Dictionary of Ò,Nì,Chà Igbo
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Dictionary of Ònìchà Igbo 2nd edition of the Igbo dictionary, Kay Williamson, Ethiope Press, 1972. Kay Williamson (†) This version prepared and edited by Roger Blench Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm To whom all correspondence should be addressed. This printout: November 16, 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations: ................................................................................................................................................. 2 Editor’s Preface............................................................................................................................................... 1 Editor’s note: The Echeruo (1997) and Igwe (1999) Igbo dictionaries ...................................................... 2 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Earlier lexicographical work on Igbo........................................................................................................ 4 2. The development of the present work ....................................................................................................... 6 3. Onitsha Igbo ................................................................................................................................................ 9 4. Alphabetization and arrangement........................................................................................................... 10 5. Orthography .............................................................................................................................................. 12 5.0 General ................................................................................................................................................. 12 5.1 Alphabet............................................................................................................................................... 12 5.2 Double vowels ...................................................................................................................................... 13 5.3 Syllabic nasal ....................................................................................................................................... 13 5.4 Tones..................................................................................................................................................... 13 5.5 Word division ...................................................................................................................................... 13 5.6 A note on 'y' ......................................................................................................................................... 14 6. Grammatical sketch .................................................................................................................................. 15 6.1 Parts of speech ..................................................................................................................................... 15 6.2 Verbs..................................................................................................................................................... 17 6.2.1. Types of verbs..............................................................................................................................................17 6.2.2. Roots .............................................................................................................................................................17 6.2.3. Stems.............................................................................................................................................................17 6.2.4 Verbal derivatives.........................................................................................................................................18 6.2.5 Classification of verbs ..................................................................................................................................20 6.2.6 Verbal categories ..........................................................................................................................................20 6.2.7 Mood..............................................................................................................................................................21 6.2.8 Aspect and tense in the indicative mood.....................................................................................................22 6.2.8.1 Simple versus Perfect aspect ................................................................................................ 22 6.2.8.2 The Simple Aspects: Progressive versus Non-Progressive ................................................ 23 6.2.8.3 The Perfect aspects: Completive and Incompletive ........................................................... 25 6.2.8.4 Tense in Igbo.......................................................................................................................... 26 6.2.8.5 Neutral tense.......................................................................................................................... 27 6.2.8.6 Emphatic Past tense .............................................................................................................. 27 6.2.8.7 Future tense ........................................................................................................................... 28 6.2.8.8 Unfulfilled tense..................................................................................................................... 29 6.2.9 The Sequential Mood ...................................................................................................................................29 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................................. 29 IGBO DICTIONARY ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Abbreviations: Parts of speech of headwords have been indicated in this edition as follows adj. adjective aux. v. auxiliary verb cf. compare coll. colloquial conj. conjunction dem. demonstrative E. English enc. enclitic esp. especially ext. suff. extensional suffix H. Hausa infl. suff. inflectional suffix int. interjection int. interrogative lit. literally n. noun num. numeral p.n. proper name prep. preposition pron. pronoun poss. possessive pronoun quant. quantifier usu. usually v. verb Y. Yoruba derived from Igbo Dictionary: KayWilliamson. Draft of Edition II Editor’s Preface The present Igbo dictionary is a much revised and expanded version of the Igbo dictionary published by Kay Williamson, Ethiope Press, Benin City in 1972. Professor Williamson died in early January 2005, with it still unpublished. The revision was prepared in the 1970s and 1980s and was typed camera-ready in a manuscript submitted to the same publishers in 1983. The publishers first delayed in responding and then finally admitted they had lost the copy. So only a photocopy of the original typed version exists. During the 1990s, the manuscript was partly typed without alteration into a Word processor, originally an Apple-based system. This was transferred to an IBM system quite recently, but without any conversion of the character codes. It seems that two different systems of coding diacritics were used and more than two IPA phonetic fonts. Furthermore, for some reason, the typing of the grammar sketch which precedes the manuscript is incomplete. In order to make the manuscript available, I have therefore joined together the fragments of the electronic manuscript and converted all the diacritics to a single system. I hope I have done this consistently, but errors may still remain. Where something was mistyped from the ms. the global conversion occasionally produced eccentric results. I have checked this as far as possible against the photocopy, but some inconsistencies between photocopy and electronic file may remain. I have also corrected other obvious errors, checked and updated scientific names and reformatted the headings. I have added additional etymologies where they were known to me and substituted updated scientific names. One orthographic change is the substitution of the more easily understood ŋ symbol for the velar nasal in place of the ‘n’ with superdot (n) in the manuscript. The photographs were inserted by the editor, deriving from fieldwork in Nigeria. I believe the ms. should be published in hard copy, but there are several reasons for not doing this at present. The first is that the ms. represents a form of Igbo current a quarter of a century ago, and the language has changed. It will need to be reviewed by competent speakers of the current language. Secondly, since the preparation of the ms. there have been two major published dictionaries of Igbo, by Echeruo (1998) and Igwe (1999) as well as innumerable publications marking advances in the understanding of the grammar of Igbo, which any new publication must take into account. In addition, the English itself has an archaic feel to it and I have sometimes updated rather antiquated expressions. For the present I have left in example sentences referring to long-disappeared stores,