A Corpus of Contemporary Colloquial Samoan

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to produce a Samoan word frequency list. No list of this type has been compiled before. The aim is to identify the most frequently used words in colloquial Samoan in both spoken and written domains of the language. The Samoan word frequency list is based on the Kopasi o le Gagana Samoa (KGS) - Samoan Language Corpus. This corpus has been compiled using established criteria and principles. The corpus consists of texts totalling 300,000 words of the Samoan language from spoken and written sources, collected in Samoa and New Zealand. The Kopasi o le Gagana Samoa provides teachers and learners of the Samoan language with a basis for identifying the most frequently used words in Samoan, and it will assist them greatly in their task of preparing teaching and learning resources in the Samoan language. The list can also be used as a basis for further research into the Samoan lexicon.