Solomon Islands Languages

Map showing the location of Solomon Islands

The primary language spoken in the Solomon Islands is Melanesian languages. It is linguistically classified as an Austronesian language. Specifically, it is part of the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian language. The language is mostly made of reduplication where all or part of words keeps repeating themselves. They also have small phonemic inventories and lack consonant clusters such as “str” in English. Most words are formed by a small set of about five vowels in most cases. The official language spoken in the Solomon Islands is English.

According to statistics taken in 1999, Solomon Islands has about three main ethnic groups. They include Melanesian (94.5%), Polynesian (3%), and Micronesians (1.2%). The other ethnic groups constitute 1.1% of the population while those that were unspecified were 0.2%. Only 1-2% of the people in the Solomon Islands can speak English.

The Micronesian Languages have influenced the English phrases commonly used in the Solomon Islands. They are a pidgin form of the Standard English language.

The minority languages form about 3% of the total population. They are found in Stewart Islands and southern parts of Rennell and Bellona. The minority group is composed of Polynesian Speakers. Another not-so-popular language is the Micronesian language. Most of its speakers are immigrants of Tuvaluans and Gilbertese. Other languages include Cheke Holo (about 10,000 speakers), Are’are (17,800 speakers), Ghari (12,119 speakers), Kwaio (13,240 speakers), Lengo (13,800 speakers), and Gela (11,876 speakers) among others.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018

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Published on 2019-11-06


Capital	Honiara
Languages	Melanesian pidgin (in much of the country is lingua franca), English (official but spoken by only 1%-2% of the population), 120 indigenous languages
Ethnic Groups	Melanesian 95.3%, Polynesian 3.1%, Micronesian 1.2%, other 0.3% (2009 est.)
Religion	Protestant 73.4% (Church of Melanesia 31.9%, South Sea Evangelical 17.1%, Seventh Day Adventist 11.7%, United Church 10.1%, Christian Fellowship Church 2.5%), Roman Catholic 19.6%, other Christian 2.9%, other 4%, none 0.03%, unspecified 0.1% (2009 est.)
Government	Parliamentary democracy (National Parliament) under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm
Independance	7 July 1978 (from the UK)
Area	28,896.00 km²
Water Area	910.00 km²
Land Area	27,986.00 km²
Population	635,027.00
Location	Oceania, group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea
GDP(PPP)	$1,198,000,000.00 (USD)
GDP (Per Capita)	$2,000.00 (USD)
Export Partners	Its major export partners are China, India, and Italy.
Export Commodities	Its main exports are timber, fish, copra, palm oil, and cocoa.
Import Partners	Its major import partners are Australia, China, and Malaysia.
Import Commodities	Its major imports include food, plant and equipment, and manufactured goods.
Climate	Principally desert; northeast monsoon (December to February), moderate temperatures in north and hot in south; southwest monsoon (May to October), torrid in the north and hot in the south, irregular rainfall, hot and humid periods (tangambili) between monsoons
Terrain	Mostly rugged mountains with some low coral atolls

Solomon Islands Languages

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