Digo Dictionary

Mgombato Digo-English-Swahili Dictionary compiled by Joseph Mwalonya, Alison Nicolle, Steve Nicolle and Juma Zimbu Digo Language and Literacy Project Digo — English — Swahili Dictionary First published 2004 Electronic version updated 2005 Copyright © BTL BTL (East Africa) P.O. Box Box 44456 00-100 Nairobi, Kenya in cooperation with Digo Language and Literacy Project, P.O. Box 12, 80403 Kwale, Kenya All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 9966-00-066-6 ii Digo — English — Swahili Dictionary Preface This Digo-English-Swahili dictionary has been compiled as part of the ongoing work of the Digo Language and Literacy Project. This project is part of Bible Translation and Literacy (East Africa), a Kenyan non-governmental organisation which exists to promote the use of the local languages in education, community development, and religious activities. 1 The dictionary is intended for use by speakers of Chidigo, the Digo language, and also for non-Digos who want to learn more about the Digo language. More information about the Digo language and people can be found in the appendices at the back of the dictionary. This is a trilingual dictionary, that is, a dictionary in three languages: Digo (or Chidigo), English, and Swahili (or Kiswahili). Words and phrases in Digo are listed alphabetically in the dictionary and definitions of these words and phrases are given in English and Swahili. In many cases a single word or a brief phrase is sufficient to define the Digo word or phrase, but often a longer explanation is required, as, for example, when defining a word or phrase which describes a cultural phenomenon. There is no reverse list of English and/or Swahili words with definitions in Digo because the focus of the dictionary is the Digo language. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive description of Digo words and phrases, and any reverse list would inevitably omit many Digo words for which there is no obvious English or Swahili equivalent. Like most languages, Digo has various dialects, which differ in both pronunciation and the words used. Although we have not attempted to standardise Digo in any way, the dictionary reflects the fact that the Digo Language and Literacy Project has been most active in the area between Waa and Tiwi at the coast (approximately fifteen kilometres south of Mombasa), and inland as far as Kwale and Golini (approximately twenty kilometres from the coast). Words and phrases have also been contributed by speakers from other parts of the Digo area, including Likoni township in the north and the village of Mpande near Tanga in Tanzania (at the south western tip of the Digo area). Words that are (as far as we know) unique to the southern dialects have been indicated in the dictionary by the addition of ‘ (Tz) ’ (short for ‘Tanzania’) following the English and Swahili definitions. ‘Tanzania’ in this case does not exclude the possibility that the particular word or pronunciation might also be found in southern areas of Kenya, e.g. between Msambweni and Lunga-Lunga. 1 Research for this dictionary was conducted on behalf of the Digo Language and Literacy Project (Bible Translation and Literacy, E. A.) under Research Permit No. OP.13/001/17 C 180/20 issued by the Government of Kenya. Digo — English — Swahili Dictionary iii Acknowledgements The dictionary is not only the work of those named on the cover. It began as a word list compiled by Maartien de Groot and Rodgers Maneno which was expanded by Andy Clark. In March 2003 a six-day workshop was held to elicit additional words and phrases using a list of topics (or semantic domains ) compiled by Alison Nicolle and further developed by Ron Moe of SIL (BTL’s sister organisation in Uganda and Tanzania). The following people participated in this workshop: Hamisi Bilo, Maliki H. Garashi, Mwanatumu R. Hindo, Hamisi Kulola, Shadrack Mwalonya, Mwanamwee S. Malimau, Rodgers Maneno, Amina H. Muta, Ali Mwaramwendo, Juma Mwayani, Ali Jumaa Rahisi, Ali Tenga, Alfani Riziki Tsumo, Mejumaa Ngáza, and Zuhura Zimbu. Susan Nyaga of BTL assisted. Following this workshop, Joseph Mwalonya entered the words and phrases into a database, assisted by Annah Ramtu and Rodgers Maneno. This work was continued by Alison Nicolle, Steve Nicolle and Juma Zimbu, who provided many of the Swahili definitions. Andrew and Rachel Chard hosted Steve Nicolle during a visit to Mpande, Tanzania, Juma Omari Lumumbah, Project Officer at the Coastal Forest Conservation Unit, Ukunda (NMK) assited with additional information on flora and fauna, and Øyvind Åsland provided information on Digo spirit terminology. Additional Digo medicinal terminology was obtained from Ties Boerma (1989) listed in the bibliography. The illustration on p. 190 is used by permission of Luise Gull. Finally, we wish to thank Dennis Felkner of SIL in Nairobi for his patience and skill in typesetting the dictionary and suggesting numerous improvements. We are grateful to all of the above for their assistance and attach no blame to them whatsoever for any mistakes or omissions. Hunakushukuruni . iv Digo — English — Swahili Dictionary Contents Preface .............................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................iv Contents ............................................................................................................v Notes on using the dictionary ..........................................................................vi Spelling and pronunciation .............................................................................vii Mlongozo wa harufu (Spelling guide) ...........................................................viii Digo-English-Swahili dictionary ....................................................................1 Appendices Appendix 1: The Digo people and language ................................................203 Appendix 2: Concise grammar of the Digo language ..................................204 Appendix 3: Bibliography ............................................................................215 Digo — English — Swahili Dictionary v Notes on using the dictionary Digo is one of the Bantu family of languages, which are spoken throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Words in Bantu languages consist of a root which carries the basic meaning and is modified by prefixes (before the root) and suffixes (after the root). As a result, certain decisions have been made as to how to enter words in the dictionary. • Singular and plural are indicated on most nouns through prefixes. Nouns in the dictionary are given using the singular form (unless only a plural form exists or the plural has a distinct meaning) and the plural form is indicated after the noun by the prefix in brackets: chirahu (vi) ; mtaa (mi) . This means that the plural of chirahu is virahu and the plural of mtaa is mitaa . If there is no bracketed form following a noun this means that the noun has no plural; if a noun is followed by (-) this means that the singular and plural forms of the noun are identical. In cases where the plural form is irregular it is given in full. • Verbs are usually cited without the infinitive prefix or any subject and tense/aspect prefixes. Passives and other verb forms which are made through the addition of suffixes after the root are only included if they change the meaning of the root in an unpredictable way or if the form of the resulting word is irregular. • Adjectives which occur with a noun class prefix (see Appendix 2) are listed in the dictionary with an initial hyphen: -baya ; -fupi . If an adjective does not take a noun class prefix, there is no hyphen. Readers familiar with other dictionaries may notice the lack of abbreviations referring to parts of speech ( n. for noun, adj. for adjective, etc.). This is not an oversight on our part. We have tried to show in the definitions whether each word is a noun, a conjunction, a (transitive or intransitive) verb, etc. For example, the definitions of verbs contain the infinitive forms ‘to’ in English and ‘ku-’ in Swahili. vi Digo — English — Swahili Dictionary Spelling and pronunciation A detailed spelling guide can be found just before the Digo-English-Swahili dictionary; the current section has been written primarily for the benefit of people for whom Digo is not their mother tongue. The pronunciation of most (combinations of) letters in Digo is very similar to the pronunciation of Swahili (e.g. ng is pronounced as in ngoma or finger , and ng’ is pronounced as in ng’ombe or singer ). However Digo has some sounds which are not found in Swahili: dz a d and a z are pronounced together; this sound often corresponds to j in Swahili. gbw a g and a b are pronounced together with the b being ‘sucked in’ ( implosive ). h the pronunciation of h varies. Sometimes it is pronounced as in Swahili or English, but sometimes it is pronounced very softly, almost like heavy breathing, (e.g. hipha ). If you cannot find a word with a ‘soft h’ sound under h in the dictionary, try looking under the following vowel. The letter h between two vowels (e.g. chihi ) is always pronounced nasally (as if there were a soft n just before it). kpw a k and a p are pronounced together; this sound often corresponds to kw

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