Lau Dictionary, with English Index
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PACIFIC LINGUISTICS Se4ie� C - No. 25 LAU DICTIONARY by Charl es E. Fox WITH ENGLISH INDEX Department of Linguistics Research School of Pacific Studies THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Fox, C.E. Lau dictionary, with English index. C-25, vi + 266 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1974. DOI:10.15144/PL-C25.cover ©1974 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is published through the L�ngu��t�c C�4cle 06 Canbe44a and consists of four series: SERIES A - OCCASIONAL PAPERS SERIES B - MONOGRAPHS SERIES C - BOOKS SERIES V - SPECIAL PUB LICATIONS EDITOR: S.A. Wurm. ASSOCIATE EDITORS: D.C. Laycock, C.L. Voorhoeve, D.T. Tryon, T.E. Dutton. EDITORIAL ADVISERS: B. Bender, University of Hawaii N.D. Liem, University of Hawaii D. Bradley, Australian National J. Lynch, University of Papua University New Guinea A. Capell, University of Sydney K.A. McElhanon, University of S. Elbert, University of Hawaii Texas K. Franklin, Summer Institute of H. McKaughan, University of Hawaii Linguistics P. Kuhlh�usler, Technische W.W. Glover, Summer Institute of Universit�t Berlin Linguistics G.N. O'Grady, University of G. Grace, University of Hawaii Victoria, B.C. M.A.K. Halliday, University of K. Pike, University of Michigan; Sydney Summer Institute of Linguistics A. Healey, Summer Institute of E.C. Polome, University of Texas Linguistics E. Uhlenbeck, University of Leiden L. Hercus, Au stralian National J.W.M. Verhaar, University of University Indonesia, Jakarta ALL CORRESPONDENCE concerning PACIFIC LI NGUISTICS, including orders and subscriptions, should be addressed to: The Secretary, PACI FIC LINGUISTICS, Department of Linguistics, School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600. Australia . Copyright � Charles E. Fox. First published 1974 . Reprinted 1978 . The editors are indebted to the Australian National University for help in the production of this series. This publication was made possible by an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund. National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 0 85883 101 5 INTRODUCTION Dr Charles Elliot Fox has had an exceptionally long and meritorious career in the service of Melanesian peoples. Born in the United Kingdom on October 1, 1878, he was educated in New Zealand. In 1902, he joined the Melanesian Mission to work as a teacher in St Barnabas' School on Norfolk Island. The language of instruction was Mota. In the following year, Mr Fcx was ordained and went to Mota, "chiefly to hear the language we used at Norfolk Island in its own home", as he wrote nearly sixty years later. In 1908, Mr Fox met the British anthropologist W. R. H. Rivers at Norfolk Island and travelled with Rivers to San Cristoval. The association directed Mr Fox's interests towards ethnography, resulted in a long correspondence, and led ultimately to a major publication, The Th�e�hold 06 the Paci6ic (London and New York, 1924). A personal account of his life in Melanesia, entitled Kakamo�a, was published in London in 1962; among autobiographical notes, ethnographic statements are made as a part of the vivid narrative. The last of his general ethnographic works, The Sto�y 06 the Solomon� (Diocese of Melanesia Press, Taroaniara, B. S. I. P. , 1967) is intended to describe Melanesian culture and history for schoolchildren in the area; it is significant that the point of view adapted is that of Melanesians themselves. Dr Fox's concern with the Melanesian languages has resulted in several comparative articles and three primary contributions, A Victiona�y 06 the Nggela Language (Auckland, United Press, 1955), A�o�i-Engli�h Victiona�y (Pacific Linguistics, Series C, No. 11, Canberra, 1970), and the Lau dictionary presented here. In all three cases, there has been a considerable lapse of time between the com pilation of the manuscript and the publication of the dictionary, the time lag probably mostly due to Dr Fox's residing continuously in Melanesia, far from centres of academic activity. Dr Fox wrote the Lau dictionary manuscript during his stay at Fouia, a mission village on mainland Malaita near the artificial islands iii iv Sulufou and Adagege of Tae Passage. This very passage was made known in the literature by Dr Walter G. Ivens in his book The r�land Bu�lde�� 06 the Pac�6�c. The dialect of the area, nearly in the centre of the territory of the Lau people, has been documented by Ivens in long articles based on his stay at Fouia in 1927: "A Vocabulary of the Lau Language, Big Mala, Solomon Islands," Supplement to the Jou�nal 06 the Polyne��an Soc�ety, Memoir No. 11 (1930), and "A Grammar of the Lau Language, North East Coast of Big Mala, Solomon Islands," Bullet�n 06 the School 06 O��ental Stud�e�, V (1928-1930), 323-343. Ivens' earlier G�amma� and Vocabula�y 06 the Lau Language, Solomon r�land� (Carnegie Institute of Washington, Publication No. 300, 1921) was mainly based on the speech of southern Lau of Port Adam and as he him self admits: "It is not claimed that the Lau here presented is the same as the Lau of the northeast coast of Big Malaita" (p. 3), although he also spent some weeks in Lau Lagoon at that time, using some materials to complement his earlier work. His first sketch grammar of Lau was still earlier, published in 1914. Considerable missionary literature exists in Lau language. The New Testament has been translated repeatedly, and catechisms, hymnals, and prayer books have been printed (Maluta n� Fooalaa g� n� Lau, 2nd ed. Taroaniara; 1st ed. printed in England, 1930; Na Fatolama�a na Lotu Katol�ka (Catholic Mission Press, Honiara, 1958); Na Foala ma na Ngula na Lotu Katol�ka ana Baela � Lau, No�th Mala�ta (Catholic Mission Press, Honiara 1960)). None of the publications indicate the glottal stop; most of them do not note vowel length, which is phonemic; and any attempts to create a consistent orthography for the language seem to have failed. Except for very brief poems included in The r�land Bu�lde�� and a small selection of lyrics describing the oldest artificial islands, none of the rich native literature has been printed as yet. Collections of Lau myths are, however, in preparation for publication as linguistic and ethnological documents; a good number of long narratives and 1200 riddles have also been keypunched for purposes of dictionary compilation and grammatical and content analysis. A few myth and riddle articles have been published, and more are in progress. It is hoped that the indigeneous literature will eventually be used also in the education of Lau children; for it is obvious that a motivation for literacy can only be gained when learning materials are established from within the culture itself. v For Lau language studies, as for so many other unwritten languages of the world, the development of the proper focus has been slow. First, the language was viewed as a me ans for converting the people through Bible translations, prayer books, and catechisms. Dictionaries and sketch grammars were then built on the basis of these halting translations; a perfect example of circularity. Ivens' writings are largely based on such translations, and partially intended as tools for further, improved translations. That is why they contain an alarmingly large amount of unauthentic material. Dr Fox's Lau dictionary presented here is decidedly an improvement over Ivens' work. Yet, it is not entirely without problems. First of all, he happened to use an informant (or informants) whose speech is not typical of Lau in that it does not distinguish the phonemes Ihl and lsi separately; the Southern Lau of Port Adams, Ataa, and other areas make the distinction; so do all northern subdialects; and, indeed, so do most people in Tae Passage. Secondly, because Dr Fox interacted with Christianized Lau, the dictionary is not reliable in regard to native religious and cultural terms. There is also some admixture of hill dialects, alien to Lau, "the Sea People". But when all is said and done, we have at hand an indispensable linguistic document; and we are deferring to Dr Fox's wishes in publishing it practically intact. As Dr Fox himself expressed it in a letter, the dictionary was written for the benefit of the Lau, and because the language is linguistically important. Both of these explicit purposes are met by the publication; and it is a pleasure to point out that we have here another monument of a great life's work, the more admirable because of the true and genuine modesty of its author. Elli Kangas Maranda, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada December, 1973 The manuscript of the present dictionary as available to the publish ers was in a quite rough handwritten form requiring extensive preparatory and interpretative work prior to its being set up for printing. This was carried out very ably by Mary Craft of the Department of Linguistics. The Editors Dr Fox died on 28 October 1977 aged 99 years. The Editors LAU BIBLIO GRAPHY : REFERENCES NO T CITED IN THE INTRODUCTION General and Ethnographic : IVENS, Walter G. , The Island Builders of the Pacific: How & Why the People of Mala Construct Their Artificial Islands , the Ant iquity & Doubtful Origin of the Practice , With a Description of the Social Organization , Magic & Religion of Their Inhabitants. London , Seeley , Service & Co ., 1930. MARANDA, Pierre and Elli Konga s MARANDA , "Le Cra ne et l'Ute rus : Deux theore mes nord-malaitains ," in Jean Pouillon and Pierre Maranda, eds., Echanges et communications : Me lan ges offerts a Claude Le vi-Strauss a l'occasion de son 60eme anniversaire .