Talk:Teraina

Old language

Does any on know what language they speak at Teraina? Or rather, what language they spoke in the 1500?

Currently I would say they speak Gilbertese and perhaps English. I do not believe this island was inhabited continuously until the end of last century. -Henry W. Schmitt 03:32, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Without going into too much detail, more likely Eastern Polynesian languages (Marquesic or Tahitic) than Gilbertese. Because for the Gilbertese, Kiribati was about as far east as they ever got, and we know that there was some movement between Hawai'i and SE Polynesia around (very roughly) 1200 and intermittent contact later on. Such (Polynesian) travellers might have found the island a good provisioning stopover. There may or may not have been long-term settlement; all we know that the island was devoid of humans at Western contact.

It is conspicuous that of the three Teraina landbirds known in historic times, one (the reed-warbler) is a Kiribati endemic; another (the now-extinct duck) probably evolved "very recently" (in evolutionary time) from vagrants (this may be studied by ancient DNA analysis). The third, Rimatara Lorikeet, was introduced by pre-contact seafarers from SE Polynesia; it is almost impossible that the birds were traded all the way to Micronesia and then introduced by Gilbertese. Apart from these 3 taxa, there are no land birds on this island which offers enough habitat - and that is usually a pretty good sign of pre-contact settlement.

The question is likely to be ultimately answered, because Teraina is of considerable archaeological interest and sooner or later, someone will do fieldwork there.

So at present the answer to your question would be "probably some East Polynesian language, maybe Gilbertese, but there was no lasting pre-contact settlement." Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 17:07, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

@Dysmorodrepanis:, what you call Eastern Polynesian may include Marquesic and Tahitic (and Rapa Nui of course), but not such thing existed around 1000AD. We can only speculate 🤨 about which language was spoken on Washington Island by the seafarers that stopped there. And we have to notice that no one transform it in a permanent home. Big islands that stay like that are quite rare in the Pacific : the reason is probably that Washington did not seem very welcoming to those navigators.-Arorae (talk) 16:44, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

How to get there?

Does someone know how to get there nowadays? Sounds interesting for the article! Belgian man (talk) 10:07, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

@Belgian man: sorry for the late reply: since 2 years it is easier to travel to Washington Island, with a weekly flight from Christmas Island. Those islands are accessible from Nadi Fiji or Honolulu, through Fiji Airways (also a weekly flight) but no more international flights are available since March 2020 (Covid-19) until 2021. And maybe more.--Arorae (talk) 15:42, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Maiana Teraina

The link to the constitution was dead so I found the new one, revised 1980, here. This version states that the name is, "Maiana Teraina (otherwise known as Washington)." However, [1] makes no mention of the word "Maiana," and I suspect Teraina is the common name. Should the text be changed to reflect the two constitutional names?--otherlleft 02:38, 24 December 2009 (UTC)

@Otherlleft:. Since it has been changed. Constitution of Kiribati gives the link to the 1979 text. Teraina is only an alternative name (and Washington Island) is used nowadays.--Arorae (talk) 15:44, 5 November 2020 (UTC)

Exploration

Exploring Teraina or more precisely Washington Island started at the very end of the XVIII Century.--Arorae (talk) 15:37, 5 November 2020 (UTC) Adam Johann von Krusenstern’s voyage from 1803 to 1806 described and mapped Washington Island. He called it « Les Nouvelles-Marquises », just after visiting Nuku Hiva (in the Marquesas). Krusenstern wrote his main publications in French and German (even if he was from Russian Estonia).--Arorae (talk) 15:47, 5 November 2020 (UTC)