Notes to Otsuka and Wong

1. We would like to thank members of the Tokelauan community in Central O‘ahu (particularly Betty Ickes), who have given us the opportunity to work with them on the revitalization of their language. We also thank Ken Rehg, Akiemi Glenn, and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments.

2. Part of the New Testament has been translated in Tokelauan, Ko na Evagelia a Mataio Maleko Luka Ioane (‘Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’ in Tokelauan), and made available through The Bible Society in New Zealand. 

3. The issues surrounding intermarriage, e.g., what causes the high rate of intermarriage in this group, which ethnic groups they are marrying into, how it affects the language maintenance at home, if and how it is related to the erosion of traditional family practices, are certainly relevant, but we do not have enough data to address these questions at this point. We intend to conduct a follow-up survey specifically aimed to identify the consequences of intermarriage on the language maintenance in this group.

4. According to Betty Ickes (pers. comm., February 2007), these practices had been lost in Olohega, before migration to Hawai‘i, due to the plantation society imposed on them on the atoll. 

5. An introduction to the Tokelauan language (Iosua and Beaumont 1997) is a textbook written for second language learners, but it is designed for adult and teenage learners. Three descriptive grammars are also available (Hooper 1996, Hovdhaugen et. al 1989a, 1998b), although they, too, are not meant for children.