We try to give the blogs a name that reflects the area we are visiting. In this case we researched Polynesian culture looking for what the inhabitants called the Pacific islands they inhabited but as with other cultural groups there is diversity within the culture making a single name hard. One thing resonated during our research was that although there are ~40 Polynesian languages the words are strongly similar indicating a common root language. We started looking through Polynesian Dictionaries looking for a word that would be appropriate however there are not many on-line dictionaries of this type. Finally we noticed that the word for “island” was “motu” in Samoan, Tahitian and Maori and since we are visiting islands, motu seemed appropriate. Playing with Google translate showed that “islands” in these languages was “motu” as well thus we were set. BTW the word for island in Hawaiian is “moku” or “mokupuni” depending on the source.
Ola
The next blog is alive. Ola is alive in Hawaiian.