company town."

2004, Frederick [Karl] Errington, Deborah [B.] Gewertz, “The Peopling of a Place and the Placing of People”, in Yali’s Question: Sugar, Culture, and History (The Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures; 2002), Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 72:

A major impact in almost every area of life for Solomon Islanders is their safety nets: households, families, and importantly, the wantok (literally meaning "one talk") system. Wantok is loosely defined as an extended family in which people speaking the same language/dialect look out for each other. […] [A]lmost all villagers have wantoks or family members in urban areas who provide supplies of imported foods high in carbohydrates and fat to the villagers.

2013, A. B. Andersen, S. H. Thilsted, A. M. Schwartz, “Food Diversity”, in Food and Nutrition Security in Solomon Islands (Working Paper; AAS-2013-06), Research Program on Aquatic Agricultural Systems, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Australian Government, page 9, column 2:

(Melanesia, Papua New Guinea, sometimes as a term of address) A close comrade; a person with whom one has a strong social bond, usually based on a shared language.


bilo

Half a coconut shell, used in Fiji as a cup for drinking alcohol.


kastom

Borrowed from Tok Pisin kastom, itself from English custom.

At the same time many of these politicians established an intellectual rapprochement between kastom and Christianity.

2000, David L. Hanlon, Geoffrey Miles White, Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific, page 392:

The disturbance of kastom is what Moore sees as the root cause of the outbreak of violence during the crisis.

2008, Sinclair Dinnen, Stewart Firth, Politics and State Building in Solomon Islands, page 200:

(Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu) In Melanesia, the assertion of traditional values and cultural practices in a modern context.


ni-Vanuatu

From Bislama ni-Vanuatu, from French né (“born”) + Vanuatu.

Citizen of Vanuatu, regardless of specific ethnic group (but usually referring to native Melanesians)


Vanikoro

An island of the Santa Cruz group, belonging to the Solomon Islands.


Admiralty Islands

Named by Philip Carteret in 1767, presumably honoring the Admiralty, which commanded the British Royal Navy (and therefore him) at the time.

Bismarck Archipelago
Bismarck Archipelago

A group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean, belonging to Papua New Guinea.


Auki

The provincial capital of Malaita Province, Solomon Islands


Gizo

The capital of the Western Province, Solomon Islands


Like 911, 119, etc., selected as a number both fast and easy to call from rotary or touch-tone phones and less likely to be mistakenly dialed.

The telephone number for firefighting assistance in Norway, Jamaica, Suriname, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Papua New Guinea.


Torres Strait Islands

A group of hundreds of small islands which lie in the Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea.


didiman

In 1957 the didimen assisted in placing markers for planting cocoa on village cooperative demonstration plots.

1980, Michael A. H. B. Walter, Cattle Ranches are about People: Social Science Dimensions of a Commercial Feasibility Study:

The last destination was by road to Poro, a subdistrict with another, larger, more modern cacao fermentary, and a nursery where didimen raised cacao, citrus and other plants to supply local farmers.

2015, Trish Nicholson, Inside the Crocodile: The Papua New Guinea Journals:

It has been Noah Saigaiur’s dream to become a didiman or an agriculture officer one day.

2021 January 6, Janet Kari, “Didiman’s diary dream comes true”, in Papua New Guinea Post Courier:

(Papua New Guinea) A worker in the department of agriculture.


A variant of the British 999, originally selected as an appropriate number for rotary-dial telephones and adapted in New Zealand because the formatting on its pulse-dial system made 1 equivalent to 9 as processed by its British-made telecommunications equipment.

The telephone number for ambulance services in Papua New Guinea.


Solomon Island spiny monitor

Solomon Island spiny monitor (plural Solomon Island spiny monitors)

A monitor lizard of species Varanus spinulosus.


Vehes

Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea#English

A Western Oceanic language, spoken in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.


Kanaky

New Caledonia (an archipelago and overseas territory of France in Oceania).


Treasury Islands

A small group of islands in the Solomon Islands; consisting of Mono Island and Stirling Island.