Tusiupu Samoa: Volume 2 English to Samoan

Tusi'upu Sāmoa is the pinnacle of over four decades of work – yoked in tandem with the author's principal engagement in a medical career both in and out of Sāmoa – dedicated to following in sentiment the footsteps of pioneers: those early missionaries and Sāmoan contributors who developed such works as Pratt's Grammar and Dictionary of the Sāmoan Language. The author's interest in the Sāmoan language has been widespread, but his three main requirements – to be able to understand the syntax of the language, its phonology and the semantics of Sāmoan words – have become his most compelling considerations.

• Semisi Ma'ia'i, Author

  Born in the village of Leifiifi on the island of `Upolu, Semisi Ma`ia`i is a doctor of medicine and holds the Samoan orator's title, Papaali`i. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1954 and, after graduation from medical college, married Jenny, a Pakeha New Zealander who was then working as a nurse in Wellington. They moved first to New Plymouth and then to Auckland, where they raised two children. Semisi wrote his Samoan dictionary Tusi 'Upu Samoa over this period. Forty years later, in 2010, it was published by Little Island Press, the first such dictionary to be written by a Samoan. Semisi and Jenny now live in Wellington, where Semisi continues to write.