The original unpublished manuscript which led to this Workbook was compiled by Sakihara (1928-2001) during his 1971-2001 tenure at the U. of Hawaii. The material was produced by Sakihara as a full dictionary of some 1300 pages, complete with extensive examples of word use in alternate forms, in phrases, and in sentences. After Sakihara's death, his unpublished manuscript was studied extensively by linguistic scholars at the U. of the Ryukyus and colleagues at the U. of Hawaii. Containing some 10,000 entries, the Workbook provides a concise dictionary of the modern Okinawan language with definitions and explanations in English, and is the first substantive Okinawan-English lexicon in more than a century. Publication of a second independent volume, the dictionary proper, based on Dr. Sakihara's full manuscript, is also being planned. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)