Woleaian-english Dictionary

Sohn, Ho-Min; Tawerilmang, Anthony (1976). Woleaian-english Dictionary. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-8227-3.

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Abstract: This dictionary is a result of more than three years (1971–1975) of our cooperative work on the language of Woleai. Since no dictionary or grammar was available on Woleaian before we started the project, we had to dig out lexical items through a long process of trial and error. At a later stage of our work, we could obtain additional words related to measurements and flora from William H. Alkire’s two papers, “Systems of Meaurement on Woleai Atoll, Caroline Islands” (Anthropos 69:1–73) and “Native Classification of Flora on Woleai Atoll” (Micronesia 10[1]:1–5). Samuel H. Elbert’s Puluwat Dictionary (Pacific Linguistics C-No. 24, The Australian National University Press, 1972) was very helpful in collecting additional meanings associated with certain Woleaian lexical items. All of the work on this dictionary was conducted at the University of Hawaii at Manoa under the Pacific Language Development Project, a cooperative endeavor of the Culture Learning Institute of the East-West Center, the Pacific and Asian Lin- guistics Institute, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Education of the Trust Territory government. Time and distance did not allow the manuscript to be sufficiently exposed to the senior speakers in Woleai for their input and comments. We especially regret not being able to include those rather archaic words that are not found in the speech of the younger generation. In spite of such weaknesses that are apparent in the present dictionary, we would be more than happy if this dictionary served as the stepping stone to future research leading to a more refined and complete dictionary of Woleaian. One of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks in the course of our work was the design of an orthography for the transcription of Woleaian lexical items. To begin with, we had the problem of selecting symbols that represented the Woleaian sound system most effectively. However, the harder and more controversial job was to devise satisfactory spelling conventions. As is the case with any orthographical design, our problem was whether we should adopt a spelling system based purely on linguistic principles, or one that would be acceptable to the speakers of the language who are largely oriented by their tradition and convenience. We have compromised the two opposing orientations in this dictionary. We have adopted most of the symbols Woleaians prefer to use, with some exceptions that, in our view, are linguistically sounder. In addition to the headwords that are spelled according to the desires of most speakers of the language, we have decided to include base forms for all headwords, which are really significant from the linguistic point of view. In writing this dictionary we are greatly indebted to Pro- fessor Donald M. Topping, director of the Pacific Language De- velopment Project and of the Social Sciences and Linguistics Institute, and Professor Byron W. Bender, chairman of the De- partment of Linguistics of the University of Hawaii, for their continuous advice, encouragement, and assistance, not only in project-related areas such as dictionary formats and perfor- mance of our work, but in all kinds of personal matters. We would like to express our particular thanks to Professors Robert W. Hsu and Ann M. Peters for their untiring efforts to edit the dictionary through computer programs. A special acknowledgement is also due to Mrs. Cynthia Dalrymple for her ex- cellent keypunching of the manuscript. The Woleaian-English side of the dictionary contains some 6,200 entries, while the English-Woleaian Finder List includes some 4,000 entries. The Woleaian Reference Grammar by Ho- min Sohn with the assistance of Anthony F. Tawerilmang (The University Press of Hawaii 1975) is a sister volume of this dictionary.

Extra details:

DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv9hvsvr
MAG: 565263165
OpenAlex: W565263165
CorpusID: 160385610