An example search has returned 100 entries
anaforofata
erijai
v.n. to rise up; to overflow as sea on land; to get ashore
bookmarkeucte
v. to begin to blossom
bookmarkhas
adj. bad, wicked; eheshas, very bad
bookmarkhogelcou
n. royal albatross
bookmarkidahod
v. to sprout largely; also "ujipsotan"
bookmarkijumgan nijomcan
n. small tree, 1-2 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #4020)
Example: 1. The name of this plant translates as bad tooth, and relates to its use as a plant used to poison others. If one wants to commit an evil act against another, he or she will rub the leaves together and squeeze them over the targets food. It will make their teeth rotten and fall off quickly. More information witheld.
bookmarkincauaij aho
n. kind of tree
bookmarkinceslum
n. vegetables; herbs, as taro, bananas; every vegetable planted for food
bookmarkincri u injanowancei cap
incuwukava
inhalav imtinjap
n. wind-related term; no definition provided. Possibly referring to "inhalav" ’child’.
bookmark
injupki
n. afternoon
bookmarkink
n. vine, growing in disturbed forest. Fruits green. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3470)
Example: A man named Johnnie (Reuben’s grandfather) brought this vine to Aneityum to use it as a rope to tie objects. The ripe fruits are used to paint the face and hands and children make drawings from this dye.
bookmarkinmadidi
inmaleaig
n. a grove of coconuts
bookmarkinm̃aka
n. well branched tree, 12 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #4022)
Example: 1. A durable hardwood that is used for house posts. 2. The wood is used to fashion cross members that affix outriggers to the body of the canoe. 3. 4-5 inch diameter saplings are used to create a track in the forest that larger logs can roll down.
bookmarkinraurua
n. coconut leaves for a net
bookmarkintaetled
intoutau
n. tree. Growing near village. (collection: Ashley A McGuigan #5)
Example: 1. To cure spirit sickness of the niteitau. Use plants that also end with "au" : niditau, intoutau, naoyerop. Go to the top of the plant to get the soft leaves of the plants niditau, intoutau, naoyerop, also take the bark. The person making the medicine should be holding the these leaves with a piece of nelmaha. Nelmaha means go away. The sick person chews the leaves and bark and swallows the juice spitting out the fiber into the nelmaha the medicine maker is holding. The medicine person then takes the spit out fiber in the nalmaha leaf and throws it into the sea in front of the village. 2. For a baby that is not doing well, as with malnourished, take 4-5 leaves, put in warm water and wash baby – 1x day for 3 days. 6. Use to make temporary house.
bookmarkintowosjei
inwaj
Reef needlefish, Reef longtoms
Example: Photo by ANFC, License: CC BY-NC 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarkinyat
inyirigwai
n. kind of plant, grass, or fern
bookmarkiñec
[iŋec] n. Mystery Island
bookmarklopot lopot
n. Oriental sweetlips
Example: Photo by Mark Rosenstein / iNaturalist.org, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarknadut u nadiat
n. dawn of day
bookmarknafirama
nahrin nij
n. kind of taro
bookmarknamou
nanad op̃a
n. tree, 4-5 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3542)
Example: Some people use the dried leaves of this plant when there is no tobacco. Roll the leaves and smoke them. This is a good plant to lay under as a shade along the coast. Good firewood. The leaves are used with other leaves as part of a ceremony to calm the sea.* Burn leaves in a special place and toss ashes in the sea – sea will be calm.* When you are paddling to another island. Carry them with you and toss in sea as you go. Also goes with fasting and cleansing when traveling in this way.
bookmarknapapotan
napayu
n. kind of tree
bookmarknapupwi
n. kind of sugarcane
bookmarknatarau
n. a bamboo flute
bookmark
necna p̃a
n. Largescale mullet
Example: Photo by ANFC, License: CC BY-NC 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarknednañlelcei
nefelelicai acen
n. hemlock
bookmarknefelelicai has
n. tares
bookmarknefesgamtan
n. Humpnose big-eye bream
Example: Photo by Mark Rosenstein / iNaturalist.org, License: CC BY-SA 3.0 via Fishes of Australia
bookmarkneheptal
n. tree to 15 m tall, dbh 25 cm (collection: Michael J. Balick #4903)
Example: Wood is used to make canoe as it is very light and lasts in salt water. As a styptic to stop bleeding, when a person gets a cut in the bush, scrape off outer bark and use inner bark scrapings to put on cut. Stops bleeding, leave on for one day.
bookmarknejecjec
n. epiphyte c. 1 m above forest floor, growing in secondary forest above river. (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3650)
Example: The younger,soft leaves are used to wrap local foods, for example bananas. To prepare a type of "local cheese," made from fermented breadfruit and fermented banana, mix a bit of coconut milk and wrap these two fruits in the leaves and cook under ground. Not clear about the way the food is fermented.
bookmarknejev
n. tree, 8 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3214)
Example: This tree makes good wood for canoes as well as timbers that are cut for building houses. A decoration that is placed around the head, known as salu-salu is made from these leaves. If you wear it, people know you are from Aneityum. In the early 1950’s-1960’s, Aneityum was the main place for logging this species. Now it is rare and in need of replanting. A project from New Zealand planted pine trees in its place and they have thrived here. In the same way, the sandalwood tree was overharvested and is rare now. Timber, very resinous so good to start fire – branches good for fire. They are the ones that have the sap, if a person in in the bush and finds young tree – sapling – they will make headdress from the leaves to show they came from the bush. Also, this is a Kastom name.
bookmarknekinkin
n. kind of plant, grass, or fern
bookmarknelkap̃aeñ
nelm̃ai
n. tree to 8 m, dbh 10 cm (collection: Michael J. Balick #4863)
Example: Fiber: Collect the stems of this plant, peel off the outer bark, soak (ret) in seawater for 1 week, then put stone on top of it-the fibers are loosened by the retting, peel them off and hang in the sun to dry and bleach. Weave small baskets, grass skirts and other things from this fiber. When sticks are placed in areas of the sea, shells are attracted to these sticks and people can collect the shells used for adornment--the animals in the shells like to eat the material on the sticks. Dried fruits of this plant are eaten by birds.
bookmarknelnjen
netvo
n. a species of fruit
bookmarkneudan tauoc neaig
n. the center sprout of a coconut tree
bookmarknijiga
n. a branch of red coral
bookmarknilbuthou
nilec
n. epiphyte. Growing on tree in village area. (collection: Ashley A McGuigan #1)
Example: Makes period normal again. Take three young leaves from the very tops of the plant and pound and squeeze out the juice from the leaves. Mix with small amount of water to help juice come out. Drink this 3 times a day for 3 days. Pig food – feed the leaves to the pigs. Leaves used to wrap around Cyrtosperma merkusii to cook for several days—this taro needs a lot of cooking. So this leaf is particularly used for that purpose because it is very watery. Will keep the taro from becoming too burned or dry – it will cook soft after a few days – keep tasting it until the calcium oxalate sensation is gone. Check it 3 times – cook, open, taste and it should be good. Wrap fish and put directly on charcoal fire. – also cover top rocks in earth oven.
bookmarknisalau
n. blossoms on breadfruit
bookmarkniseaig
n. kind of tree
bookmarknitato naretou
nitidae
nohud ucnas
n. a bunch of taro; also "nuhud ucnas"
bookmarknohwan aruman
n. kind of taro
bookmark
nuarin
n. plat (a map, drawn to scale, showing divisions in a piece of land)
bookmarknucye
n. the red star, the "hand" in the constellation Orion; also "necye"
bookmarknumarak kamwea
n. kind of sugarcane
bookmarknyihivac
n. tree, 6 m tall (collection: Gregory M. Plunkett #3263)
Example: 1. A "calendar plant". When this flowers in the bush, and people are making their gardens in that area, it means the garden is ready to harvest. 2. Firewood, calendar, and message plant – for people who live up in the forest can see this coastal plant and when it flowers it is a good time to go fishing or to move to the coastal area for a few weeks to relax. July-August. Tide is low so everything is exposed so it is a good time to fish for there, 2 months. 3. Flowers have a nice nectar, sweet, kids drink.
bookmarknähäwanatschill
n. Macaranga dioca
Example: Inner bark: bathe in cold infusion, wounds. Mix heated over fire and taken out during sunset. Healer clenches the package in his fist, then gently punches the patients left, then right knee, then his forehead and finally squeezes over his head, migraine a
bookmarkpakine
n. maize
bookmarksiki
adv. down there, at a short distance; also "sike"
bookmarkubutpotet
adj. adjacent
bookmarkThere are currently 2431 entries, 1543 audio files, and 860 images.
All content copyright © Aneityum community. (2015)
Talking Dictionary produced by K. David Harrison, Gregory D. S. Anderson and Jeremy Fahringer. Botanical consultants: Michael J. Balick, Gregory M. Plunkett and Sean Thackurdeen. (2015-2018)
Aneityum language contributors include Kirk Keitadi, Tony Keith, Titiya Lalep, David Nasauman, Osiani Nerian, Ruben Nerian, Chris Nevehev, Romario Yaufati and others as credited within the dictionary entries. Based in part on materials from Inglis, John (1882) A Dictionary of the Aneityumese Language: In Two Parts. I. Aneityumese and English. II. English.
The Aneityum-English Talking Dictionary was made possible by award no. 1555675 from National Science Foundation for “Collaborative Research: Plant, Fungal and Linguistic Diversity of Tafea Province, Vanuatu.” This support is gratefully acknowledged.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
All rights reserved. Do not distribute or reproduce without permission.
how to cite:
K. David Harrison. 2015.
Aneityum Talking Dictionary.
Swarthmore College.
http://www.talkingdictionary.org/aneityum
Interface and database design under the direction of Jeremy Fahringer and Swarthmore College ITS.
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