In Oceanic societies, music, song and dance are far more than recreation in the western sense although their enjoyment is often a prerequisite. Their performance spills over into many areas, into the performance of rites marking significant events, into the casting of spells and other forms of magic, into preparation for war, and as an expression of group solidarity and pride. Songs may serve to bolster effort, as in long-distance paddling by canoe or in hauling heavy logs. Dances, particularly war dances, may serve to instil fear in others. They are possessions that may be traded. Story-telling serves to memorise and pass on shared knowledge to the next generation. Such activities function to both express and preserve cultural values as well as serving to strengthen social cohesion.
Games form a somewhat different category, undertaken by children and young adults primarily for pleasure.
Music, song, dance and games may not have been recognised as nominal categories by a Proto Oceanic speaker2. Nevertheless, for the sake of convenience, I have divided discussion of the role of these activities to cover instrumental music (§6.2); song (§6.3); dance (§6.4); and games, i.e. activities other than music and dance, the primary function of which is entertainment (§6.6). An amount of overlap, particularly between song and dance, is unavoidable.
This section includes sound-making instruments used for purposes other than entertainment. Drums serve mainly to accompany dances, while the larger slitgongs may also be used to signal messages. Quieter instruments like flutes, panpipes, jew’s harps and musical bows, are all played mainly for personal enjoyment. It is noteworthy that these are precisely those instruments to which love magic properties are ascribed (Fischer 1986:156).
In most locations the conch trumpet functions as a signalling device rather than as a musical instrument. It transmits messages, announces occasions like celebrations (Tok Pisin singsings) and deaths, and may serve as a war trumpet. Conditions under which it can be sounded are typically predetermined, and only certain persons are permitted to blow it (Fischer 1986:135-149). The shell used is generally the Charonia tritonis, although Cassis shells may be similarly used.
| PMP | *tapuRiq | ‘conch shell trumpet’ (See vol.1:106, vol.4:183) (ACD) | |
| POc | *tapuRiq | ‘triton shell: Charonia tritonis; a trumpet of this’ | |
| Adm | Mussau | taue | ‘triton shell’ |
| NNG | Takia | taur | ‘conch shell/horn (used for sending messages)’ |
| NNG | Manam | tauru | ‘conch shell; used as a horn for calling village meetings with the Kaunsel’ |
| NNG | Bariai | taule | ‘shell trumpet, conch’ |
| PT | Kilivila | tauya | ‘triton shell; trumpet of this’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | taur | ‘shell type blown to send messages, triton shell’ |
| MM | Tolai | tavur | ‘triton shell’ |
| SES | Lengo | tavuli | ‘triton shell’ |
| SES | Sa’a | ehuri | ‘shell trumpet, blown to summon people’ |
| SES | Arosi | ahuri | ‘conch shell, triton; trumpet of this, blown only on solemn occasions, e.g. at a death’ |
| TM | Buma | teveliko | ‘triton; conch shell traditionally used as a trumpet, esp. when sending out public signals’ (François) |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | taviu | ‘conch shell (and sound)’ (vowel metathesis) |
| NCV | Lewo | tapuru | ‘shellfish trochus spp.’ |
| NCV | Lakon | tau | ‘conch shell, Charonia tritonis’ (François 2013) |
| SV | Sye | (n)tovu | ‘triton shell’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | tau | ‘triton conch, trumpet shell’ |
| Mic | Ponapean | sewi | ‘conch shell, trumpet’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | sawi | ‘conch shell trumpet’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | tawi | ‘conch shell, trumpet’ |
| Fij | Wayan | tavui | ‘triton shell: Pacific or Triton’s Trumpet’ |
| Fij | Bauan | davui | ‘trumpet shell or triton’ |
A second POc term for the conch shell trumpet, *buu, can be reconstructed. We do not know whether or how its meaning differed from *tapuRi.
| PCEMP | *buu | ‘conch shell trumpet’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *buu | ‘conch shell trumpet’ (ACD) | |
| NNG | Uvol | bu | ‘triton shell trumpet’ (Laade 1999: 160) |
| NNG | Mengen | bū | ‘triton shell trumpet’ |
| SES | Kwaio | bū | ‘conch shell’ |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | bu | ‘sound of the (holed) conch shell being blown, as a signal’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | pu | ‘conch, sea-shell horn, trumpet’ |
| PPn | *pū | ‘triton shell trumpet’ | |
| Pn | Niuean | pū | ‘univalve mollusc shell; trumpet’ |
| Pn | Samoan | pū | ‘name given to molluscs belonging to genera Tritonium and Cassis, the shells of some of which are used as shell trumpets’ |
| Pn | Nukuoro | bū | ‘conch shell trumpet’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | pū | ‘shell trumpet, used to call important meetings’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | pū | ‘trumpet, traditionally, large univalve shell’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | pū | ‘trumpet’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | pū | ‘large triton conch shell (Charonia tritonis); any wind instrument’ |
| Pn | Māori | pū | ‘volute univalve mollusc of the winkle type’ |
Flutes described in Oceanic communities may be end-blown or side-blown, mouth-blown or nose-blown. The flute type most widely distributed is the end-blown notched flute, made from a length of bamboo about 25–30 cm long with from one to three fingerholes. It is found in Mussau, throughout the Bismarck Archipelago, North Bougainville and Vanuatu, with some specimens also recorded from the Rai Coast (Fischer 1986:90).
Side-blown flutes belong overwhelmingly to a category known as paired or sacred flutes. The flutes lack finger holes and are played in pairs, one longer than the other. They can also be used for communicating with spirits of the dead. Their distribution supports Papuan rather than Austronesian ancestry (McLean 1994:23). No terms have been collected.
With the exception of the paired side-blown flutes, which are powerful fertility symbols used in garden magic and to frighten women and uninitiated youths with weird sounds, the flutes are associated with gentler, more peaceful purposes, such as making love charms, and attracting women. Hence they are normally played by men and played alone.
Panpipes are end-blown bamboos of varying or graduated length fastened together, either in a flat row or, less commonly, in a bundle. They are found throughout Melanesia including the Admiralties, Bismarck Archipelago, Solomons, Vanuatu and Fiji, but in Polynesia were found only as far as Tonga and Samoa, places where they are now obsolete (Buck 1927:173, McLean 1994:98). Laade (1999:154-159) describes the varieties of panpipes and the social observances followed by panpipe players in Maenge, SE New Britain. There they are played by men only, always individually, to attract a woman, or for some nostalgic memory. In contrast, in the Solomons, there are elaborate ensembles played by men and boys, with panpipes consisting of sets of up to twelve bamboos. However, this may be a modern development.
Most reconstructed terms for flutes and panpipes are either terms for kinds of bamboo or from the verb ‘to blow.’
| POc | *kopi | ‘bamboo; bamboo flute’ (vol.1:108) | |
| PT | Gumawana | ko-kopi | ‘flute’ |
| MM | Halia | kohi | ‘raft pan pipes, 3 or 4 bamboos’ (Chenoweth 1976) ; ‘small bamboo flute’ (Allen et al. 1982) |
| PPn | *kofe | ‘bamboo sp.’ (POLLEX)3 | |
| Pn | Niuean | kofe | ‘flute; musical instrument of any sort’ |
| Pn | Tongan | kofe | ‘green bamboo’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | kohe | ‘bamboo’ |
| Pn | Samoan | ʔofe | ‘bamboo, generic term’ |
| Pn | Luangiua | ʔohe | ‘bamboo whistle’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | (pū)kofe | ‘bamboo pipe, small instrument of single bamboo, used long ago, blown only by children’ |
Reflexes of POc *[k,q]auR ‘bamboo’ reflect an extension of meaning from the raw material to the artefact made from that material.
| PAn | *qauR | ‘bamboo sp.’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *qauR | ‘bamboo; bamboo wind instrument’ (vol.3:400) | |
| Adm | Mussau | kauru | ‘bamboo’ |
| NNG | Lukep | kaur | ‘flute; traditional musical instrument made out of bamboo monomono. It has four notes per octave. Historically a man would play the flute when he was hungry and had nothing to eat.’ |
| NNG | Bilibil | kau(-mahay) | ‘bamboo sp., flute, long bamboo wind instrument (2.7m x 5 cm)’ |
| MM | Tolai | kaur | ‘k.o. bamboo’ |
| MM | Tinputz | kaʔur, waʔur | ‘larger panpipes with mouthpiece, usually of three reeds of different diameter’ (Blackwood 1935: 412) |
| SES | Sa’a | au | ‘panpipes’ (Tolo in origin, according to Ivens 1927) |
| SES | Arosi | ʔau(uhi-uhi) | ‘panpipes of bamboo’ (ʔau ‘bamboo’, uhi ‘blow’) |
| SES | ’Are’are | ʔau | ‘bamboo’; ‘generic for music and musical instruments; panpipes’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | qau | ‘piece of bamboo that has been cut and used for a certain purpose, e.g. flute, panpipe’ |
| TM | Buma | okoro | ‘bamboo’; ‘certain bamboo artefacts’; ‘heavy bamboo, used as stamping tubes’ (François 2021) |
| NCV | Mota | au | ‘bamboo’ |
| NCV | Paamese | (e-)au | ‘bamboo; knife; slitgong fixed in ground’ |
| NCV | Namakir | ʔo | ‘bamboo; panpipe’ |
| NCV | Nguna | (na-)au | ‘wild cane, reed; flute, mouth organ’ |
| SES | Tolo | hau | ‘bamboo’; ‘panpipes made of bamboo’ |
| POc | *upi, *ipu | ‘blow; native flute’ (vol.1:107) | |
| NNG | Hote | (y)uv | ‘blow’ |
| NNG | Uvol | iu | ‘blow, thus generic for flutes and panpipes; generic for all bamboos’ |
| PT | Kilivila | (y)uvi | ‘blow’ |
| PT | Motu | ivi(likou) | ‘a reed instrument, a flute’ |
| MM | Petats | pīu | ‘festival; panpipe; blow a bamboo flute: festival in which bamboo flutes are used’ (see also Blackwood 1935:412) |
| MM | Teop | piuvu | ‘bamboo flute; a native dance; blow, exhale’ |
| MM | Roviana | ivu | ‘blow, as a conch shell’ |
| MM | Roviana | iv-ivu(ana) | ‘a native flute’ (-ana NOMINALISER) |
| SES | Bugotu | ifu | ‘blow, of fire or panpipes; panpipes’ (exp. ivu) |
| SES | Kwaio | ufi | ‘play panpipes’ |
| SES | Sa’a | uhi | ‘blow with the mouth upon an object’ |
| SES | Arosi | (ʔau)uhi-uhi | ‘panpipes of bamboo’ (ʔau ‘bamboo’, uhi ‘blow, breathe’) |
| TM | Buma | vi | [VT] ‘blow (on to, into s.t.)’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | ip | ‘blow (pipe, conch shell)’ |
| NCV | Mwesen | uv | ‘blow (pipe, conch shell)’ |
| Fij | Wayan | uvi | ‘(sub. e.g. fire, flute) be blown with the mouth’ |
| Fij | Wayan | uvi- | [VT] ‘blow s.t. with the mouth’ |
| Fij | Bauan | uvu(ða) | [VT] ‘blow with the mouth’ |
| Pn | Tongan | ifi | [VT] ‘blow with the mouth’ |
| POc | *pi(g,k)o | ‘bamboo wind instrument’ | |
| MM | Nakanai | vigogo | ‘a bamboo flute’ |
| NCV | Mota | viɣo | ‘native panpipes’ |
Nose flutes are rare in New Guinea, but prominent in Micronesia, Polynesia, and Fiji. However, McLean suggests that the Micronesian instruments may have been borrowed from the Philippines (1994:101). In a detailed and thorough investigation into the existence of nose flutes in Melanesia other than Fiji, Ammann (2007:1–12) shows that long-accepted reports of nose flutes in New Caledonia have been shown to be erroneous and finds no evidence that they existed in Vanuatu or the Solomons. Various references have been made to their existence in the Admiralties, including Friederici (1912) from Mouk [Manus] and Pak, and Nevermann (1933:381), and there is an illustration of an Admiralties end-blown bamboo nose flute held in the Auckland Museum (Moyle 1989:47), but Ammann (2007:9) considers none of them verifiable. He concludes:
References to the existence of nose flutes in Melanesia are often based on unacknowledged references to earlier publications or on hearsay. The earliest references are the most suspect, especially because none of the authors states that he heard and saw the flute being played for more than just a few notes. From the many references on nose flutes in Melanesia, only a few seem to be of substance, especially those from Manus, but even there, the references are not unequivocal.
Oceanic reflexes of PAn *tulani ‘bamboo nose flute’ refer to a range of blown instruments, but Bauan Fijian dulali means ‘nose flute’, supporting the hypothesis that POc *tulali had this meaning, which became a generic for blown instruments as the nose flute fell out of use in western communities.
| PAn | *tulani | ‘bamboo nose flute’ (ACD) | |
| PMP | *tulali | ‘bamboo nose flute’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *tulali | ‘bamboo nose flute’ | |
| NNG | Mengen | tulala | ‘notched flute, raft panpipes; generic name for bamboo’ (Laade 1999: 153–154) |
| PT | Dobu | tuna | ‘jew’s harp’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | tulal | ‘flute-like instrument. This is a musical instrument that’s blown, made from special bamboo with holes drilled and a small notch at the blowing end’ |
| MM | Tangga | tulal | ‘flute, made form a special kind of bamboo, played by both sexes’ |
| MM | Patpatar | tulal | ‘bamboo flute’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | tulal | ‘music; musical pipe; to make music’ |
| MM | Nehan | tulal | ‘very small musical pipe, bamboo flute’ |
| Fij | Bauan | dulali | ‘Fijian nose flute’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | cilel | ‘triton shell, conch, trumpet’ |
Polynesian reflexes of POc *paŋus ‘blow one’s nose’ are used in reduplicated form to refer to the nose flute.
| POc | *paŋus, *paŋus-i- | ‘blow one’s nose’ (vol.5:303–304) | |
| PPn | *faŋu-faŋu | ‘nose-flute’ (POLLEX: PPn *faŋu ‘breathe, blow through nose’) | |
| Pn | Tongan | faŋu-faŋu | ‘nose flute’ (faŋu ’blow one__s nose’) |
| Pn | East Uvean | faŋu-faŋu | ‘bamboo nose flute’ |
| Pn | Samoan | faŋu-faŋu | ‘wind instrument, bamboo nose flute’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | faŋu-faŋu | ‘flute’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | faŋu(jia) | ‘play panpipes’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | yaŋin | ‘nose flute’ (yafoŋ ‘nose, deferential’) |
| Mic | Chuukese | āŋún | ‘nose flute, used in former times by young men to serenade young women’(Diettrich 2017) |
| Fij | Rotuman | faŋ-faŋu | ‘nose flute’ (Pn borrowing) |
| PPn | *faŋo | ‘bamboo nose flute’ (from PPn *faŋo ‘blow or speak through the nose’) | |
| Pn | Tongan | faŋo-faŋo | ‘nose flute’(Martin 1818) |
| Pn | West Futunan | faŋo | ‘pipe, flute’ |
| Pn | Ifira-Mele | faŋo | ‘any musical instrument, but esp. mouth organ’ |
| Pn | Māori | faŋo | ‘having nasal sound’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | hano | ‘humming sound, nose flute’ |
In New Guinea the jew’s harp is always made of bamboo. They are mostly played by young men, particularly in courtship. McLean notes that the typical New Guinea-type jew’s harp is found throughout New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Admiralties, Solomons, parts of Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Rotuma. In Micronesia, where instruments are found only in the west, the shape is different and McLean (1994:98) suggests that they may have entered the area from the Philippines, independently of New Guinea. Fischer writes that its widest distribution is in New Guinea and island Melanesia, with its southernmost occurrence “apparently Florida [Gela] … and that a reported instrument from New Caledonia is uncertain in its origin but definitely imported” (1986:48). He describes the jew’s harp as “an instrument of love magic, of courtship, or, with muted sound, of entertainment and simple communication between lovers” (p.49).
McLean (1994:95) quotes Marcuse (1975) as proposing that jew’s harps may have originated in southern China or south-west Asia. A bamboo form, apparently identical with the instrument in New Guinea is still played by the Mosua people of southwestern Yunnan Blust notes (1995b:496) that it is a basic traditional musical instrument “among many Formosan aborigines and elsewhere in island Southeast Asia”.
Although few terms have been located, evidence is sufficient to permit a POc reconstruction.
| POc | *b(u,o)go-b(u,o)go | ‘jew’s harp’ (vol.1:110) | |
| Adm | Nyindrou | bugubug | ‘mouth drum’ (Nevermann 1933: 383) |
| NNG | Mapos Buang | bgog | ‘jew’s harp; usually made from bamboo’ |
| MM | Petats | pokpoko | ‘jew’s harp’ (Blackwood 1935: 413) |
In Samoa (and presumably elsewhere in Polynesia), the so-called jew’s harp is constructed from a short length of coconut leaflet, one end of which is gripped in the teeth. One hand holds in contact along the leaflet a length of coconut midrib while the other hand twangs the free end of this midrib (Moyle 1988:42). It has something in common with the jew’s harp from Gaua in Vanuatu (no name in the local language) described by François and Stern (2013), which is also made from coconut leaf and stem.
| PPn | *qutete | ‘jew’s harp’ (*quti ‘bite’ + *tete ‘shiver, tremble, vibrate’) | |
| Pn | Tongan | ʔutete | ‘jew’s harp’ |
| Pn | Samoan | utete | ‘jew’s harp’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | utete | ‘jew’s harp’ |
Musical bows are stringed instruments made from a piece of bent reed or bamboo with one end held in the mouth which then acts as a resonator. They are found in Melanesia from north New Britain through parts of the Solomons to Vanuatu (Chowning & Goodenough 2016:345, Blackwood 1935:413, Codrington 1891:339, Lewis 1951:177, Fischer 1986:71). Few terms have been collected, none cognate.
McLean (1994:14) lists rattles made from diverse materials including seeds and seed pods, various nuts, fruit, snail and seashells, pig’s and dog’s teeth, crayfish shells and crab claws. The purpose of most is to accompany dance, although Seligman (1910:292) describes seeds of Pangium edule being used as rattles attached to nets in wallaby drives in the Roro speaking area of southern PNG. They are commonly worn as anklets, where the sound is enhanced by the regular stamping action of most dances, but are sometimes worn also on the wrist. Although non-cognate terms have been collected from Kove and Mamusi (NNG), Kiriwina (PT) and Nakanai (MM), the only reconstruction made is a PEOc term. This is also the term for the tree, Pangium edule, the fruit of which is used for dance rattles in the SE Solomons and Vanuatu.
| PEOc | *paRage | ‘tree sp., Pangium edule; dance rattles’ (vol.3:336) | |
| SES | Tolo | valage | ‘type of large seed pod worn to make noise when dancing’ |
| SES | Kwara’ae | falake | ‘Pangium edule’ (Whitmore 1966) |
| SES | Lau | falake | ‘seeds tied on legs in dancing; sp. of tree’ |
| SES | Kwaio | falage | ‘rattle’ |
| PNCV | *vaRage | ‘tree sp., Pangium edule, fruit used as dance rattles’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Mota | varake | ‘tree; shells of the fruit tied to the ankles as rattles in dances’ |
| NCV | Raga | vaŋge | ‘Pangium edule’ |
| NCV | Ambae | vake | ‘ankle rattle tree, Pangium edule’ |
| NCV | Port Sandwich | (vi)vaŋg | ‘dance rattles’ |
| NNG | Kove | paloko | ‘anklets worn by dancers’ |
| MM | Nakanai | golo-golo | ‘ankle rattles, used in dances’ |
The hourglass drum, known as kundu in Tok Pisin of PNG, is of wood with a lizard or snakeskin membrane covering one end. It is hourglass-shaped with a narrow waist to which a handle is often attached. The main use of these drums is to provide a rhythmic accompaniment to dances. They are beaten by hand, each person carrying his own instrument. McLean reports that kundu drums are not known east of Bougainville apart from eastern Micronesia (1994:4), and the cognate set below bears this out. The NNG cognates have evidently broadened their meaning to cover drums in general. Harding reports that “drums are probably manufactured over a wide area, but the Tami Islands, Arop and Karkar Islands are recognised centres for the manufacture of superior hardwood [hourglass] drums” (Harding 1967:41). Kundu drums are widely used throughout non-Austronesian-speaking communities of New Guinea, and it is likely that they are Papuan in origin.
| PWOc | *kud(u,e) | ‘hourglass drum’ (vol.1:109) | |
| NNG | Kilenge | kure | ‘slitgong drum, hourglass drum’ |
| NNG | Kove | kure | ‘hourglass drum, slitgong’ |
| NNG | Mamusi | kuru(miso) | ‘generic for kundus, large and small, with and without handles’ (Laade 1999: 179) |
| MM | Vitu | kude | ‘(hour-glass) drum’ |
| MM | Bulu | kude | ‘(hour-glass) drum’ |
| MM | Nakanai | kude | ‘hourglass drum’ |
| MM | Patpatar | kudu | ‘drum’ |
| MM | Tolai | kudu | ‘a long drum, the end of which is covered with the skin of an iguana’ |
| MM | Tinputz | kuntu | ‘hand drum’ |
A slitgong or garamut (Tok Pisin) is a hollow log with a narrow slit along one side which produces a deep resonating sound that can be heard at a considerable distance when beaten with a stick. Slitgongs are used for signalling, for ceremony and to accompany song and dance. They may range in length from as little as 40 cm to four metres or more, although most are between 1.5 and two metres long (McLean 1994:52). Size is to some extent dictated by available logs, but for signalling purposes the larger the better. Playing the slitgongs has been highly developed in the Solomons where kundu drums are unknown. Stella (1990:49-51) describes the situation in Banoni (central Bougainville) where nine or ten garamuts of various sizes are played in large ensembles kept in special houses. These garamuts are always sounded as a group, not individually, and they are sounded for specific events, never without a cause. Playing patterns carry identifiable messages such as calling people to assembly, announcing an important death, counting of pigs at a feast, or announcing that someone has fallen from a tree. Blackwood (1935:409-410) describes the signals used to carry particular messages in the northern tip of Bougainville, but here only one garamut is used. On Karkar Island off the north New Guinea coast a single garamut is beaten to signal the advent of the new moon and an ensuing night of celebration (Malcolm Ross pers. comm.). In Arosi (SE Solomons), they are played in sets of three, equivalent to base, tenor and treble, but the purposes for which they are played are not clear. Fox (1978) describes the advantages of several tones as enabling coded messages in words to be sent and received over considerable distances. Fox also mentions that in Arosi the base gong serves as accompaniment for four-line rhyming songs. In central and southern Vanuatu, slitgongs stand grouped in upright position. Polynesian slit drums differ from Melanesian ones in having a wider opening, making them more trough-like (Fischer 1986:33). Fischer writes “it appears that the Polynesian instruments are, independent of Melanesia, a purely west Polynesian phenomenon” (p.35).
McLean writes: “In New Guinea the slitgong is pre-eminently an instrument of north coast seagoing and riverine peoples. Although it is by no means confined to Austronesian populations they come immediately to mind as purveyors of the instrument” (1994:52). Blust notes that the slitgong is attested in Taiwan (quoting Chen 1988:79-80). On this evidence, together with his own observance of a specimen in Yogyakarta in the early 1980s, Blust (1995b:497) thinks it likely that the slitgong has a history dating back at least to PMP times.
Three POc reconstructions are proposed for ‘slitgong’: *koŋkoŋ, *garamut and *rali. POc *koŋkoŋ has reflexes denoting the slitgong in Biliau in NNG and in SES.
| PAn | *kuŋkuŋ | ‘slitgong’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *koŋkoŋ | ‘slitgong’ (Blust 1995b: 496) | |
| NNG | Bing | koŋkoŋ | ‘bamboo bell (slit bamboo gong which is beaten)’ |
| SES | Bugotu | koko | ‘wooden gong’ |
| SES | Gela | koko | ‘wooden gong, usually called a drum’ |
| SES | Tolo | koko | ‘traditional drum’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | oʔo | ‘traditional slit wooden drum, used for sending messages and as a musical instrument’ |
| SES | Sa’a | ʔoʔo | ‘wooden gong’ |
| SES | Sa’a | para ni ʔoʔo | ‘set of three gongs’ (para ‘fence, row, set of things’) |
| SES | Arosi | ʔoʔo | ‘wooden gong, made in sets from a hollowed tree, and used to send messages by a code so that practically any message can be sent’ |
| SES | Arosi | bara-i-ʔoʔo | ‘set of slitgongs’ |
| MM | Halia | koŋkoŋ | ‘jew’s harp, played by men and women at any time’(Chenoweth 1976: 14) |
| MM | Hahon | koŋkoŋo | ‘musical bow’(Blackwood 1935: 413) 4 |
Regular reflexes of POc *garamut occur in Mussau and in MM languages, while NNG reflexes all fail to reflect the first vowel as expected -a-. This may be because the first syllable of a three-syllable word like *garamut was reduced, as it is in the Ramoaaina reflex below. The northern Vanuatu reflexes under ‘cf. also’ are at best irregular, as they point to the PNCV form *kore, glossed ‘musical instrument’ by Clark (2009) as some reflexes mean ‘flute’ or ‘pan pipes’. The expected PNCV reflex of POc *garamut, however, would be †*karamu.
| POc | *garamut | ‘slitgong’ | |
| Adm | Mussau | ɣalamutu | ‘slitgong’ |
| NNG | Kove | ɣilamo | ‘slitgong’ |
| NNG | Bing | giram | ‘garamut, log drum’ |
| NNG | Bing | giram | ‘garamut, log drum’ |
| NNG | Manam | giramo | ‘slitgong’ |
| NNG | Kairiru | giram | ‘slitgong’ |
| NNG | Gitua | gilamu | ‘slitgong’ |
| NNG | Yabem | gelom | ‘signal drum, made from a large log’ |
| NNG | Numbami | gilami | ‘slitgong’ |
| NNG | Hote | golom | ‘garamut drum’ |
| MM | Nakanai | galamo | ‘slitgong’ |
| MM | Bola | garamo | ‘slitgong’ |
| MM | Tolai | garamut | ‘slitgong’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | gəramut | ‘slitgong’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | garap | ‘(bamboo slit) drum; beat a garap drum’ |
| MM | Halia | garamuc | ‘slitgong’ |
| MM | Teop | karamusu | ‘slitgong’ |
| MM | Tinputz | kāmus | ‘drum: slit drum’ |
| NCV | Mota | kore | ‘horizontal slitgong’ (François 2005) |
| NCV | Loh | kor | ‘horizontal slitgong’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | nɔ-kɔj | ‘horizontal slitgong’ |
| NCV | Kiai | kore | ‘slitgong’ |
The PT terms in the following set are assumed to have been borrowed from Polynesia. McLean (2008:44) notes that teachers from the London Missionary Society took the Cook Islands pate to Samoa for use as a church bell. Its name and associated use may have been carried by missionaries from there to parts of New Guinea in the 19th century.
| PT | Tawala | pate | ‘bell/drum’ |
| PT | Gumawana | pate | ‘a drum’ |
| Pn | Samoan | pātē | ‘small wooden hand gong used for summoning children to school etc.’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | pate | ‘small slit drum’(Koch 1984) |
| Pn | Rarotongan | pate | ‘k.o. drum from hollowed log, used to give time in dancing (also called tokere), beaten with one stick’(Buck 1927: 355) |
POc *rali ‘slitgong’ is reflected in the Admiralties and Fiji.5
| POc | *rali | ‘slitgong’ (ACD: *drali) | |
| Adm | Ere | dral | ‘slitgong’ |
| Adm | Likum | can | ‘slitgong’ |
| Adm | Nyindrou | dran | ‘slitgong’ |
| Adm | Hus | nhal | ‘slitgong’ |
| PCP | *lali | ‘wooden drum or gong’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | lali | ‘native wooden drum beaten with two sticks’ |
| Pn | Tongan | lali | ‘wooden drum (Fijian style)’ |
| Pn | Samoan | lali | ‘middle sized wooden gong, drum’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | lali | ‘bell; wooden gong’ |
The Central Pacific forms above show assimilation of the first liquid to the second, as Bauan Fijian does not permit /rVl/ sequences (Blust 2000b:187). McLean (pers. comm.) suggests that the Polynesian terms have all been borrowed from Fiji (hence their listing under ‘cf. also’). Two further PPn forms are reconstructable.
| PPn | *nafa | ‘a wooden drum’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | nafa | ‘small wooden drum shaped like a canoe, with a narrow slot on one side’ (McEwen 1970) |
| Pn | Tongan | nafa | ‘drum’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | nawa | ‘small wooden gong’ |
| Pn | Samoan | nafa | ‘native slit drum, used in rhythmic accompaniment to song and/or dance’ (Pratt 1911) |
| Pn | Tikopia | nafa | ‘large bowl-shaped trough (sometimes canoe hull serves)’ |
| PPn | *pasu | ‘drum, to drum, thump’ | |
| Pn | Niuean | pahu | ‘drum’ |
| Pn | Tongan | pahu | ‘to thump’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | paʔu | ‘drum formed from a hollowed block and covered with sharkskin’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | pahu | ‘drum; thumping blow’ |
| Pn | Māori | pahū | ‘wooden gong’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | pahu | ‘drum’ |
Stamping tubes are lengths of bamboo with one end open, and all but the bottom node removed. They are sounded by dropping the closed end vertically against the ground or a hard surface like a stamping board. Fischer (1986:7) notes widespread distribution including “E New Guinea, Malaita, Fiji, W Polynesia and Hawaii”. Stella (1990:39) reports their use from Banoni (NW Solomons) where they are called cucubini. François (2021) records them from Vanikoro (Reefs-Santa Cruz) as woi okoro ‘to stick bamboos’—to pound heavy bamboos vertically and repeatedly onto the ground, to mark bass rhythms while singing. He notes that they are also found in New Caledonia (pers. comm.). François and Stern (2013) record their use in northern Vanuatu. They were also mentioned by James Cook in his journals, who saw them used in Tonga in 1777 in groups of four or five to accompany dance (Cook & King 1785, vol.1:292-3). There they were known simply as kofe (bamboo). No reconstruction has been made.
Bullroarers are found in Melanesia as far east as Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. In Polynesia their place is taken by the leaf whizzer which is invariably a toy. The bullroarer is “a flat lens-shape to double-pointed rhomboid-shaped piece of wood with a hole in one end through which a string is drawn. … The instrument is whirled round the head, producing a humming sound” (Fischer 1986:80). Used only by men, it is associated with initiation, secrecy, deception of women and spirit voices. It is used ritually in both Australia and New Guinea. McLean suggests that the current distribution of bullroarers in New Guinea is a result of borrrowing from Australia (1994:43). The bullroarer recorded by François and Stern (2013:119) in northern Vanuatu is described as “a toy rather than a genuine [musical] instrument, and is used just for entertainment.” It is made from a coconut frond with the midleaf removed, which is whirled round the head. The double rotation of the instrument, simultaneously above one’s own head and on its own axis, results in a loud, deep humming sound.
Although a handful of terms have been collected, none are cognate. Informants generally are extremely reluctant to speak of the instrument, and may resort to diversionary tactics when asked its name.
Singing is predominantly choral and traditionally associated with dance, although hymn singing may now have overtaken traditional dance as the most frequent performance of song. Songs, like dances, are regarded throughout Melanesia as property, and can be bought and sold like any other commodity (§6.3.10).6 Because they can be traded and because they are open to innovation, reconstructing terms for particular songs and dances is not a productive exercise. However, the forms, as opposed to the content, are more or less stereotyped, and it is terms for these which offer our best chance of reconstruction.
François (2013:74-5) writes that in Vanuatu,
Musical arts form not only a link between past and present but also, by extension, between the living and the dead, between humans and spirits. … A fair proportion of musical forms in Vanuatu are bound by the oath of secrecy and are the exclusive property of a few men, by virtue of their privileged ties with the world of the Ancestors. Some songs, dances, instruments, rhythms or melodies are therefore inaccessible to children or to women, or to any other person who has not acquired the relevant rites.
Throughout Micronesia, music is predominantly vocal rather than instrumental. Diettrich et al. (2011:20) write that
The vocalization of poetry, whether in oratory, song, or formal story-telling, communicates social and cultural values and is a powerful expression of sentiment in everyday life. …The oldest vocal music displays many melodic shapes, from lyrical chants to rhythmically intoned speech, but many indigenous melodies exhibit a narrow range of pitches employed in monophonic and occasionally polyphonic textures.
Sung poetry in Micronesia is typically accompanied by expressive body movements. Diettrich et al. (p.21) describe a genre known as wuur, a type of vocal music performed as group seated dances using hand and arm movements punctuated by hand claps.
The following is reconstructed as a general term for ‘sing’, and ‘song’. Its POc meaning may have been more specific, but it is rare to find reflexes defined in more than general terms. In many cases terms will be both noun and verb.
| PCEMP | *wari | ‘sing, song’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *wari | ‘sing, song’ | |
| Adm | Nali | wali(y) | ‘sing’ (< POc *wari-a VT) |
| Adm | Loniu | weʔi(y) | ‘sing’ (< POc *wari-a vt) |
| NNG | Wab | ware | ‘sing’ |
| PT | Dobu | wari | [N, V] ‘song, sing’ |
| PT | Molima | wali | ‘sing, song’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | vai | ‘k.o. chant’ (reflects *waRi) |
| NNG | Mengen | walu | ‘spells or charms for gardening, fishing, hunting, curing ills, sex, weather’(Laade 1999) 7 |
| PT | Bwaidoga | kʷeli | ‘song, hymn’ |
Bwaidoga is shown under ’cf. also’ as it appears to be a loan from an Oceanic language in which POc *w- had become kʷ-, perhaps, as the gloss ’hymn’ suggests, via missionaries speaking a SE Solomonic language of northern Malaita. However, a source word has not been found.
POc *kanam may refer to a particular song or kind of song, but on the basis of reflex meanings below it is impossible to be more specific. There is an ambiguity in the reconstruction, as the SES terms reflect POc *kana or *kanaC, where *-C is a consonant. The NNG terms suggest that this consonant was *-m but final consonants are also lost in the two NNG languages, Takia and Gedaged, implying POc *kanamV, where *-V is a vowel. The data do not allow a resolution of this ambiguity.
| POc | *kanam | ‘sing, song’ | |
| NNG | Takia | kanam | ‘a specific ritual dance in which the people chant and dance to drums’8 |
| NNG | Gedaged | kanam | ‘name of a specific dance and melody performed at a feast in the daytime; mimics fish, fowl, snakes, wasps and sexual intercourse’ |
| SES | Lau | kana | ‘to hum; to sing old songs’ |
| SES | Sa’a | kana | [VI] ‘to sing’; [N] ‘song’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | kana | ‘sing in incantations to a spirit to learn a sickness cure’ |
| PT | Motu | ane | ‘song, hymn’ (ane abi-a ‘to sing’) |
| SES | Kwaio | gana | ‘sing’ (reflects *g-) |
| SES | Kwaio | gana-fali | ‘k.o. customary singing’ (fali ‘branch, division’) |
| SES | To’aba’ita | kana | ‘k.o. traditional song’; [VI] ‘sing’ (reflects *g-) |
| SES | Arosi | gana | ‘to sing’ (reflects *g-) |
| PMP | *ŋuŋ, *ŋu(ŋ)ŋuŋ | ‘buzz, hum’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *ŋuŋu | ‘hum’ | |
| SES | Lau | ŋū | ‘hum, chant, sing’ |
| SES | Arosi | ŋū | ‘hum’ |
| Pn | Tongan | ŋūŋū, hiva ŋūŋū | ‘to hum’ (hiva ‘sing’) |
| Pn | Rennellese | ŋūŋū | ‘speak quietly, hum’ |
Dance songs have particular roles and functions. For instance, Laade gives a detailed account of the categories of song and dance performed at Maenge on the south coast of New Britain, listing more than fifty by name (1999:130-142). Many are known to have been borrowed. Some are for daytime, others for night. Standing up dance songs are sung until midnight, followed by sitting down songs without dancing. Some are ‘occasion’ songs sung to mark such events as the blackening of teeth, supraincision of boys and piercing of the septum of girls, while others are war or victory songs. Others such as sasaŋa are described as ‘pure entertainment’ (Laade 1999:148). Events such as the opening of a men’s house or end of harvest time may justify a night of singing and dancing. These are typically performed with hourglass drum accompaniment. Dance songs are further differentiated by gender, and sometimes also by age, with song parts and dance roles for young men, older women and so on.
Terms for dance songs may sometimes refer to both the song and its associated dance. Because song and dance are dealt with under separate headings, inclusion of reconstructions into one or the other is sometimes arbitrary.
| POc | *raŋi | ‘a song to accompany dance’; ‘to sing, song, melody’ (Pawley 1976) | |
| NNG | Manam | raŋ | ‘song’ |
| NNG | Takia | (i)raŋ | ‘a festival normally held during a full moon’9 |
| NNG | Mapos Buang | ran | ‘women’s dance’10 |
| PPn | *laŋi | ‘sing, song’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | laŋi | ‘singing or song, esp. accompanying a native dance’ |
| Pn | Samoan | laŋi | ‘sing; song’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | raŋi, aŋa | ‘air of dance song’ |
| Pn | Māori | raŋi | ‘tune, air, portion of a song’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | rai(fa) | ‘native song’ |
| NCV | Mota | leŋa | ‘a women’s dance’ |
| NCV | Raga | leŋa | ‘k.o. dance, usually performed by men’ |
| NCV | Uripiv | na-leŋ | ‘a traditional dance’ |
| NCV | Nguna | leɣa | ‘to sing, song’ |
| POc | *bʷaku | [V] ‘to sing, dance’ | |
| Adm | Seimat | pak | [VI] ‘sing, dance’ |
| Adm | Seimat | paku-a | [N] ‘song, dance, chant’ |
| NNG | Uvol | pau | ‘to sing’ |
| NNG | Uvol | pau-ŋa | ‘song’ (Laade 1999: 117) |
| NNG | Mengen | vau | ‘to sing’ |
| NNG | Mengen | bau-ŋa | ‘song’ |
| NNG | Bariai | bau | ‘to sing’ |
| NNG | Bariai | bau-ŋa | ‘song’ |
| NNG | Gitua | bʷau | ‘to sing’ |
| NNG | Kove | vou | ‘to sing’ |
| MM | Nakanai | bau, bau-bau | ‘to sing, sound (of drum)’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | pak | [VT] ‘compose a song, arrange a dance’ |
In the central Caroline Islands people perform wuur as part of a long sequence of dance songs during special community gatherings (Diettrich et al. 2011:23).
| PChk | *uru | ‘play, dance’ (not in Bender et al. 2003a) | |
| Mic | Puluwatese | wur | ‘to play’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | uẓu | [N] ‘dance, play, game’; [VI] ‘dance, play’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | ur | [N, VI] ‘traditional means of recreation incl. dances and games’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | ukkuru | [N] ‘game’; [VI] ‘play a game’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | kkure | ‘play, game, drama’ |
The term below appears to be limited to Polynesia.
| PPn | *siwa | ‘sing and dance’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | hiva | [VI] ‘to sing’; [N] ‘singing, song, singer; choir’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | yiva | ‘a type of chant’ |
| Pn | Samoan | siva | ‘to dance’; [N] ‘dance’ (John Jackson as quoted by Erskine 1853:416); ‘dance accompanied by song’ (Pratt 1911) |
| Pn | Tikopia | siwa | ‘dance said to be a dance of the spirits’ |
| Pn | East Uvean | hiva | ‘song’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | siva | ‘a traditional style of dancing’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | hiva | ‘dance’ |
| Pn | Māori | hiwa | ‘lightheartedness as shown in singing, laughing; wakeful, alert; charm recited over newborn child’ |
| NCV | Loh | hawa | ‘dance (generic)’ |
| NCV | Mota | sawa | ‘perform a manly dance’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | haw | ‘perform a manly dance’ |
| NCV | Ambae | sawa | ‘k.o. dance’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | heiva | ‘general term for any amusement, sport, singing, archery etc.’(Ellis 1831: 204) |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | heva | ‘k.o. lament’ |
One popular song form is the part song, with narrator/introductory soloist and group responders for chorus. In a number of songs mentioned by Laade (1999:117), performed at Maenge, Lote and Mamusi, the chorus is repeated identically several times, whereas changes occur in the ‘counting’ by the soloist. ‘Counting’ means that in each new stanza a key word – always a name, either of a person or clan, village, animal, plant – is altered, often so as to refer to incidents or known people. Hogbin describes a song from Longgu (SES) sung by males at a girl’s face-marking which similarly consists of soloist and chorus (Hogbin 1964a:24). Physical activity such as paddling a canoe over long distances or hauling a heavy log may also be accompanied by singing or chanting, with the dual purpose of synchronising effort and relieving the spirits. These too are usually in the form of statement and response. One such hauling chant with call and response is emweir, from Chuuk, described by Diettrich (2007:50).
| PMP | *saRup | ‘to sing in unison’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *saRu(p) | ‘sing in unison’ | |
| NCV | Mota | saru | ‘begin a song with many voices together’ |
| Fij | Wayan | ðau(ri)- | [VT] ‘start off a song, lead off the singing’ |
| Fij | Bauan | ðau(ri) | ‘to sing the meke [dance song] to which the matana dance’ |
| Pn | Tongan | tau | ‘chorus, refrain’ |
| Pn | Niuean | tau | ‘act together, at the same time’ |
| SES | Gela | hulu | ‘a tune, compose a tune, start a song’ |
| SES | Arosi | suru(ʔi) | [VT] ‘to sing’ |
| SES | Sa’a | sulu | [VI] ‘sing, make music’ |
Children will often sing or chant as accompaniment for particular games. Some of these chants have been recorded in detail. See particularly Ivens 1927:93-108 for Sa’a and Ulawa, Fox 1924:191-202 for Arosi, Koch, 1984:161-190 for Tuvalu. Although a number of early ethnographers recorded the particular chants that accompanied the making of string figures, and in some cases attempted translations, many are described by their own speakers as untranslatable, perhaps because they have been borrowed from a language unknown to the player, have become distorted through transmission over time, or are simply meaningless jingles of the “fol de rol” variety. Handy (1925:10) suggests that “so hazy is the native memory regarding the ancient legends and tales whose events and characters are referred to in a fragmentary way in these sing-song jingles, that few of them could be explained”. Cognate terms have been located only in Polynesia.
| PPn | *fanaŋa | ‘story intended for entertainment and usually containing repetitions of a short chant’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | fanaŋa | ‘fictitious fable or story’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | fanaŋa | ‘fairytale’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | wānoŋa | ‘a story, tale’ |
| Pn | Samoan | fāŋono | ‘tale with a song’ (Pratt 1911) |
| PNPn | *pese | ‘sing; song, chant’ | |
| Pn | Rennellese | pese | ‘clapping song’ |
| Pn | Samoan | pese | ‘generic term for sing, song, music’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | pese | ‘sing’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | pese | ‘sing, chant; song’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | peʔe | ‘a rhythmic chant, usually commemorating some historical event’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | pehe | ‘song, sing’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | pehe | ‘song’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | pehe-pehe | ‘rhythmic recitative’ |
| Pn | Manihiki | pehe | ‘rhythmically recited text accompanying children’s games’ |
| Pn | Mangaia | peʔe | ‘chant, recite a chant, esp. historic/epic’ |
| Pn | Marquesan | pehe | ‘game played with string’ |
Solo singing is associated with the private sphere and consists chiefly of charms or magic spells, sung or recited in secret by an individual. Incantations are sung or chanted, the performer accompanying his incantation with necessary rituals. In Bwaidoga, as described by Jenness & Ballantyne (1928:127),
There are incantations for the sunshine and the rain, for raising the wind and for making it subside again, for calming a stormy sea, for ensuring success in hunting and in fishing, for producing disease and sickness and again for healing those; in fact there is not one single sphere of man’s activity in which an incantation cannot help him.
Individual songs mentioned by Laade (1999:148) for Maenge include walu, spells or charms for good results in gardening, fishing, pregnancy, childbirth etc. Diettrich (2007:48) writes that in Chuuk, “according to according to Krämer’s ethnography (1932, based on fieldwork 1908–10) … what listeners do not hear … are the many chants associated with different types of rooŋ ‘special knowledge’ such as preparing medicines, controlling the environment, war strategy, and other types, many of which were associated with magic or spiritual power.” This was highly secret knowledge. In Samoa, incantations were listed by Moyle as (i) for protection in battle, (ii) good luck in activities, (iii) cure of physical ailments. The possibility of success required exact recitation of the text and an actual performance of the ritual acts (Moyle 1988:73). Incantations were in effect sacred songs. An important function of music in Polynesian life, as pointed out by Handy (1927:208) is to add power to incantations and prayers.
A number of phonologically similar low-level reconstructions for terms meaning something like ‘make an incantation’ are possible, but it has proved impossible to combine them. (See §8.2.1).
A function of songs or chants generally shared by preliterate societies lies in using them to commemorate and pass down traditional lore, including stories of significant events, deeds of heroes both past and mythical, genealogies, and creation myths. Many serve a moral purpose. As chants they serve both as aids to memory and instruction. The tradition of chanting for this purpose is now most pronounced in Polynesia, where different languages have adapted a range of more general terms to refer specifically to chants. Reflexes of POc *roŋoR ‘hear’, often reduplicated, have extended their meaning in the Chuukic languages of Micronesia and in Eastern Polynesia to cover chants of traditional knowledge.
| POc | *roroŋoR | ‘to sound, be audible’ (cf. POc *roŋoR ‘hear’, vol.5:499–503) | |
| MM | Tolai | raroŋo | [VI] ‘to sing as water before boiling, or to sound as running water’ |
| PROc | *[ro]roŋoR | [V] ‘sing; chant, recite traditional lore’; [N] ‘traditional lore’ | |
| Mic | Chuukese | rōŋ | ‘secretive cultural knowledge’ (Diettrich 2007:48)11 |
| Mic | Woleaian | ẓoŋo | ‘traditional lore; knowledge that passes down from father to son’ |
| Mic | Woleaian | ẓoŋī-a | [VT] ‘sing, recite, relate, verbalise s.t.’ |
| PPn | *loloŋo | ‘sing, song’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Niuean | loloŋo (tuai) | ‘traditional songs, chants’ (tuai ‘ancient’) |
| Pn | Tongan | loloŋo | ‘singers collectively providing music at a meʔe- tuʔupaki’ (k.o. dance) |
| Pn | Rennellese | gogoŋo | ‘song of praise or thanks to a god’ |
| Pn | Pileni | loŋo | ‘sing, song’ |
| Pn | Māori | roroŋo | ‘repeat the commencement of a song’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | roroʔo | ‘begin to sing’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | roroŋo | ‘chant of glory in praise of a hero’ (Burrows 1933: 50) |
| Pn | Marquesan | ʔono-ʔono | ‘bards’ |
| Pn | Mangarevan | roŋo-roŋo | ‘chants accompanied by beating of drums’ |
| Pn | Rapanui | roŋo-roŋo | ‘scholars who sang the old chants at festivals and during religious ritual’ (Buck 1964:243)12 |
| NCV | Mota | roŋo-rav | ‘men’s dance’ (lit. ‘evening song/dance’; A. François, pers. comm.) |
| NCV | Mwotlap | nɔ-jɔŋɛp | ‘men’s dance’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | roro | [N, V] ‘chant’ |
Several of the terms referring to traditional knowledge in Polynesian languages are terms describing associated action or method of delivery of such knowledge. The Tuamotus use faŋu ‘old chants recording myths and concepts of creation’ (Buck 1964), ‘solemn or sacred chants’ (Burrows 1933), presumably from PPn *faŋu ‘breathe or blow through the nose’. Pukapukans, Rennellese, Rarotongans and Mangarevans use a term for their ritual chants derived from PPn *kapa ‘flap, of wings or stretched out arms’.
| PPn | *kapa | ‘flap, of wings or stretched out arms’ (PNPn *kapa ‘dance to accompany ritual chant’; cf. vol. 4:267) | |
| Pn | Tongan | kapa | ‘stretch out the arms’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | kapa | ‘k.o. chant or dance associated with the underworld’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | kapa | ‘sacred ritual circle dance and chant’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | kapa | ‘dance with action song’ |
| Pn | Mangarevan | kapa | ‘k.o. ritual chant’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | kapa | ‘flap, flutter (wings, arms), esp. to perform the arm and hand gesures that accompanied the old songs and chants’ |
Storytelling, especially of narratives passed down through the generations, was an important activity in perhaps all traditional Oceanic-speaking societies. In some communities certain stories were the property of a particular family line, and only its leading elder was permitted to tell them. The POc term for telling a story, *takunu ‘tell, narrate’, effectively refers to a whole speech event rather than a single speech act. All EOc reflexes have -u- in the first syllable, but this seems to be the result of vowel assimilation, as the Bali root is -taɣuni and the Maringe root tonu, i.e. < *taunu < *takunu.
| POc | *takunu | ‘tell a story, narrate’ | |
| MM | Bali | va-taɣuni | ‘tell, narrate’ (va- CAUSATIVE) |
| MM | Maringe | tou-tonu | ‘tell story’ |
| PEOc | *tukunu | ‘tell a story, tell news’ | |
| SES | Bugotu | tuɣuni poto | ‘to tell a folklore tale’ (poto ‘folklore tale’) |
| SES | Gela | tu-tuɣu | ‘tell, report, tell news’ |
| SES | Gela | tuɣuni | [VT] ‘tell, say, tell about’ |
| SES | Tolo | tu-tuɣunu(na) | ‘story, tale’ |
| SES | Longgu | nu | [VT] ‘tell a story’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | uʔunu | [N] ‘story, traditional or not’; [VI] ‘tell a story about’ |
| SES | Lau | ūnu | ‘to tell, tell a folktale; to gossip, talk’ |
| SES | Lau | ūnua | [N] ‘folk story’ |
| SES | Kwaio | unu | ‘tell (a story)’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | uʔun-a | ‘tell, relate, narrate’ |
| PNCV | *tukunu | ‘story, tell a story’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Nokuku | (tuk)tukun | ‘murmur, complain, speak evil; story, to talk’ |
| NCV | Paamese | tūnu [rūn] | [V] ‘chat, tell stories, yarn’ |
| NCV | Nese | tuɣ-tuɣun | ‘tell story’ |
| NCV | Atchin | tutuɣun-en | ‘k.o. story’ |
| NCV | Namakir | tukunu | [N] ‘story, tale’ |
| Fij | Wayan | tukuni- | [VT] ‘report, mention or relate s.t., tell or talk about s.t.’ |
| Fij | Bauan | tukun- | [VT] ‘tell, relate, announce’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | [tuku-]tuku(ŋa) | [N] ‘customs’ |
PPn evidently had a term *tala ‘tell stories; tale, story’. Listed under ‘cf. also’ below are what Pawley & Sayaba (in prep.) suggest is a Fijian borrowing from a Polynesian source, a comment supported by the fact that reflexes of PPn *tala-noa have an obvious etymology, *tala ‘tell a story’ + *noa ‘worthless, ordinary’, but Fijian has only the composite form.
| PPn | *tala | ‘tell stories; tale, story’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | tala | ‘tell, relate’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tala | ‘tell; story; tale, legend; report; account, statement’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | tala | ‘story, news, report’ |
| Pn | East Uvean | tala | ‘narrate, narration’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | tala | ‘speak, say, relate’ |
| Fij | Wayan | talanoa | ‘tell stories, talk for pleasure’ |
| Fij | Bauan | talanoa | ‘chat, tell stories’ |
| PPn | *tala-noa | ‘talk uselessly’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | tala-noa | ‘talk informally, tell stories or relate experiences’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tala-noa | ‘chat; make conversation’ |
The Proto Nuclear Polynesian noun *[ka]kai ‘traditional story’ below was evidently a nominalisation of an erstwhile verb PCP *kʷai ‘say, tell’, itself a reflex of POc *kʷa, *kʷai- ‘say, tell’, reconstructed in §12.3.1.
| PNPn | *[ka]kai | ‘traditional story’ | |
| Pn | Rennellese | ka-kai | ‘culture hero’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | ka-kai | ‘legend, folk tale’ |
| Pn | Nukuoro | kai | ‘legend, story’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | kai | ‘traditional tale’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | ʔa-ʔai | ‘legend, story’ |
| Pn | Māori | kai | ‘riddle, puzzle, toy’ |
| Pn | Marquesan | kai | ‘play all kinds of games’ |
| Pn | Rapanui | kai-kai | ‘string games’ |
| NCV | Mota | ka-kae | ‘to speak, talk, tell a story’ |
Lullabies are another kind of solo singing. Laade (1999:117) describes paŋamomo as a Maenge lullaby, but comments that any slow song (e.g. Uvol uŋalele and mititi) can be sung as a lullaby or for self-entertainment in the garden. A number of terms have been recorded from a wide range of subgroups, resulting in just one reconstruction. Some are possibly names for particular tunes rather than a generic term.
| POc | *oli-oli | ‘a lullaby’ | |
| NNG | Mamusi | ol-ole | ‘lullaby’ |
| PNPn | *oli-oli | ‘a chant’ (POLLEX; cf. PPn *oli ‘move to and fro, move rhythmically’) | |
| Pn | Rennellese | ogi-ogi | ‘worship, comfort a child’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | ori-ori | ‘recite formula of thanks by abasement; funeral dance song acknowledging deceased man of rank’ |
| Pn | Māori | ori-ori | ‘chanted lullaby’ |
| Pn | Nukuoro | oli-oli | ‘put to sleep by singing lullaby’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | oli-oli | ‘prayer for good fishing catch’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | oli-oli | ‘a chant not danced to’ |
Love songs form another group of solo songs. They are sung or chanted to make a member of the opposite sex enamoured and the advances of the charmer irresistible, and are accompanied by specific ritual acts. Again, no reconstructions have been made.
In Oceanic societies the death of a person is usually marked by loud lamentations. POc *taŋis (vol.5:321–322) has the general meaning ‘to cry’, or more explicitly ‘make a sound appropriate to one’s character’. Thus it includes both animal and human sounds, and may also be extended to cover sounds made by musical instruments.
| PAn | *Caŋis | ‘to weep, cry; mourn; beseech’ (ACD) | |
| PMP | *taŋis | ‘to cry’ | |
| POc | *taŋis, *taŋis-i | ‘cry, wail, lament, for humans; for animals to make a sound appropriate to their character; for musical instruments to sound’ | |
| Adm | Lou | teŋ-teŋ | ‘cry, weep’ |
| Adm | Seimat | taŋi | [VI] ‘cry, lament (used of any sound made by any animal’ |
| NNG | Mengen | tan-taniŋ | ‘sad songs speaking of sad events’ (‘cry’) |
| NNG | Uvol | tan-taniŋ | ‘songs with sad themes and tunes, story songs’ |
| NNG | Gedaged | ta | [VI] ‘cry, bawl, weep, sob, wail, whimper, scream’ |
| PT | Motu | tai | [VI] ‘to cry, howl (of dogs)’ |
| MM | Minigir | taŋis-i | ‘cry’ |
| MM | Tolai | taŋi | ‘cry, weep, wail, make a noise as of water shaken in a bottle; to sing of birds and musical instruments’; [N] ‘sound’ |
| MM | Banoni | tanisi | ‘musical function of crying; laments’ (Stella) |
| SES | Bugotu | taŋi | ‘cry, cry aloud, lament, wail’ |
| SES | Lau | āŋi | ‘cry; produce a sound, eg bird, trumpet, thunder’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | aŋi | [VI] ‘cry; produce its characteristic sound’ (also of musical instruments) |
| SES | Arosi | aŋi | ‘to cry, sound (almost any sound, bell, bird, swish of water etc.)’ |
| NCV | Mota | taŋi | ‘weep, cry with reference to both tears and sound; cry of birds, animals; sound of musical instruments’ |
| NCV | Mota | taŋis | ‘cry for’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | taŋi-si | ‘cry, mourn for’ |
| SV | Sye | toŋi | ‘cry for’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | caŋit | ‘cry for s.o.’ |
| Fij | Bauan | taŋi | ‘to give out sound; of humans, to cry, weep, lament; of animals, to cry, mew, crow etc.’ |
| Pn | Tongan | taŋi | ‘cry, weep, make a characteristic sound’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | taŋi | ‘a death chant; lament’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | taŋi-taŋi | ‘a boasting chant’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taŋi | ‘cry, weep, make a characteristic noise; song included in fāŋoŋo, a genre of spoken fictional narrative’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taŋi-tau-tala | ‘a mournful dirge at a funeral, telling of misdeeds which caused the death’ (lit. ‘to speak while crying’) |
| Pn | Māori | taŋi | [VI] ‘give forth a sound; weep, utter a plaintive cry; sing a dirge’; [N] ‘sound; lamentation, dirge’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | taŋi | ‘any noise or sound, but especially of weeping’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | taŋi | ‘cry, wail, sing mourning song’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | kani | ‘cry out, sound’ |
Fortune (1932:251) describes the situation in Dobu.
Every Dobuan is a song-maker. Any interesting event calls forth a number of songs. There is very little imitation. The form is more or less stereotyped as in our sonnet form. There is much emphasis on originality of content. The songmaker is proud of his creation, proud of its originality, and he has rights to prevent others from using his song, at least for a while. He must give his permission before his song is used for the dance.
Very many songs accordingly die a quick death.
This concept of ownership is recorded elsewhere in Oceania. In Vanuatu, for instance, Ammann (1997) writes that “Each important song in Vanuatu belongs to either one person or several persons of the same lineage. Songs are not allowed to be performed without the permission of the owner”. François and Stern (2013:90) write that in northern Vanuatu traditional songs are composed in a specific, poetic language distinct from ordinary speech, and the ability to compose a song in this register is reserved to very few. All poetry is sung, and the artist who composes the poem also chooses the melody.
Few sources distinguish between the words and the music. Fortune comments on Dobuan songs that “There is no concept of rhyme, only occasional assonance” (1932:305). A single PPn reconstruction has been possible for ‘tune’.
| PPn | *fati | ‘tune, melody’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | fasi | ‘tune, melody’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | fati | ‘tune, refrain of a song’ |
| Pn | Samoan | fati | ‘tune, melody’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | fati | ‘melody, tune’ |
In a widespead and thorough survey of Polynesian music, McLean (1999:384) writes that “in most communities it appears that anyone could compose songs”. He adds, though, that sometimes, composition of more important songs devolved to specialists, and in some areas there were named classes of specialist composers.
A PPn reconstruction, *fatu, has the dual meaning ‘compose a song’ and ‘weave’. Mclean suggests that “the weaving image seems particularly apt for composition involving adaptation or the combining together of elements from earlier songs. Or perhaps it refers to the fitting together of tune and text like the warp and weft of weaving” (1999:385).
| PPn | *fatu | ‘weave, compose (e.g. a song)’ (PMP *batuR, POc *patu(R) ‘plait, weave’; see vol.1:81-82) | |
| Pn | Tongan | fatu | ‘compose a song; begin making a mat’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | fatu | ‘compose a song’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | hatu | ‘compose a song; fold, bend, lash’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | watu | ‘compose song, chant etc.; make, as as wreath’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | ʔatu | ‘compose music, poetry; put together, as a wreath’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | haku | ‘compose, invent; braid, as a lei, plait, as feathers’ |
Villages traditionally have cleared spaces, which are used for dancing and other communal activities. They may be referred to by reflexes of POc *m(a,e)laqai ‘open space in a settlement’ or POc *mʷalala ‘cleared land, but not built on or planted’ (vol.1:63-64).
Although dance, like song, is open to innovation and borrowing, a number of features recur. All dances are group dances. A dance is typically a celebration, usually joyful although there are dances to commemorate the dead or mark some kind of mortuary ceremony, and dances to mark rites of passage. There are night dances and daytime dances. There are also war dances, with men brandishing shields and clubs. In New Guinea, most dances are accompanied by kundu drums (§6.2.6). Flutes and panpipes may accompany dances in the southeast Solomons, where kundu drums are unknown. Singing accompaniment is common, often performed by one sex while the other dances. Sexes usually dance separately, and sometimes dancers are differentiated by age, with older men or women performing separate roles from their younger counterparts. A recurring motif is the representation of an animal or bird’s movements. Dances may be accompanied by clapping and stamping.
Blackwood describes the dance of Petats speakers (Buka, northwest Solomons), where there is only one form, kōma, used for all occasions, both ceremonial and social. There are three movements, varied at the pleasure of the dancer. They are tshok-tshok, advancing and retreating to and from the circle of men, with a balancing step first on one foot and then the other, gumsu, standing on one spot and rocking up and down with bent knees in a sort of jigging movement, and pi, which is a series of hops on the left foot only, with the right foot raised, its toe pointing to the ground. The general word for the women’s dance is sōʔol (1935:414-5).
Throughout Micronesia, the expressive use of the body as an accompaniment to sung poetry is a fundamental and highly valued aspect of performance (Diettrich et al 2011:20). They continue: “Many dances in Micronesia display standing or sitting positions, groupings separated by gender, an emphasis on particular attire and adornments, and the expressive use of hands, arms, and sometimes feet to produce synchronous rhythmic accompaniments.” They describe a genre known as wuur, a type of vocal music performed as group seated dances using hand and arm movements punctuated by hand claps (2011:21).
Firth (1985) notes that “whereas types of dance performance [are] relatively limited (cf. matavaka, mori, ŋore, tusoko13 etc) and seldom augmented, the number of dance songs is vast and continually being added to.”
Although wordlist compilers have listed dozens of terms for the names of particular dances, few generic terms for the activity have been identified, probably because dancing is not considered as distinct from its music or associated celebration. Some reconstructions are simply action verbs ‘to hop’, ‘kick’, ‘stamp’, ‘clap’ and so on.
Several POc terms for ‘dance’ can be reconstructed, but the meanings of their reflexes are too varied for a more precise gloss to be reconstructed.
| POc | *sagar | [N,V] ‘dance’ | |
| PT | Molima | sagali | (1) ‘drum’; (2) ‘major mortuary ceremony’ (apparently borrowed from a Suauic language) |
| PT | Saliba | saga | ‘to dance’ |
| PPn | *saka | ‘dance’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | haka | [N] ‘hand action while singing’; [VI] ‘move the hands rhythmically, esp. while singing’ |
| Pn | Tongan | haka-ʔi | [VT] ‘sing or chant with appropriate hand movements’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | saka | ‘dance with hand and foot action’ |
| Pn | East Uvean | haka | ‘dance’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | saka | ‘song without instruments or clapping’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | yaka | ‘a style of dancing’ |
| Pn | Samoan | saʔa-saʔa | [V] ‘dance’ |
| Pn | Luangiua | saʔa | ‘mourning song; song sung when s.o. is dying’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | saka | ‘perform rites in traditional religious system’ |
| Pn | Māori | haka | [N] ‘dance, song accompanying a dance’; [V] ‘dance, sing a song to be accompanied by a dance’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | haka | ‘line of men facing line of women. Movements include stamping, hip and shoulder movements and various actions of arms and hands’ |
| NNG | Uvol | sasaŋa | ‘action songs with miming of certain themes sung by a mixed chorus with drums while men dance’(Laade 1999: 147) |
| SES | Gela | saki | ‘to go on one leg as a bird, to hop’ |
| POc | *mako | [N] ‘dance’; [V] ‘perform a dance’ | |
| NNG | Sissano (Arop) | moʔo | ‘festival; dancing and singsing’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | mao | ‘k.o. dance; one group sits on ground and sings, others dance around them. No panpipes.’ |
| SES | Sa’a | mao | [VI] ‘to dance, generic term’ |
| SES | Kwaio | mao | ‘dance’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | mao | ‘to dance, a dance’ |
| SES | Arosi | mao | ‘to dance’ |
| SES | Arosi | (hai)mao | ‘dancing’ (RECIPROCAL) |
| SES | Arosi | ma-mao | ‘a dancing place’ |
| SES | Arosi | mao-mao | ‘to dance; to turn round in the wind’ |
| SES | Lau | mao | ‘to dance’ |
| SES | Lau | mao-ma | ‘a feast; feast and dancing’ |
| TM | Buma | -mako | ‘to dance’ |
| TM | Tanema | -mako | ‘to dance’ |
| TM | Tanema | mako(ne) | [N] ‘a dance’ |
| PNCV | *mako | ‘boys’ dance’ (François 2013) | |
| NCV | Mota | maɣo | ‘boys’ dance’ |
| NCV | Dorig | maɣ | ‘boys’ dance’ |
| NCV | Lakon | maɣ | ‘boys’ dance’ |
| Pn | Tongan | mako | [N, VI] ‘(perform a) native dance’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | mako | ‘k.o. chant; to chant’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | mako | ‘dance, dance song; to dance’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | mako | [N] ‘dance, generic’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | maka | ‘to sing, dance, intone or recite, accompanied by rhythmical bodily movements’ |
| Fij | Bauan | meke | [N] ‘generic term for various native dances’; [V] ‘perform a dance’ |
| POc | *lagar | ‘dance accompanied by singing’ | |
| MM | Tolai | laŋgāra | [VI] ‘to dance and sing’; [N] ‘a dance accompanied by singing’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | lagar | ‘dance’ |
| MM | Patpatar | lukara | ‘feast with traditional dancing’ |
| NCV | Mota | laka | ‘to kick up the heels as in dancing; to dance’ |
| NCV | Mota | laka-laka | ‘to rejoice, dance; a dance, merry-making’ |
| PNCV | *sale | ‘jump, dance’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Mota | sale | ‘to leap’ |
| NCV | Raga | hala | ‘wave hands in dancing’ |
| NCV | Labo | yale-yale | ‘singsing’ |
| NCV | Nguna | sale | ‘to dance’ |
| SES | Bugotu | sale | ‘to sing, a song’ |
| PCP | *se(q)a | ‘k.o. dance’ (POLLEX) | |
| Fij | Rotuman | sea | ‘native song’ |
| Fij | Wayan | sea-sea | [N] ‘a standing dance with song performed by a line or lines of women’; [V] ‘perform such a standing dance’ |
| Fij | Bauan | sea-sea | ‘k.o. meke danced with fans by women’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | sea | ‘k.o. dance and associated song with elaborate hand and foot movements’ |
The verb for ‘clap’ or ‘slap’, traceable back to PAn, is also used in PPn as a noun referring to a paddle-shaped instrument used in some kinds of dances, presumably involving slapping movements.
| PAn | *pakpak | ‘to clap, sound of clapping or flapping’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *baki | ‘strike one against another, knock, clap’ (vol.2:272) | |
| PPn | *paki | [N] ‘paddle-shaped instrument used when dancing’; [V] ‘slap’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | paki | ‘paddle or flat club used in a dance’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | paki | ‘paddle-shaped instrument used when dancing’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | paki | [V] ‘slap, strike with open hand’ |
| Pn | East Uvean | paki | ‘dance bat’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | paki | [V] ‘clap hands, strike’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | pa-paki | [V] ‘slap, hit, smack’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | paki | ‘dance bat, long flat rectangle with handle’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | pa-paki | [V] ‘slap’ |
| Pn | Anutan | paki | ‘paddle-like instrument usd in certain dancing’ |
| Pn | Māori | paki | [VT] ‘slap, pat, clap’ |
| Pn | Māori | pa-paki | [N] ‘game played by two players clapping hands in unison to a chant’ |
In the following set, *a > o is a change conditioned by labiovelar *pʷ.
| POc | *pʷaja(R) | [VI] ‘clap hands’ | |
| POc | *pʷajaR-i | [VT] ‘slap with open hand’ (vol.5:470) | |
| Adm | Mussau | posala | [VT] ‘slap with an open hand’ |
| Adm | Mussau | posalā | [VI] ‘clap’ |
| Adm | Baluan | (yek) pot | ‘slap, hit with open hand’ (yek ‘hit’) |
| Adm | Baluan | (yek) potpot | ‘clap hands’ |
| NNG | Sissano | -pot | ‘clap, beat’ |
| NNG | Sio | -poⁿza | ‘slap, clap one’s hands’ |
| NNG | Bariai | poda | ‘slap’ |
| NNG | Mangseng | (so)pðal | ‘slap’ |
| NNG | Mangseng | (so)po-pðal | ‘clap hands’ |
| PT | Gumawana | pʷasi | ‘clap’ |
| PT | Bunama | (lima)pʷasi | ‘clap hands’ |
| PT | Sinaugoro | foro | ‘slap, hit’ |
| MM | Madak | pasa | ‘clap’ |
| MM | Sursurunga | posar, posri | ‘slap, clap, hit with open palm’ |
| MM | Patpatar | pasar | ‘slap; beat drum’ |
| MM | Ramoaaina | par | ‘clap; slap, hit; play (hourglass drum)’ |
| MM | Minigir | pasari | ‘hit’ |
| MM | Nehan | posala | ‘slap, esp. on the back of the head’ (-l- for †-r-) |
| MM | Solos | pasan | ‘hit’ |
| MM | Teop | panana | ‘slap, hit’ |
| MM | Babatana | po-posara | ‘clap hands’ |
| SES | Kwaio | fodal-i | ‘slap’ |
| PNCV | *voza | ‘clap, slap, strike’ (Clark 2009) | |
| NCV | Mota | wosa | ‘slap, smack, clap’ |
| NCV | Raga | vosa | ‘slap (with one hand) once, clap hands together once’ |
| NCV | Raga | voha-i | ‘strike, throw, shoot’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | voja-i | ‘strike, slap’ |
| NCV | Tamambo | voja-voja-i (lima) | ‘clap, pat’ |
| NCV | Big Nambas | -usa | ‘slap’ |
| NCV | Nguna | wosa+e-a | ‘clap (hands or flat objects)’ |
| NCV | Nguna | wosa-wosa | ‘clap one’s hands’ |
| Fij | Wayan | voða-, voða-ki | ‘slap s.t. with open hand or hands together’ |
| SES | Tolo | pica-pica | ‘clap hands together’ |
| SES | Tolo | picali- | ‘spank; hit, slap or tap with open hand’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | fida-fida | ‘clap one’s hands in applause’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | fidal-i | ‘slap hard’ |
| SES | Arosi | hida | ‘slap’ |
In some dances the dancers stamp their feet on the ground. The general POc term for stamping one’s foot was *butu, and the Bugotu, Mota, Mwotlap, Marshallese and Tuamotuan reflexes make specific reference too dancing.
| POc | *butu | [VI] ‘stamp foot, tread, kick’ | |
| POc | *butuR-i- | ‘stamp on, tread on, trample’ (vol.5:474) | |
| Adm | Seimat | putu-i | [VT] ‘stamp, kick’ |
| PT | Saliba | utu | ‘to step’ |
| SES | Bugotu | bū-butu | ‘stamp the foot in dancing, tread hard’ |
| SES | Bugotu | butul-i | ‘trample, kick’ |
| SES | Gela | butu-butu | ‘kick with the feet, in swimming’ |
| SES | Gela | butul-i | [VT] ‘kick backwards, as a horse’ |
| SES | Longgu | butu-butu | ‘(heart) beat; do things to show that you are looking for a fight (e.g. stamping feet, to prepare to punch s.o.)’ |
| SES | Tolo | butu | ‘kick’ |
| SES | Tolo | butul-i | ‘step on’ |
| SES | To’aba’ita | bū | ‘step on the ground, put one’s foot on the ground’ |
| SES | ’Are’are | pū | ‘hit, stamp, tread, rely on, stand firm’ |
| SES | Sa’a | pū | [VI] ‘to tread, stamp, stand firm, rely on’ |
| SES | Kwaio | bū | ‘tread, step’ |
| SES | Arosi | pū | ‘tread, stamp, rest, stand firm, rely on’ |
| SES | Arosi | pūl-i | ‘pounce, on, of birds, strike with the talons’ |
| NCV | Mota | put | ‘stamp on the ground (in anger, in singing)’ |
| NCV | Raga | butu | ‘stand strongly’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | ᵐbit | [VI] ‘tap the ground with one’s foot, esp. to begin a dance session’ |
| NCV | Port Sandwich | ᵐbyr-ᵐbyr-in-i | ‘trample underfoot’ |
| NCV | Neve’ei | bit | ‘step on, in’ |
| PMic | *pʷutu | ‘step, tread, apply one’s foot’ | |
| Mic | Kosraean | fut-fut | ‘kick’ |
| Mic | Kosraean | futu-ŋ | ‘kick, stomp (s.t.)’ |
| Mic | Marshallese | bʷic-bʷic | ‘kick, a dance’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | pʷu | ‘place one’s foot’ |
| Mic | Chuukese | pʷūr-i | ‘step on, tread on’ |
| Mic | Puluwatese | pūr-i | ‘stamp or tread on’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷū-bʷu | ‘to stamp, stand on’ |
| Mic | Carolinian | bʷū-ri | ‘step, stomp, tread on (s.t.)’ |
| Fij | Bauan | butu | ‘stamp, tread’ |
| Fij | Bauan | butu-ka | ‘stamp or tread on’ |
| Fij | Wayan | butu-ki | ‘stamp or tread on s.t., trample s.t.’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | putu | ‘dance with hand-clapping’ |
There are occasional mentions of a rhythmic activity performed by women standing in waist-deep water and making music by hitting the surface with the hand. Non-cognate terms have been collected from Dobu (bʷetu), Teop (vasipau), To’aba’ita (giigilo), Longgu (tio-tio) and Lakon (wes-paŋ). Chenoweth (1976:3) has recorded a similar activity in the non-Austronesian language of Binumarien in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea where women slap the water rhythmically to accompany their singing when they swim in the river. These activities have probably arisen independently. François and Stern (2013:101) report that when performed in Banks Islands, these have become popular with tourists and as a result have gained in sophistication.
Public dances provide an opportunity for participants to go to considerable effort in decorating their bodies. While everyday dress may include regular oiling of the body and the wearing of combs, bracelets, arm and leg bands (see vol.1:101), a dance may be an excuse to go further, painting the face and body with clay or lime and wearing elaborate head-dresses made from feathers, animal fur and various flowers and leaves. POc *wali ‘paint, smear, rub on’ has been reconstructed in addition to POc *pani ‘apply oil or paint to the body’ (vol.1:101).
| POc | *wali | ‘paint, smear, rub on’ (ACD) | |
| MM | Nakanai | vali | ‘apply paint, feathers etc. to head or body’ |
| Fij | Bauan | wali | ‘to anoint’ |
| Pn | Tongan | vali | ‘paint or smear (house, sore etc)’ |
| Pn | Niuean | vali | [VT] ‘paint, smear’ |
| Pn | Samoan | vali | [V] ‘paint’; [N] ‘paint, dye’ |
In places, masks are worn by dancers, sometimes representing animals or birds whose movements are echoed in the dance, and sometimes to inspire terror (see Hogbin 1970 for Wogeo, Valentine 1965 for Lakalai, Powdermaker 1933 for Lesu). The Qat [kpʷat] dance masks of the Banks Islands serve as the visual representation of the ancestral dead. These highly intricate and often spectacular headdresses are sometimes called ‘spirits’ (tamate in Mota). They are worn exclusively by men who have passed certain initiation rites (François 2013).
Although a number of detailed descriptions exist of the role of song and dance in Oceanic societies today, many describing recurrent features, relevant terms tend not to be stable. Both song and dance are recognised as outlets for creative activities, activities where invention is admired and sought after. The following examples from Vanuatu and Samoa illustrate.
In Vanuatu as described by Crowe (1996:147),
singing, dancing and playing instruments are all in the realm of oral tradition, which includes mnemonic formulae… Rather than being conservative (unchanging), Vanuatu oral tradition is dynamic and adapting. One operating principle is ‘getting away with breaking the rules’, referring to a deeper ‘rule’, being ‘capacity to reinvent’. Thus ritual forms can undergo gradual but visible alteration over time. Much traditional music and dance is in a constant state of change.
Moyle describes the situation in Samoa. Most dance songs are created either in response to or for the purposes of particular occasions. The former tend to be humorous, some to the point of ridicule. The preservation and in some cases, widespread use of such songs may be attributable to the popular appeal of the value systems on which their humour is predicated, and to the freedom with which they may be performed. The particular occasion songs are more serious and are object-specific, laden with local allusions both historical and contemporary, mythological and real. The occasion for and location of public performance are likely to be prescribed. Public knowledge of the dance tends to be geographically restricted. Such dance songs are unlikely to exist long enough to be passed down (Moyle 1988:234).
In addition to being open to change, song and dance are held as possessions by communities throughout New Guinea and Island Melanesia, and are not normally passed freely, but may be purchased or traded. The Siassi Islanders of Vitiaz Strait [Tuam, Mutu, Malai] are famed as dancers (report by Neuhauss 1911, 1:73, quoted by Harding 1967:142). Because they are effectively the hub of a well-established trading pattern from Bilibil on the north coast to Tami Island southeast of the Huon Peninsula, and from the western tip of New Britain and the Arawe islands to the south, they have frequent interaction with other communities. Harding (1967:143) writes that
They share some of their dancing complexes or singsings—dances, songs, and distinctive regalia—with mainland peoples, such as the Sios, and other complexes … with New Britain. Dances are sometimes sold, either in toto or as elements which can be incorporated in an existing dance complex of the purchasing group, … Apart from the recent borrowing or purchase of dances, the Siassis or other groups do not manufacture or create new dances in order to sell them. Rather the Siassis are frequently called upon to perform old favourites by the communities with which they trade. … Even when trade rather than an invitation to dance is the reason for a Siassi visit, it would be a rare occasion if a singsing were not held. … Through their performances as dancers, the Siassi traders participate in the ceremonial life of host communities, and there is evidence suggesting the diffusion of Siassi creremonial forms and paraphernalia following upon this practice.
In the area of south-east New Britain described by Laade, there are frequent instances of borrowing of dance songs. He writes (1999:27) that
In all these cases [Mengen, Bush Mengen, Uvol, Mamusi], it must be emphasized that not single songs but whole genres, or even repertoires, of inevitably dance songs are borrowed, which then form a new type within the local traditions. Some of them were adopted long ago, others only recently. The songs are usually borrowed in their original form and with their original texts even if these are unintelligible.
Although there is no mention of payment, Laade describes these exchanges as part of the trading of goods (p.25). As a further barrier to reconstruction, he notes that “some songs (popo, hototinga, maenge, ungalele, manna) have texts in ‘old language’ where literal translation is impossible. Finally, some songs are said to be composed in ‘spirit language’ (Laade:122).
Jenness & Ballantyne (1928:166) describe a similar situation in Bwaidoga in the D’Entrecasteaux islands.
Many songs are quite unintelligible, even to their singers. They have been handed down from one generation to another, often incorporating words that have long gone out of use; or they have been brought from some other place and the clue to their meaning has not been transmitted with them. Often, too, they are changed and mutilated in the transfer, especially if the dialects are somewhat different. Topical allusions of course soon cease to carry any meaning.
Adding to the difficulties of historical reconstruction is the knowledge that many of our early ethnographic descriptions were by missionaries or followed hot on the heels of missionary influence. Although some missionaries recognised singing as a readily acceptable channel for promoting their own teaching, others were horrified by what they saw and heard, and strove to stamp out songs and dances that they believed were incompatible with Christian values. The following early description by William Ellis (1831:199-200) is from Tahiti.
Many of their songs referred to the legends or achievements of their gods, some to the exploits of their distinguished heroes and chieftains; while others were of a more objectionable character. They were often, when recited on public occasions, accompanied with gestures and actions corresponding to the events described, and assumed a histrionic character. … But they were, with few exceptions, either idolatrous or impure; and were consequently abandoned when the people renounced their pagan worship.
Later, Ellis (p.229) concludes:
Many [of their songs and dances] were in themselves repulsive to every feeling of common decency. And all were intimately connected with practices inimical to individual chastity, domestic peace and public virtue.
Early descriptions of games played in New Guinea and the Solomons are few in number and tend to be limited to children’s games.14 Adults would have found recreation in song and dance, often with feasting, and with activities which served both a productive and recreational function such as hunting and fishing for bonito. Wars were the main form of contests of tests of strength.
As with music and dance, the nature of the games played in a community has been greatly influenced by Western contact. Even our earliest records of children’s games, such as in Ellis 1831 for Tahiti, and Erskine 1853 for Fiji, show missionary influence.
Although Blust (ACD) has reconstructed PWMP *qayam ‘plaything, toy, pet’ no Oceanic reflexes have been located. The following POc reconstruction is based on limited evidence. Others are proposed at a lower level.
| POc | *mʷaja | ‘play, have fun’ | |
| PT | Kilivila | mʷasa(wa) | [N] ‘recreation’; ‘play, have fun’ |
| SES | Kwaio | masa | ‘to play’ |
| SES | Kwaio | masa-ŋa | [N] ‘playing, game’ |
| NCV | Ambae | mʷos-mʷoso | [VI] ‘to play’ |
| PPn | *ta(a)-kalo | ‘to play; a game’ (PPn *tā ‘strike’, *kalo ‘dodge, evade’) | |
| Pn | Niuean | takalo | ‘play game of tika; to evade blows; sport’ |
| Pn | Samoan | taʔalo | ‘to play’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tāʔaloŋa | ‘any individual game’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | tākaro | ‘game, sport, recreation in general sense’ |
| Pn | Anutan | tākaro | ‘the game of making string figures’ |
| Pn | Kapingamarangi | dāgala | ‘to joke, to play’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | takalo | ‘playing (of a game)’ |
| Pn | Māori | tākaro | ‘engage in single combat; wrestle; play; sport’ |
| Pn | West Futunan | takaro | ‘play, wander’ |
| PNPn | *tāfao | ‘to play’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Samoan | tafao | ‘roam, wander, be idle’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | tāfao | ‘to play’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | (mea) tafao | ‘plaything’ (mea ‘thingummy, whatsit’) |
| Pn | Pileni | tahao | ‘play’ |
| Pn | Sikaiana | tāhao | ‘play’ |
| Pn | Takuu | tafao | ‘play’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | tā-tāfao | ‘play’ |
Two toys that are mentioned frequently in Oceanic wordlists are the spinning top, made from a half coconut around which a string is tied, and the pinwheel or toy windmill, made from coconut fronds and attached to a thin stick such as the midrib of a frond pinnule. These tend to have local names, or are known by the material from which they are made. No reconstructions have been possible.
Younger children simply interact with their environment in random ways, with sticks or stones or shells. Older children are more likely to mimic aspects of adult behaviour, but in all instances there will be free adaptation. As with children worldwide, games vary as the environment varies. There are active games, chasing, swinging on vines, leaping, swimming, hide and seek, there are games of skill and dexterity, such as aiming at a target, or juggling, or jacks, there are games of strength such as wrestling. Many of these will be called simply by an appropriate action verb. One of the few games for which a POc reconstruction can be made is that of cat’s cradle, the collective name for string figure games.
String figure games have been played in traditional societies across the world from the earliest recorded times. They are often accompanied by chants, and may be associated with story-telling, where to move through the stages of a particular pattern is in effect to tell its story. At other times they are simply a demonstration of dexterity or an outlet for inventiveness, sometimes with overtones of ridicule or humour (Osmond 2009:509–514).
| POc | *paRi | ‘generic term for cat’s cradle’ (possibly from PAn *paRiS ‘stingray’; Blust, pers. comm., quoted in Kirch & Green:1991:301) | |
| PT | Motu | hari(kau) | ‘cat’s cradle’ |
| PCP | *vai | ‘cat’s cradle, general term’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | vei saŋa | ‘general term for cat’s cradle when using both hands and feet’ (saŋa ‘forked’) |
| Fij | Bauan | vei ðiu | ‘cat’s cradle with both hands’ (ðiu ‘?’) |
| PPn | *fai | ‘cat’s cradle, string games’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | fai | ‘cat’s cradle’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | wai-wai | ‘cat’s cradle; to make string figures’ |
| Pn | Tuamotuan | fai | ‘string games, cat’s cradle’ |
| Pn | Tahitian | fai | ‘name of a game played by children; string game, cat’s cradle’ (also ‘meshes of sorcerer’s net’; Handy 1925:6) |
| Pn | Māori | fai | ‘string game, cat’s cradle’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | hei | ‘cat’s cradle’ (also ‘net, snare; to ensnare, entangle’) |
The meaning of the bracketed form -kau in the Motu term is unclear but it is included in several net-related terms in Motu, an association of meaning which is echoed in the Tahitian and Hawaiian terms. PAn *paRiS ‘stingray’ is, as suggested by Blust, a plausable antecedent for the generic term for cat’s cradle at POc level. A stingray is roughly diamond-shaped, echoing what is probably the most common base pattern created in cat’s cradle.
Other POc reconstructions include activity verbs that can be applied but not limited to play, and miniature weapons. They include:
| PMP | *cikep | ‘catch with the hands’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *sikop | ‘catch with the hands’ | |
| MM | Bola | siko | ‘catch s.t. thrown at you’ |
| Fij | Bauan | ðiqo(-ma) | ‘catch, lay hold of, chiefly of things thrown’ |
| Pn | Tongan | hiko | [N, VI] ‘juggle with two or more balls or lemons etc.’ |
| Pn | Tongan | hikof-i | [VT] ‘pick up with tongs’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | siko | ‘catch, as a ball or wave’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | siko-siko | ‘string figures’ |
| Pn | Emae | sikof-i-a | ‘catch in midair’ |
| Pn | Ifira-Mele | sikof-i-a | ‘catch in the hands’ |
| Pn | Anutan | iko | ‘roll up string; transfer string figure to another person’s hands’ |
| Pn | Māori | hiko | ‘snatch’ |
| Pn | Nukuoro | sigo | ‘catch (a ball)’ |
| Fij | Rotuman | hiko | ‘juggle, catch balls’ (Polynesian loan) |
A dart or small spear might be used in hunting birds or lizards, but is commonly used in games of skill. POc *tibʷa(ŋ) ‘dart, arrow’ is reflected as PCP *tigʷa, PPn *tika. The subsequent history of POc labiovelars (*pʷ, *bʷ, *mʷ) is not well understood (Lynch 2002e), but in at least some cases they became labialised velars (*kʷ, *gʷ, *ŋʷ), losing their labialisation in Proto Polynesian (*k, *k, *ŋ) as happened here.
| POc | *tibʷa(ŋ) | ‘dart, arrow’ (not a fighting weapon; vol.1:225) | |
| PT | Tawala | diba | ‘small pretend spear’ |
| PT | Motu | diba | ‘arrow’ |
| NCV | Raga | tibwa | ‘shoot’ |
| NCV | Mota | tibwa | ‘to shoot, not in fighting; a blunt arrow, bird arrow’ |
| NCV | Mwotlap | tēbw | [VT] ‘throw a sharp projectile against s.t., using an instrument (catapult, rifle)’ |
| NCV | Mota | nē-tēbw | [N] ‘stunning arrow, with smooth rounded end, used to stun birds’ (François, pers. comm.) |
| NCV | Atchin | cip | ‘blunt arrow’ |
| PCP | *tigʷa | ‘dart, to throw a dart’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | tiga | ‘reed dart, used in game’ |
| Fij | Wayan | tige | ‘throw reed or dart horizontally, controlled by end of forefinger, with aim of making dart skip up when it hits the ground’ |
| PPn | *tika | ‘dart, darts game; to throw a dart’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | sika | ‘dart, to throw darts’ |
| Pn | Niuean | tika | ‘javelin, dart, spear’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | tika | ‘game of throwing darts’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tiʔa | ‘dart’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tāga-tiʔa | ‘javelin-hurling’ (Moyle 1989: 20) |
| Pn | Tikopia | tika | ‘k.o. arrow thrown in game’ |
| Pn | Rarotongan | teka-teka | ‘throw darts’ |
| Pn | Māori | teka | ‘game of dart-throwing’ |
Erskine (1853:455), quoting from an account by John Jackson who spent two years in Fiji and elsewhere from 1840, describes the game of tika [tiŋga] as it was played before western contact.
They used to amuse themselves in the morning by the game called tika or titika, which is played by first dividing themselves into two equal parts, one division standing at the end of the square, and the other division at the other end. There is a mark or stick stuck at each end, each party throwing at the opposite mark with the tikas, which are slight reeds with a piece of wood attached at one end to make them heavy. They throw these things an incredible distance.
Bows and arrows tended to be light-weight, the arrows made from the midrib of sago or coconut leaf and bows from cane. They were typically used for shooting birds or other targets for sport, rather than in warfare.
| PAn | *panaq | ‘throw s.t. at a target; shoot with bow and arrow’ (ACD) | |
| POc | *(p,pʷ)anaq | ‘bow’ | |
| POc | *(p,pʷ)anaq, *(p,pʷ)anaq-i- | ‘shoot’ (vol.1:225) | |
| NNG | Manam | pana | ‘small bow used to hunt small animals, lizards, birds etc.’ |
| NNG | Mapos Buang | vaneh | ‘shoot’ |
| MM | Tolai | panak | ‘bow for shooting’ |
| MM | Mono-Alu | (fa)fana | ‘go to kill birds or fish with bow and arrow’ |
| SES | Gela | vana, vana-hi | ‘shoot with bow and arrow’ |
| SES | Sa’a | hana | ‘shoot’ |
| NCV | Mota | vene | ‘shoot with a pointed arrow’ |
| NCV | Lonwolwol | fen | ‘shoot with bow and arrow’ |
| Mic | Kiribati | pana | ‘shoot at fish with band of rubber and long arrow’ |
| Fij | Bauan | vana | ‘shoot, with arrow’ |
| PPn | *fana | ‘shoot with arrow’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | fana | ‘to shoot (e.g. birds)’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | hana | ‘to shoot, as arrow’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | fana-fana | ‘shooting competition, with bow and arrow, at banana tree target’ |
There is substantially more information on games played in Fiji and Polynesia than in the rest of Oceania (Erskine 1853 on Fiji, Ellis 1831 on Tahiti, Best 1925b on Maori, Buck 1927 on the Cook Islands, Moyle 1988 on Samoa, Koch 1984 on Tuvalu). Consequently, a number of PPn or PCP reconstructions have been made. Unlike games described in New Guinea and the Solomons, those for which detailed descriptions exist in the Central Pacific are often played by adults and have a greater level of sophistication. There is more emphasis on competition and point-scoring. Perhaps there was more time for leisure in these parts, with gardens requiring less attention, and perhaps increased contact with western values.
The following account from John Jackson is also quoted by Erskine (1853:455):
In the afternoon they [the Fijians] have a game inside the house called lavo. The lavos are made of coconut shells of different sizes, varying from the size and shape of a shilling to larger than a crown or dubloon. This game is played on a smooth mat. A party being seated at each end, they throw the lavo with a quick jerk from the hand, so as to make the first rest on the opposite edge of the mat; they then endeavour to knock the one on the edge clear off the mat, that striking it taking its place; and if they succeed in doing this once, that counts one, and so on.
| PCP | *lavo | ‘game played with discs’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | (i) lavo | ‘disc-shaped seed of the wālai vine’ |
| Fij | Bauan | vei lavo | ‘game played with a mat and wālai fruit’ |
| PPn | *lafo | ‘tossing game (like quoits) played with asymmetrical discs’ (Kirch & Green:2001) | |
| Pn | Tongan | lafo | ‘k.o. disc-throwing game’ |
| Pn | Samoan | lafo(ga) | ‘traditional game played with a set of concave discs cut from coconut shells’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | lafo | ‘a disc-tossing game’ |
PPn *lafo and the next reconstruction may refer to the same game, the latter sometimes referring to the action, or as in Tuvalu, to the disc used. More commonly the disc is called tupe.
| PPn | *teka | ‘roll, rotate, spin’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | teka | ‘roll, rotate, revolve’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | ta-teka | ‘roll’ |
| Pn | Samoan | teʔa | ‘throw, as in the game of teʔaga, bowl as in cricket’ |
| Pn | Samoan | teʔa(ga) | ‘the name of a game involving the throwing of special discs with characteristic arm action’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | teka | ‘bowl a ball, rotate a wheel’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | teka | ‘a spinning disc used in a game’ |
| PPn | *tupe | ‘disc used in game of *lafo’ | |
| Pn | Tongan | tupe | ‘disc made of coconut shell used in game of lafo’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | tupe | ‘shell disc; game of disc pitching; to pitch a disc’ |
| Pn | Samoan | tupe | ‘disc used in lafoga game’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | tupe | ‘pitching game throwing beans’ |
| Pn | Rennellese | tupe | [V] ‘throw’ |
| PPn | *welo | ‘thrust, as in spearing’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | velo | [VT] ‘thrust, insert, fish with a spear’ |
| Pn | Niuean | velo | ‘throw’ |
| Pn | Samoan | velo le tiapula | ‘hurl the taro top, game accompanied by song’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | velo | ‘spear, thrust into’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | velo-velo | ‘game of hurling javelins’ |
| Pn | Tokelauan | velo | ‘hurl, throw, as a javelin, dart; play darts’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | velo mata-mata | ‘spear-throwing game’ |
| Pn | Māori | wero | (1) ‘to pierce’; (2) ‘throw a spear’ |
Our earliest description of surfboard riding comes from Joseph Banks who described it in Tahiti in 1769 (Beaglehole 1962:283):
In the midst of these breakers 10 or 12 Indians were swimming who whenever a surf broke near them dived under it with infinite ease, rising up on the other side; but their chief amusement was carried on by the stern of an old canoe, with this before them they swam out as far as the outmost breach, then one or two would get into it and opposing the blunt end to the breaking wave were hurried in with incredible swiftness.
but the riding of waves has probably existed since humans first swam in the ocean. The term for a surfboard is typically a reflex of POc *baban ‘board, plank’ (see vol.1:58 for cognate set). Sa’a has hapa totola ‘surfboard-riding’, lit. ‘carrying board’ (hapa an irregular reflex of *baban), and Ivens (1927:95) lists a chant sung by Ulawa children bathing with hapa surfboards.
| PPn | *faka-seke | ‘slide deliberately, surf’ (POLLEX; *seke ‘slide, glide’) | |
| Pn | Tongan | fakahe-heke | ‘slide along deliberately, skate or ski’ |
| Pn | Samoan | faʔaseʔe | ‘ride the surf’ |
| Pn | Māori | whakaheke-heke | ‘to surf’ (kōpapa ‘surfboard’) |
| Pn | Tahitian | faʔaheʔe | ‘surf with board’ (papa fāhē ‘surfboard’) |
| Pn | Tuvalu | fakaheke-heke | ‘surf-riding’ |
| Pn | Tuvalu | seke | ‘travel with wave (on canoe or surfboard))’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | heʔe | ‘slide, slip, surf; flee’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | heʔe nalu | ‘ride a surf board’ (lit. ‘wave slide’) |
| PCP | *kai | ‘points scored in a game’ | |
| Fij | Bauan | kai | ‘points scored in a game’ |
| PPn | *kai | ‘points scored in a game’ (POLLEX) | |
| Pn | Tongan | kai | ‘score a point in a game or a run in cricket’ |
| Pn | East Futunan | kai | ‘score points in a game’ |
| Pn | Pukapukan | kai | ‘point or score in a game’ |
| Pn | Samoan | ʔai | ‘points scored in a game’ |
| Pn | Tikopia | kai | ‘to score in a game, esp. a dart match’ |
| Pn | Hawaiian | ʔai | ‘points scored in a game’ |
Games for Proto Oceanic speakers would have been largely limited to the unorganised and spontaneous activities of children. The concept of recreational activities other than those of young children as a separate category that contrasts with work is a relatively recent innovation. Although many languages now include a term for ‘game’, ‘sport’, ‘recreation’ or similar, no reconstructions are possible at a level higher than PCP. Communities have adapted or extended the meaning of existing terms to refer to the various ways in which these concepts can be considered. Puluwatese, for instance, makes use of a term likoto meaning ‘teasing, mischief’; to include ‘games’. Mota has ora-ora ‘to play, sport’ from ora ‘to keep under control’. Others emphasise the entertainment aspect, and extend it to story-telling and other kinds of traditional lore.