Subject: Re: Kiribati<br/>
Date: Oct 20, 2001 @ 16:10<br/>
Author: Grant Hutchison (&quot;Grant Hutchison&quot; &lt;granthutchison@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1076179545">Anton:<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; The natives heard `Gilbert&#39; as /kirbat/ ...<br/>
 </span></blockquote>I like this. My original source implied a direct link from &quot;Gilberts&quot; <br/>
(as in &quot;the Gilberts&quot;) =&gt; /kiribas/, but &quot;Gilbert&quot; (as in &quot;Gilbert <br/>
Islands&quot;) =&gt; /kiribat/ followed by a pronunciation shift is neat.<br/>
But Christmas Island may be a counter-example to your proposal. The <br/>
Gilbertese name is Kiritimati (= /kirismas/). I&#39;ve always assumed the <br/>
island is so named because it was sighted on Christmas Eve 1777 by <br/>
Captain Cook. In which case there never was a /t/ sound in the <br/>
original name, and therefore the present pronunciation can&#39;t have <br/>
arisen by drift from a previous form using /ti/ at the time the <br/>
language was first written down.<br/>
Dallen has just mildly rocked my apple-cart by suggesting that our <br/>
English name &quot;Christmas&quot; is just a close rendering of the original <br/>
Gilbertese name. But even if that were the case, it still implies the <br/>
natives were using an /s/ sound when first contacted, rather than <br/>
using /ti/.<br/>
<br/>
Interestingly, the FIPS 10-4 digraph for the *Australian* Christmas <br/>
Island is &quot;KT&quot; - perhaps someone confused Australian Christmas with <br/>
Kiribatian Kiritimati?<br/>
<br/>
Grant</div>