Research Guides: Pacific Linguistics: Research Strategies

Common Pacific language codes

bis = Bislama
cha = Chamorro
chk = Chuukese
fij = Fijian
gil = Gilbertese (Kiribati)
haw = Hawaiian
hmo = Hiri Motu
kos = Kosraean
mah = Marshallese
mri = Maori
nau = Nauruan
niu = Niuean
pau = Palauan
pon = Pohnpeian
rap = Rapanui
rar = Rarotongan
smo = Samoan
tah = Tahitian
tkl = Tokelauan
ton = Tongan
tpi = Tok Pisin
tvl = Tuvaluan
yap = Yapese

Subject Headings

Main Subject Heading

When doing a keyword or subject browse search, the main subject headings will be useful in retrieving relevant results. Books about a language have subject headings that are constucted as follows:

Chuukese language
Drehu Language
Fijian language
Fiji Hindi language
Samoan language

Subject headings for Pidgin languages are contructed in various different ways. Some are constructed similar to those mentioned above.

Tok Pisin language
Bislama language

Others use different subject headings, sometimes with geographical location used as a sub-heading:

Pidgin English
Pidgin English -- Hawaii
Pidgin English -- Papua New Guinea
Creole dialects, English -- Hawaii
English language -- Dialects -- Hawaii
Pidgin languages -- Fiji
Pidgin languages -- Melanesia
Pidgin languages -- Oceania

Subject Sub-headings

Sub-headings can be added to a search as keywords for a more specific search, or following the main subject heading in a subject browse search. Start with your main subject heading, and then any of the following:

Accents and accentuation
Alphabet
Compostition and exercises
Conversation and phrase books
Dialects
Dictionaries
Foreign words and phrases
Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Grammar
History
Orthography and spelling
Phonetics
Phonology
Possessives
Readers
Roots
Terms and phrases
Texts
Verb
Vowels
Vocabulary

1. Search UHM Pacific Collection by language code

Finding Pacific language material held at the UHM collection is a two-step process:

1. Find the unique 3-letter code in one of three ways:

The most common codes are listed in the box to the left
Search Ethnologue (Requires UH login)
Download this spreadsheet:

Comparative standards for Pacific language description
Compares the description standards used by librarians and linguists for the just over 1,400 Pacific languages.

2. Input the 3-letter code into the search box below:

A new page will open listing all the publications that are written in or include examples of that language.

If you want to search a different language, enter the new 3-letter code into this same search box above. (The search box at the top of the pop-up database will not have the same search functions).

This search function was made possible by a 3-year NEH grant "Making Pacific language Materials Discoverable"

Please note: at this time the above widget is searching UHM library's old database. You will be able to find material, but you cannot put in a request for the material in the old database.

To request a book from the Pacific Collection you need to do a 3rd step which is open the new database, OneSearch Manoa, and find the book using the title or call number found in the old database.

We will update the search widget so it queries the database, but this is on a long to-do list to make the new database functional.

2. Search UH Resources by subject or keyword

OneSearch Manoa
We recommend using the terms (subject headings) suggested in the box to the left. If there is no establish subject heading for your language, do multiple keyword searches for each variation of the language name.

3. Search the Googles by keyword

Google Scholar
Full-text @ UH Manoa links should automatically display. If the links are not displaying you can manually set the links to UH Manoa subscriptions by clicking the menu icon in the upper left corner of the Google Scholar search page. Go to Settings. Click on Library links and search for Hawaii. Select University of Hawaii at Manoa - Full Text @ UH Manoa and save your preferences.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.

Google Books
Digitized from the full published holdings of major libraries across the United States and abroad. Includes a good selection of Hawaiʻi and Pacific titles. Allows you to search within the text of many of the books, but only books published before 1923 will be available online in full. Books published before 1923 are in the public domain.