Sources

Existing Dictionaries

All of the existing dictionaries of the Cook Islands languages are out of print. It is hoped that dictionaries of the indigenous language of each of the Cook Island will eventually be available from this website.

Currently the unpublished dictionary of Mangaian, collected by Donald Marshall in the 1950s is being loaded onto the website. This will be followed by the dictionary of the language of Rarotonga.

Published Dictionaries

Existing published dictionaries of the Cook Islands Languages include:

Buse, Jasper with Raututi Taringa edited by Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moeka‘a. 2006.Cook Islands Maori Dictionary. Ministry of Education, Government of the Cook Islands.This is probably the most comprehensive dictionary and includes information for entries about dialects.

Christian, F. W. 1924. Vocabulary of the Mangaian language. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin, No. 11, 3-31.

Savage, Stephen. 1983. A Dictionary of the Maori Language of Rarotonga. Suva: Suva Printing & Publishing (a reprint of the 1962 edition published by Department of Island Territories, Wellington.)This dictionary includes cultural information not included in Buse.

Shibata, Norio. 1999. Prehistoric Cook Islands: People, Life and Language. Part 2. Mangaian-English Dictionary. Rarotonga: The Cook Islands Library and Museum Society.

Shibata, Norio (ed.). 2003. Penrhyn (Penrhynese)-English Dictionary. Kyoto: ELPR Publication Series.

Tauarea Mauriaiti, et al. (eds) n.d. Reo Mangaia i te Reo Papa’a Puka ‘aite’anga Tara. Mangaian Dialect to English Dictionary and English to Mangaia Dialect Vocabulary

Te Taka o Te Pukamuna. 1999. Te Pukamuna a Te Ulu o Te Watu. A Dictionary of the Pukapukan Language. Auckland: Mataaliki Press.

Cook Island languages

The languages of the Cook Islands are those of: