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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Marau Sound lies at the south-east end of the island called Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. There is no native name for the Sound as a whole, and it received its present name owing to the fact that the island which lies at the eastern entrance to the Sound is called Marau, i.e. Island. Other islands in the Sound are named Peura, Sinamairuka (Sinamailuka), Tawaihi, Marapa. The last-named island, Marapa (Malapa), is the “ home of the dead ” for the peoples of the South-East Solomons. The local native name for the hill districts above the Sound is Kera. The name which was given both to the Sound, and to the coastal districts of the mainland near, by the first white visitors in modern days, Bishops G. A. Selwyn and J. C. Patteson, is Gera, which is the name used of the Sound by the people of San Cristoval. The people of the Sound are immigrants from Wairokai, Waisisi, Wairoha, and Uhu on the west coast of Big Mala, and their language is closely allied to that of Oroha, Little Mala, and Areare, the language spoken at Wairokai, etc. It is probable that the first migration from Mala to the Sound settled at Marau, the island at the eastern entrance. There is a ghost called Huu ni nima connected with Marau Island, who is said to have led the migration. War and fighting are said to have been the reasons which led to the migration. The present Mala people were already occupying the islands in the Sound at the time of the visit of the Spanish explorers in 1568, as is shown by the fact that they acted as guides and took the Spaniards to the neighbourhood of Wairokai and Waisisi.
page 963 note 1 The use of diæresis over the vowel a, e.g. äsi “ sea ”, denotes the “ Umlaut ”, ä changing to e after a preceding i or u and with i or u also following. The Marau Sound people do not always observe this change in the particular words, and also they make the change in an arbitrary fashion.
page 963 note 2 The sign ‘ denotes a dropped consonant, and in the spoken language there is a break in the pronunciation when such a sign is employed in the written language. The consonants thus dropped are “ the Melanesian g ”, k, l, n, s, t.
page 963 note 4 The accent, if any, falls on the last syllable. There is no movement of the upper lip on the part of the people when speaking, and the speech is thrust forward as it were, the lips being parted but slightly. Little stress is put on the words: there is little rise and fall of sound, and the result is a running and unvaried stream of sound.
page 963 note 5 Words spelt with a hyphen, e.g. maeta-, are not used without the suffixed pronouns ku, mu, na, etc., which denote possession.
page 963 note 6 The letters employed are a, e, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, w. The vowels have the Italian sounds. The doubling of a vowel, except where a “ break ” occurs, indicates a long vowel sound. No nasal sounds occur in the language.
