Sydney Parkinson's Savu list

[Richard Parker]

That's certainly right; the f in soofoo is an 18thC 'long middle s'. I found the original wordlist (plus ones for Tahiti (Otaheite), Maori,  'Low Malay', and an Australian aboriginal language) in the online 'reprint' of Parkinson's Journal at: http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/parkinson/contents.html
   
  So his original transcription may have been altered slightly by the book's printer, and again by the computer scanner of the book's text.
   
  The reason for the repeat entries is that Capt. Hawkesworth, who wrote up Capt Cook's voyages, also made a wordlist of Savu at:
  http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv23/702.html
   
  So when I sent the standard wordlist data to AVDB, I combined them both, but Hawkesworth's typed in bold. That distinction didn't survive the further transcription to the standard AVDB database format. 
   
  There were a number of other words in both wordlists. The transcribing of Savu words for gold, silver, mutton and mustachios probably reflects on the explorers' own preoccupations. I've never been to Savu, or seen a Savuan, but I suspect they might find it difficult to grow either sheep or mustachios.
   
  If anyone would like the full wordlists, in Excel chart form, please contact me off-list.
   
  regards
   
  Richard Parker 
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