{"id":939,"date":"2010-07-23T22:00:24","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T20:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=939"},"modified":"2010-07-22T14:38:33","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T12:38:33","slug":"pocket-hawaiian-grammar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=939","title":{"rendered":"Pocket Hawaiian grammar"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;\"><strong>Pocket Hawaiian grammar:<\/strong> A reference grammar in dictionary form. By <strong>Albert J. Sch\u00fctz<\/strong>,<strong> Gary N. Kah\u0101lo\u2019omalu Kanada<\/strong>, and <strong>Kenneth William Cook<\/strong>. Waipahu, Hawai\u2019i: Island Heritage Publishing, 2005. Pp. xx, 226. ISBN <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/pocket-hawaiian-grammar-a-reference-grammar-in-dictionary-form-including-a-guide-to-pronunciation\/oclc\/156817604&amp;referer=brief_results\">9781597001762<\/a> . $8.99.<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Reviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/pandora.cii.wwu.edu\/vajda\/\"><strong>Edwrad Vajda<\/strong><\/a>, <em>Western Washington University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A full-length, modern grammar of Hawaiian has yet to appear. The most detailed reference, by <strong>Samuel H. Elbert<\/strong> and <strong>Mary Kawena Pukui <\/strong>(<em>Hawaiian Grammar<\/em>, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1979), remains provisional in many respects. By contrast, a superb reference work on Hawaiian vocabulary has existed for decades (<strong>Samuel H. Elbert<\/strong> and <strong>Mary Kawena Pukui<\/strong>, <em>Hawaiian Dictionary<\/em>, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1971; revised and enlarged, 1986; reprinted with corrections, 1991). This first-ever dictionary of Hawaiian grammatical terms, words, and concepts thus fills an important gap in published materials readily available for learners and teachers of this rather famous indigenous language.<\/p>\n<p>This dictionary contains more than 1,200 individual entries, including cross-listings of words spelled using earlier orthographic conventions. Many entries are devoted to the language\u2019s numerous function words and particles, with concise semantic interpretation and clear examples of usage in context. This information supplements lexically-oriented Hawaiian dictionaries since the editors provide a balanced discussion of differing scholarly interpretations for some of these words. Many entries represent masterful mini-dissertations; a notable example is the discussion with examples of the <em>ka\/ke<\/em> distinction in definite article usage (95\u201396). Separate entries on homonyms, such as <em>hea<\/em> (question word) and <em>hea<\/em> (vocative), contain excellent examples that serve as a valuable diagnostic in distinguishing each separate function (73\u201374). Other entries define and exemplify Hawaiian grammatical categories based on common linguistic terms such as ablative or active verb; these definitions are useful because they are based on specific reference to the given category\u2019s function in Hawaiian grammar, something generic dictionaries of linguistic terms do not offer.<\/p>\n<p>The final type of entry, and often the longest, involve discussions of topics such as <strong>Hiram Bingam<\/strong>\u2019s experimental Hawaiian syllabary (194\u201395) or discuss key aspects of language structure such as compound verbs (42), reduplication (182\u201383), or vowel shortening (210\u201311). Entries on comment-topic (38\u201339) and comment-topic-complements (39\u201341) provide insights into word order not readily found in other sources. The entry on the vowel system (211) offers the valuable observation that if the long and short distinction in Hawaiian vowels is considered phonemic and diphthongs are regarded as distinct phonological units as well, then Hawaiian contains twenty-four distinct vowel phonemes. This thought-provoking reinterpretation of the language\u2019s widely commented phonemic paucity appeared earlier in an article by one of the editors (Albert J. Sch\u00fctz. 1981. A reinterpretation of the Hawaiian vowel system, <em>Oceanic Linguistics<\/em> 20.1\u201343). There are also occasional comments on the historiography of Hawaiian linguistic studies, particularly in regard to orthographic conventions.<\/p>\n<p>Although the editors intend this as a reference for anyone wishing to look up a specific word or concept (vi), the dictionary is filled with many unexpected items that make reading it through well worth the effort for anyone with more than a passing curiosity for Hawaiian grammatical structure. The copious example sentences alone make this dictionary worth perusing from cover to cover.<\/p>\n<p>Well written, handy for both students and scholars, and occasionally thought provoking, this unique and inexpensive book deserves a place in any Polynesian linguistics library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pocket Hawaiian grammar: A reference grammar in dictionary form. By Albert J. Sch\u00fctz, Gary N. Kah\u0101lo\u2019omalu Kanada, and Kenneth William Cook. Waipahu, Hawai\u2019i: Island Heritage Publishing, 2005. Pp. xx, 226. ISBN 9781597001762 . $8.99. Reviewed by Edwrad Vajda, Western Washington University A full-length, modern grammar of Hawaiian has yet to appear. The most detailed reference, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}