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MBEMBE - ENGLISH DICTIONARY compiled by Ebinda Oyama and Katharine Barnwell PRELIMINARY EDITION 1985/1995 (This preliminary edition is intended for testing with other Mbembe language speakers. Your comments and corrections are invited so that a printed edition can be more complete and correct.) Nigeria Bible Translation Trust, P.O. Box 790, Jos, Nigeria NOTE: This version has been reformatted into Word for Windows format by Roger Blench. I am still working on the conversion, slowly and painfully Cambridge, October 6, 2006 PREFACE The material for this dictionary has been compiled over a period of twenty years. Many Mbembe speakers have contributed and their help is gratefully acknowledged. We would like to give personal acknowledgement to each one who has helped. Amongst those who have given regular help over the years are the following: Chairman Rev. L.E. Ebak Mr. L.O. Enyam The late Elder E. Ogaghe Mrs. Hannah Oyama Mr. C.O. Agbor Mr. O. Irom Mr. E. Ogbinji Mr. M. Obem Mr. O. Etaba CONTENTS PART ONE - INTRODUCTION TO THE MBEMBE LANGUAGE 1. The Dialects Of Mbembe: A Survey 2. The Mbembe Alphabet 3. Some Facts About Nouns And Words Which Qualify Nouns 4. More About The Grammar Of Mbembe 5. Some Facts About Verbs 6. The Order Of Words In Mbembe 7. Some Common Phrases 8. Linguistic Differences Between Mbembe Dialects PART TWO - DICTIONARY Nouns beginning with a Verbs beginning with b Verbs beginning with bh Verbs beginning with by Verbs beginning with ch Verbs beginning with d Nouns beginning with e Verbs beginning with f Verbs beginning with ff Verbs beginning with fh Verbs beginning with g Verbs beginning with gb Verbs beginning with gw Nouns beginning with i Verbs beginning with j Verbs beginning with k Verbs beginning with kk Verbs beginning with kp Verbs beginning with kw Verbs beginning with l Nouns beginning with m Verbs beginning with m Verbs beginning with my Nouns beginning with n Verbs beginning with n Verbs beginning with ny 1 Nouns beginning with o Verbs beginning with p Verbs beginning with ph Verbs beginning with phy Verbs beginning with py Verbs beginning with r Verbs beginning with s Verbs beginning with t Verbs beginning with tt Verbs beginning with v Verbs beginning with w Verbs beginning with y Verbs beginning with z PART THREE - APPENDICES ON SPECIAL TOPICS 1. Days of the Mbembe week 2. Numbers 3. Parts of the body 4. Animals 5. Snakes, snails and insects 6. Birds 7. Fish 8. Trees 9. Yams 10. Vegetables and fruits 11. Plants having medicinal properties 12. Diseases 13. Kinds of pots and containers 14. Musical instruments 15. Names of oka and okim 16. Some common Mbembe names 17. Parts of a house PART FOUR - THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF MBEMBE 2 PART ONE INTRODUCTION TO THE MBEMBE LANGUAGE It is one of the wonders of God’s creation that each language has its own unique patterns and grammar. Even if the language has not yet been written down, the patterns are still there. A native speaker uses those patterns correctly in all their complexity, although he may not yet be aware of them or be able to explain them. The Mbembe language is no exception. It is a rich language, full of interesting patterns in the sounds and in the grammar, and with a wealth of vocabulary reflecting the life and culture of the people. It is the aim of this dictionary to record something of this wealth so that it can be appreciated both by mother tongue speakers of Mbembe and by others. We hope that the dictionary will also serve a practical purpose in establishing the written form of the language, and in helping Mbembe speakers to improve their knowledge and understanding of English as well as of their own language. 1. THE DIALECTS OF MBEMBE - a survey The Mbembe language is spoken by about 80,000 people in the Obubra Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. It is a Benue-Congo language of the Eastern subgroup of Cross River languages. There are five major dialects of the language, namely, Adun, Okom, Osopong, Ofombonga, and Ofonokpan. These dialects are spoken as follows: Adun dialect is spoken in the villages of Ofat, Ofodua, Onyadama, Ovonum, Ababene, Oderega, Ofukwa, Arobom and Obibem Ofatura and Oraanga. Ofombonga dialect is spoken in three villages on the Southern bank of the Cross River near Obubra. The largest of these villages is Ofombonga No. 4. Okom dialect has some sub-dialects, which are listed in this dictionary under the following headings: Okom A spoken in Apiapum, Iyamayong, Okomoritet and Iyamtet. Okom H spoken in Ohana, Ochong, Isabang and Ogambang. Okom NY spoken in Onyen. Osopong dialect is divided into; Southern Osopong, spoken in villages South of the Cross River, and Northern Osopong, spoken in villages North of the Cross River. Apiapum Eja is the largest of the Northern Osopong villages. The differences between the Southern and Northern forms of Osopong dialect are small. Ofonokpan dialect is spoken in villages on the North bank of the Cross River, East of the Bansara Creek. It is also spoken in the village known as Ofombonga No. 3, near Obubra. In addition, there is another dialect spoken in the villages of Oferekpe and Ahaha. Although there are differences in the sounds, and vocabulary, and grammar of these dialects, speakers can usually understand each other well. The same way of writing can be used in writing all the dialects. 3 The largest and linguistically most central dialect is Adun. In this dictionary, words are listed under the form in which they occur in Adun dialect. Variations in other dialects are also listed. Some notes on particular points of difference between dialects are given in section 8. below. 2. THE MBEMBE ALPHABET The complete Mbembe alphabet is as follows: a aa b bh ch d e ẹ f ff fh g gb i j k kk kp l m mm n nn ng ny o ọ ọh p ph r s t tt u v w y z In this dictionary, words are arranged in alphabetical order following their order in the Mbembe alphabet. A full description of these sounds is given in Part Four of this dictionary, The Orthography of Mbembe, which may be found at the back of this dictionary. Mbembe also has two contrastive tones, high and low. The difference between these may be heard by comparing the following words: okka “mother” low-low tones okká “crab” low-high tones gwo “to shave the head” low tone gwó “to drink” high tone See the description of the spelling system given in Part Four for further details. In the usual orthography for Mbembe, tone is only marked in places where there would otherwise be confusion of meaning. In this dictionary, however, tones are marked on the main entry for each word, and on compound words. But on illustrative sample sentences, tone is marked only where it would be marked in the regular orthography. In places where tone is marked it is marked as follows: low tone is unmarked high tone is marked by the symbol ´ Sometimes a high tone may be followed by a slight drop, or “downstep”. This is marked by the symbol !. Thus the word é!dé!mé! “water pot’ has three high tones, each followed by a downstep onto the following tone. 3. FACTS ABOUT NOUNS AND WORDS WHICH QUALIFY NOUNS Nearly all nouns in the Mbembe language begin with one of these letters: o e i a n m The first letter of the noun is called the prefix. 4 So the noun ogbera “chair’ has the prefix o the noun eten “fish, animal” has the prefix e the noun ikpo “cap, hat” has the prefix i When a noun is plural, the prefix changes: ogbera “chair” agbera “chairs” eten “fish,animal” nten “fishes,animals” ikpo “cap,hat” okpo “caps,hats” In this dictionary, the entry for each noun shows first the singular form, then the plural form. For example: ogbera, agbera eten, nten ikpo, okpo The plural form does not have a separate entry, except for those very few nouns where the plural form is very much more common than the singular. There is a clear pattern in the way that plural nouns are formed. Nouns with the prefix o- Most nouns with the prefix o- in the singular, change to a in the plural. For example: ogbera, agbera “chair, chairs” onọng, anọng “person, people” okkaara, akkaara “european, europeans” But some nouns with the prefix o- in the singular, change to i- in the plural. For example: osọhm isọhm “house, houses” obhon ibhon “town, towns” (Osopong: ofon, ifon) And a few nouns with the prefix o- in the singular, change to m or n in the plural. For example: obọhk mbọhk “arm, arms” otaak ntaak “thigh, thighs” obho mmo “leg, legs” (Osopong: ofok, mfok) (It is of interest that this group includes several parts of the body, especially those referring to limbs.) Some nouns with the prefix o- are the plural forms of nouns which have the prefix i- in the singular. See below. Nouns with the prefix e- 5 Most nouns with the prefix e in the singular, change to m or n in the plural: eten,nten “fish;/animal,fishes//animals” echi,nchi “tree;/stick,trees;/sticks” effa,mffa “dog,dogs” A few nouns with the prefix e- in the singular, change to a in the plural: esa,asa “tooth,teeth” egaana,agaana “kind of fruit,f ruits” Nouns with the prefix i| Most nouns with the prefix i- in the singular, change to o- in the plural: ikpo,okpo “hat,hats” ikira,okira “farmshelter,farmshelters” A very few nouns with the prefix i- in the singular, change to a- in the plural: igbomma, agbomma “rat, rats” Some nouns with the prefix i- are the plural forms of nouns which have the prefix o- in the singular.

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