South Malaita Island 3 main dialects! - Sa'a dialect- widely spoken by 75% of the population of South Malaita. - Tolo (mix areare) dialect- is spoken by 20% of the population. - Lau dialect- is spoken by 5% of the people. South Malaita Island, also known as Small Malaita and Maramasike for Areare speakers and Malamweimwei known to more than 80% of the islanders, is the island at the southern tip of the larger island of Malaita in the eastern part of the Solomon Islands. It is called "small" to distinguish it from the much larger mainland. It is now part of Malaita
Malaita word play. According to Harold M. Ross, from north to south along the island's axis, the linguistic groups are roughly the Northern Malaita languages (more properly a collection of dialects without a standard name, generally To'abaita, Baelelea, Baegu, Fataleka, and Lau), Kwara'e in the hilly area between the ridges, Kwaio in about the geographic center of the island, and 'Are'are to the south. Each of these spreads across the width of the island. In addition, there is the Langalanga in a lagoon on the west coast between the Kwara'ae and Kwaio regions, and Kwarekwareo on the western coast between the