A short dictionary of Äiwoo

Abstract

This Äiwoo-English dictionary builds on research I have been doing in the Reef Islands since 2004. It is called ‘A short dictionary’ because I am very much aware that it does not come close to covering all the words of the language of the Reef Islands. In this dictionary I have included only words that I have come across in my research, and for which I am reasonably certain that I have understood the meaning correctly. There are sure to be mistakes, and there is certainly much work left to do. I publish this book in the hopes that the people in the Reef Islands will find it useful to have a short dictionary now, rather than wait years for a more complete version. Hopefully it can serve as a basis for continuing work on the language. This dictionary builds on two main sources. The first is my own fieldwork in the Reef Islands, carried out in 2004, 2005 and 2015. During these visits I recorded and transcribed a large number of stories in the Äiwoo language, some of which were printed in the book Stories from the Reef Islands (Næss 2006). Most of the words in this dictionary come from the stories I have recorded, as well as additional information that people have provided to me during work with these texts and with the preparation of the dictionary. The second source is the draft dictionary compiled by Stephen Wurm, Patrick Bwakolo and Martin Moyiyâ and circulated in bound printout form in 1985. This dictionary has been an important source of additional words, and I have included words from this work where I have been able to confirm that the words are still used and understood by people in the Reefs today. In addition, a number of names of natural species such as plants, fish and other animals have been taken from the unpublished materials of Professor Stephen Wurm, held in the archives of the Australian National University.