Vanuatu in other languages: exonyms, Port Vila, flag, six provinces

From New Hebrides to Vanuatu

Vanuatu has three official languages and one name in all of them. In Bislama, the English-based creole spoken across the islands, the state is Ripablik blong Vanuatu; in English the Republic of Vanuatu; in French République du Vanuatu. The adjective works the same way: Bislama says blong Vanuatu, of Vanuatu, while English and French both use Vanuatuan.

The name replaced New Hebrides at independence on 30 July 1980. James Cook had called the islands after the Hebrides of Scotland in 1774, and French followed with Nouvelles-Hébrides. Vanuatu is built on vanua, land or home in several Austronesian languages of the archipelago. In February 1980 the Representative Assembly voted for it in place of Vanuaaku, a form tied to the party that led the independence movement.

Because the word has no native spelling problem, most of the exonym list simply repeats Vanuatu. The differences come from local sound rules: Vanuwatu in Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, Vanwatu in Lingala and Maltese, Wanuwatu in Bambara, Vanoato in Malagasy and Va-nu-a-tu in Vietnamese, which writes foreign names syllable by syllable.

Province names made from island names

The provinces date from 1994, and their names are made from the initial letters of the main islands: Malampa from Malakula, Ambrym and Paama, Shefa from the Shepherd Islands and Efate, Torba from the Torres and Banks groups. Penama covers Pentecost, Ambae and Maewo, Sanma Santo and Malo, and Tafea the southern islands of Tanna, Aniwa, Futuna, Erromango and Aneityum.

Bislama adds provens after the name, English Province after it and French Province de before it. Port Vila is the seat of Shefa as well as the national capital, which French writes with a hyphen, Port-Vila. Luganville on Santo, the second town, is the capital of Sanma.