Natugu

Natugu, formerly called Santa Cruz after its island, is the main Oceanic language of Nendö, the largest of the Santa Cruz Islands in the southeastern Solomons, and the chief member of the Reefs–Santa Cruz group; its name means our language. It shares Nendö with two smaller neighbours, Nalögo and Nanggu.

Its numerals follow a decimal system built around two sets of five, with six to nine formed by adding a suffix to the words for one to four.

The islanders were deep-ocean voyagers, sailing outrigger canoes called tepukei and navigating by wave patterns and the stars. The Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña, the first European to reach them, sighted the islands in 1595, founded a short-lived colony at Graciosa Bay on Nendö, and died there in 1596.