I am torn as to whether they are identifiable locations or names evocative of the pioneering spirit of Polynesian expansion. The city list appears most legible in Proto-Oceanic, for which a search easily turns up comparative dictionaries. You can then cobble together some guesses based on the languages referenced in the reconstruction. For instance,
The Lexicon of Proto Oceanic shows that Banoi Panas comprises two terms roughly meaning volcano and hot/warming. *
banoi has a selective range of references from North New Guinea and North Central Vanuatu, whereas *
panas has a wider range but only shows overlap with one language from the first group. The Takia language attesting these terms is spoken in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea.
Of course, there are many uncertainties with my attempts to cross-reference terms, including my lack of familiarity with the target languages, and there are several terms for which I did not come up with confident guesses. Tanoq, for instance, comes up with *
tanoq, meaning land, with many languages referenced. It seems more likely that names with easily identifiable geographic terms point to a city list devised to capture the sense of exploration and encounter with new lands.
Another question, that perhaps others can speak to, is what culture the Classical Polynesians represent. Given Proto-Oceanic and with my cross-referenced guesses falling in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, I would guess the Lapita culture. I did see some reference languages from Micronesia, Samoa, Tahiti, and Tonga, but very few terms from the Māori language. I was surprised not to find more alignment with Polynesia.
Anyhow, no resolution yet, but I am happy all the same to learn a bit more about the world
