Personal Log: Adrian Rodd

I've spent quite a bit of time today and yesterday trying to find out exactly what the correct words were, in French, for the nationalities and languages of certain South Pacific countries. Since these are words I'm using in my (as yet unwritten) thesis and in an article I'll (hopefully) be getting published soon, I thought it might be rather good to know the officially correct words.

Well, would you believe I couldn't find them? I checked French dictionaries (both paper and online), English-French dictionaries, the website of the Académie Française, a website called "Défense de la Langue Française", French embassy websites, the website of the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, a web page of the European Union on this very topic... They all gave conflicting answers, or simply evaded the issue altogether.

Hence, I'm told that someone from Vanuatu should be called "un Vanuatuan", "un Vanuatan", "un Vanuatais", "un ni-Vanuatu", a few others in addition, and that each of these is right and all the others wrong. The European Union goes with "Vanuatuan", which sounds hideous in French. Since Vanuatu used to be a French colony, you'd think there'd be some sort of consensual rule... What do francophone ni-Vanuatu people call themselves, anyway?

Likewise, a Tongan should be called "un Tongan"... nay, "un Tonguien"... most definitely not, it clearly must be "un Tongien"!

And nobody is even trying to guess what someone from Papua New Guinea should be called. Let alone the Cook Islands... At least "un Salomonais" seems consensual for someone from the Solomons.

Eventually, I gave up trying to find an official rule, and picked and chose the ones I prefered. It'll be "un Tongien", "un ni-Vanuatu", "un Niuéen" and - for the sake of inventing a word - "un Papou-Néo-Guinéen". So there.

Those of you who frequent the NationStates fora may also be interested in my latest silly invention - NSG News24.

And, thereupon, I bid thee good night.