Editing Kiribati (section)

==Etymology and pronunciation==
The name is pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɪr|ɪ|b|æ|s}} {{respell|KIRR|i|bass}}, as {{lang|gil|-ti}} in the [[Gilbertese language]] represents an {{IPAblink|s}} sound.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kiribati Country Profile |url=https://www.commonwealthofnations.org/country/kiribati/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |publisher=[[Commonwealth of Nations]] |language=en-GB }}</ref> Similarly, the name of its people, the I-Kiribati, is pronounced {{IPAc-en|iː|ˈ|k|ɪr|ɪ|b|æ|s}} {{respell|ee|KIRR|i|bass}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=i-Kiribati |url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/i-kiribati |work=[[Oxford Learner's Dictionaries]] }}</ref>

[[File:FMIB 53006 Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands.jpeg|thumb|Map of the Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands, 1890]]

The name ''Kiribati'' was adopted upon the country's independence in 1979. It is the Gilbertese rendition of Gilberts, the plural of the English name of the nation's main archipelago, the [[Gilbert Islands]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Reilly Ridgell |title=Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia |edition=3rd |location=[[Honolulu]] |publisher=[[Bess Press]] |year=1995 |page=95 }}</ref> It was named {{lang|fr|îles Gilbert}} ([[French language|French]] for 'Gilbert Islands') in about 1820 by Russian admiral [[Adam Johann von Krusenstern|Adam von Krusenstern]]<ref>In his authoritative pioneer {{lang|fr|Atlas de l'Océan pacifique}} (1824–27).</ref> and French captain [[Louis-Isidore Duperrey|Louis Duperrey]],<ref>{{lang|fr|Voyage autour du monde exécuté par ordre du roi, sur la corvette de Sa Majesté, {{noitalic|La Coquille}}, pendant les années 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825, sous le ministère et conformément aux instructions de S.E.M. le Marquis de Clermont-Tonnerre... et publié sous les auspices de son Excellence {{abbr|Mgr|Monseigneur}} le Cte de Chabrol ..., Par M. L.I. Duperrey...}}, 8 volumes in 4° et 5 volumes in-folio, Paris, [[Arthus-Bertrand]], 1826–1830 (Imprimerie de [[Firmin Didot]]).</ref> after the British [[sea captain|captain]] [[Thomas Gilbert (sea captain)|Thomas Gilbert]]. Gilbert and captain [[John Marshall (Royal Navy officer, born 1748)|John Marshall]] sighted some of the islands in 1788, while crossing the "outer passage" route from [[Port Jackson]] to [[Guangzhou|Canton]].<ref name="jps.auckland.ac.nz">{{cite journal |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_70_1961/Volume_70%2C_No._1/Post-Spanish_discoveries_in_the_central_Pacific%2C_by_H._E._Maude%2C_p_67-111/p1 |author-link=Henry Evans Maude |last=Maude |first=H. E. |title=Post-Spanish discoveries in the central Pacific |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |date=1961 |volume=70 |number=1 |pages=67–111 |access-date=29 July 2020 |archive-date=27 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227235057/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_70_1961/Volume_70,_No._1/Post-Spanish_discoveries_in_the_central_Pacific,_by_H._E._Maude,_p_67-111/p1 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|Macdonald|1982}}<ref name=LifeMagazine1944-05-22>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bk8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA91 |title=The Gilberts & Marshalls: A distinguished historian recalls the past of two recently captured pacific groups |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=22 May 1944 |author=Samuel Eliot Morison |access-date=14 October 2009 |author-link=Samuel Eliot Morison }}</ref> Both von Krusenstern's and Duperrey's maps, published in 1824, were written in French.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Douglas |first1=Bronwen |last2=Govor |first2=Elena |title=Eponymy, Encounters, and Local Knowledge in Russian Place Naming in the Pacific Islands, 1804–1830 |journal=The Historical Journal |date=September 2019 |volume=62 |issue=3 |pages=709–740 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X19000013 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000013 |language=en |issn=0018-246X|hdl=1885/176991 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In French, the Northern Islands were until then called {{lang|fr|îles Mulgrave}} and [[Nikunau|Byron Island]] was not part of them. In English, the archipelago, particularly the southern part, was often referred to as the ''Kingsmills'' in the 19th century, although the name ''Gilbert Islands'' was used increasingly, including in the [[British Western Pacific Territories|Western Pacific Order in Council]] of 1877 and in the Pacific Order of 1893.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Pacific Order, 1893 |url=http://www.paclii.org/sb/legis/sb-uk_act/po189395.rtf |publisher=Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute |access-date=23 July 2020 |year=1893}}</ref>

The name ''Gilbert'', already in the name of the British protectorate since 1892, was incorporated into the name of the entire [[Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony]] (GEIC) from 1916 and was retained after the Ellice Islands became the separate country of [[Tuvalu]] in 1976. The spelling of Gilberts in the Gilbertese language as {{lang|gil|Kiribati}} may be found in books in Gilbertese prepared by [[missionaries]], but with the meaning of Gilbertese ([[demonym]] and language) (see e.g., Hawaiian Board of Missionaries, 1895).{{sfn|HBM|1895}} The first mention as a dictionary entry of the word ''Kiribati'' as the native name of the country was written down in 1952 by [[Ernest Sabatier]] in his comprehensive {{lang|fr|Dictionnaire gilbertin–français}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sabatier, Ernest 1954 |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/reference/id/536942 |language=en |access-date=8 May 2025}}</ref> 

The indigenous name often suggested for the Gilbert Islands proper is {{lang|gil|Tungaru}} (see e.g., [[Ernest Sabatier]], 1952–1953, or [[Arthur Grimble]], 1989{{sfn|Grimble|1989}}). The rendition ''Kiribati'' for Gilberts was chosen as the official name of the new independent state by the chief minister, Sir [[Ieremia Tabai]] and his [[cabinet of Kiribati|cabinet]], on such grounds that it was modern,<ref name=cind/> and to indicate the inclusion of islands (e.g., the [[Phoenix Islands|Phoenix]] and [[Line Islands]]), beyond the Tungaru (i.e., Gilbert) chain.{{sfn|Sabatier|1954}}{{NoteTag|{{harvp|Sabatier|1954}} says that ''Kiribati'' is already the meaning for all the Gilberts District of GEIC.}}<ref name="auto1"/>