Constructing a web-accessible lexical database for core Tongan vocabulary

Abstract

According to UNESCO. 2020. World atlas of languages, 3rd edn. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Available at: https://en.wal.unesco.org, the Tongan language is classified as ‘potentially vulnerable.’ This study aimed to identify a core Tongan vocabulary and develop a web-searchable database to support the preservation and accessibility of the language. Due to the lack of a large-scale corpus for calculating lexical frequencies, we utilized vocabulary from the Students’ English-Tongan and Tongan-English Dictionary (Thompson, Richard H. & ‘Ofa Thompson. 1992. The students’ English-Tongan and Tongan-English dictionary. Tonga: Faletohi ‘Otumotu Angl’ofa’), a resource commonly used in Tongan schools. This dictionary compiles words used in both Tongan and English in everyday life. By examining processing speed and accuracy rates in lexical decision tasks, we identified a core Tongan vocabulary. Lexical decision tasks conducted on 4,013 words from the dictionary demonstrated a mean accuracy of 95.40 % and a rapid mean reaction time of 575 ms. A comparative analysis with an equal number of high-frequency words in English (Balota, David A., Melvin J. Yap, Michael J. Cortese, Keith A. Hutchison, Brett Kessler, Bjorn Loftis, James H. Neely, Douglas L. Nelson, Greg B. Simpson & Rebecca Treiman. 2007. The English lexicon project. Behavior Research Methods 39. 445–459) and French (Ferrand, Ludovic, Boris New, Marc Brysbaert, Emmanuel Keuleers, Patrick Bonin, Alain Méot, Maria Augustinova & Christophe Pallier. 2010. The French Lexicon Project: Lexical decision data for 38,840 French words and 38,840 pseudowords. Behavior Research Methods 42. 488–496) revealed that Tongan words were processed more quickly, though with an average accuracy approximately 2 % lower than the English and French words. Despite this slight difference in accuracy, the overall comprehension level for Tongan words remained high, with accuracy exceeding 95 %. Given the faster processing speeds observed, we propose that these words represent a core vocabulary in Tongan. To facilitate access to this vocabulary, we developed a web-based search engine (https://tonganlex.vercel.app/), which provides detailed information on letter (grapheme) count, phonemes, moras, parts of speech, meanings, as well as lexical decision times and accuracies. This study contributes to the accessibility of the Tongan language by making essential lexical information readily available online.