A Study of the Language of Marau Sound, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

Extract

The Material for the study here presented was collected during a short stay at Marau Sound in 1927, in pursuance of my research work. Bishop Patteson, of the Melanesian Mission, published grammatical notes of the language of Marau Sound at Auckland, New Zealand, about 1860, together with a short catechism, a translation of the Apostles´ Creed and the Lord's Prayer, and a list of words. This material was edited by von der Gabelentz, and was published in his Melanesischen Sprachen, Leipzig, 1873. I have worked through the material and corrected it where necessary. The two pieces of translation, Creed and Lord's Prayer, which appear in von der Gabelentz. are too faulty to be inserted here as specimens of the language, and I had not the opporetunity of correcting them.

Bishop Patteson had several men from Marau Sound with him at Auckland, among whom, according to the information given to me, were Tootoo, Waaro mae, Waihunu, Nini pua, Porike, Porasi (who died at Auckland), and also Vouvete of Kaoka, a village on the mainland near by. The large percentage of San Cristoval wordsand grammatical constructions which appear in Bishop Patteson's material, as quoted by von der Gabelentz, is probably due to the influence of Taroaniara, a San Cristoval man, who acted as guide on the visits to Marau Sound, and whose wife was a Marau Sound woman. Taroaniara was with the party at Auckland, and evidently acted as interpreter. He may even have been commissioned by the Bishop to render certain stock pieces, e.g. the Creed, into the language of Marau Sound. This supposition would account for the presence in the translations of words like tahi, to live, tataro (San Cristoval dadaro) for “ cross ”, and for such grammatical constructions as ia, personal article in San Cristoval, instead of a, the Marau Sound usage. Also it would account for the use of ni, demonstrative article, and ia, personal pronoun 3rd singular. However, there is good internal evidence that the work in the main was done by the Bishop.