The Solomon Islands and Their Natives

by H. B. Guppy

[187] Crawfurd’s “Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language.”

[188] “Journal of the Indian Archipelago.” Vol. II., p. 695 (1848).

[189] Miklouho-Maclay Proc. Lin. Soc, N.S.W. Vol. X., p. 349.

[190] Miklouho-Maclay (Ibid., p. 353, 357).

[191] Crawfurd’s “Malay Dictionary.”

[192] By an easy transition from gâtah through katari to kauri we have the probable origin of the native name of the resin-yielding “Dammara australis” (Kauri Pine) of New Zealand.

[193] Miklouho-Maclay in Proc. Lin. Soc., N.S.W. Vol. X., p. 348.

The term Uri, which is applied in a slightly altered form to different fruits in the Melanesian Islands, would seem to be derived from the Indian Archipelago. Proceeding westward from the Banks Group where Ur is the name of the fruit of “Spondias dulcis,” we find that in New Georgia in the Solomon Islands Ure is a designation for fruit. In the neighbouring islands of Bougainville Straits, several species of “Ficus” and their fruits receive the name of Uri. To the westward of the Solomon Islands we come upon the same term in the Mafoor of New Guinea, where the breadfruit is known as Ur. Lastly, in the island of Ceram in the Indian Archipelago, the fruit of the banana is called Uri.[194]

[194] I am mainly indebted to Dr. Codrington’s “Melanesian Languages” for the distribution of this term.

On this unequivocal evidence of one of the sources of the languages of the islands of Bougainville Straits it is unnecessary to dilate. It should, however, be remembered that other words are distinctly Polynesian in their origin, and must be sought for in the languages of the Pacific groups. Thus, whilst numa, the word for “house,” finds its counterpart in the Malay rumah and the Javanese uma, fale-fale, which also signifies a house, is the vale of the New Hebrides (Lepers Island and Aurora Island), the vale of Fiji, the fale of Samoa and Tonga, and the whare of the Maori. According to Dr. Codrington, these two words signifying a house, fale and ruma, with their various forms, have an interesting distribution. The first belongs to the eastern Pacific, and the second to the western Pacific; but they overlap in the intermediate districts as in the New Hebrides and the Solomon Islands. It is, however, significant that both these words should be included in the language of Bougainville Straits.