ABSTRACT
Mala is the name now given by the government of the Solomon Islands 1 to the two islands of Big Mala and Little Mala, which together form the whole island formerly known as Malaita. At Sa’a they call the two divisions of the island Mwala päine, Big Mala, and Mwala mwäimwei, Little Mala ; the ‘ Tolo ’ speaking peoples of the dividing channel refer to the two parts as Mara paina and Mara masike ; and the ‘ Lau ’ speaking peoples of the north-east coast refer to them as Mala baita and Mala tou. The whole island is known in Florida and Ysabel as Mala, and Ulawa calls it Mwala. The name Malaita or Malayta appears in the log of the Spanish discoverers of the Solomon Islands who said it was the actual name of the island. The peoples of all the islands of the south-east Solomons have but the one name for the island, viz. Mala or the dialectic variations Mwala and Mara. The ‘ Tolo ’ peoples who live on Mala have no l or mw in their language, and call the island Mara ; at Sa’a they have an l and they replace the m of Mala with mw, a sound unknown in Florida and Ysabel and Big Mala. I have no idea of the meaning of the word Mala. There is a word mwala in Sa’a meaning ‘ people ’, but the other languages of the island do not possess such a word, and it is hardly possible that a word from the south end of the island has given the name to the whole island. Mala has the distinction of being the only one of the big islands of the Solomons which has a name applied to the whole island both by its inhabitants and by the people of the neighbouring islands.
