Vocabulary development in Austronesian languages

[Andy Pawley]

Kia ora Peter

Just read your query. Among Polynesian languages the two which have
developed the most extensive vocabularies for science, mathematics and
other 'modern technical' domains are probably Tongan and Samoan, these
being national languages that have used extensively in schools for
generations. But I can't think of any published papers dealing in detail
with how this part of their lexicons developed.

For Tongan I suggest you contact Dr Melenaite Taumoefolau, senior lecturer
in Tongan at Auckland University:  <m.taumoefolau at auckland.ac.nz>
Melenaite wrote a fine PhD thesis on 'Problems in Tongan lexicography'
which discusses this matter briefly in ch. 3, section 4, and I'm sure she
could elaborate.

The Samoan Education Dept. has recently completed a monolingual dictionary
for grades 7-8.  The two main compilers, Messrs Agafili Tolava'a and Fosa
Siliko, travelled to Canberra in 1997 where I gave them a quick two week
workshop in aspects of dictionary-making. I haven't seen the published
version but when looking at an early draft I remember being impressed with
the number of Samoan technical terms that were in established use, say, for
maths concepts.  Some are transliterations of English words, others are
made up of indigenous bases, e.g. 'equilateral triangle' is /tafatusatolu/
lit. 'side-same-three'. Very nice.  You can write to Agafili at PO Box 912,
Apia, W. Samoa.  Prof. Ulrike Mosel of Kiel University
<umosel at linguistik.uni-kiel.de> is directing the Samoan monolingual
dictionary project and she could tell you more about what has been
happening in Samoa (she has been away but should be back home by now).
Needless to say, language and dictionary-making in Samoa are highly
political matters.

You might also contact Paul Geraghty <pgeraghty at govnet.gov.fj>, director of
the Fijian monolingual project in Suva, for info. about developments in
Standard Fijian.

Andy Pawley

_______
 >Dear Colleagues,
>
>Does anyone know of any recent references (1990s/2000)
>on vocabulary development (creation of neologisms etc.) in Austronesian
>languages ?
>
>I am familiar with the New Zealand literature regarding Maori
>but can't seem to find much else on other Austronesian languages.
>
>regards
>
>Peter J Keegan
>PhD student in Applied Linguistics
>Victoria University of Wellington
>NEW ZEALAND