The dictionary is (at present) an alphabetized list of words
in spelling, and as explained above alphabetized according to the root of the
word. Following the word is a phonetic form of the word, and in a number of
cases a playable recording of the word – see more details about the recordings
below. This is followed by part of speech (n=noun, v=verb, adj=adjective), then
a translation into English, and further explanation as appropriate.
Actual prounciation of words varies considerably in the
language, therefore many entries are supplemented with playable recordings and
a phonetic transcription of the particular pronunciation. Sometimes, the
recordings vary a bit in grammatical form, especially noun class, perhaps
because a speaker only uses the noun in the plural, or applies a different noun
class to the same word (for example people differ in whether to give the word
for “tradition” in the singular or plural: ʊmw-iima vs. im-iima; ‘law’
could either be given in the singular, il-lago or the plural ama-lago).
Borrowed words are especially variable, hence if one pronounces the word for
‘loquat’ as ipalapaandi, you may not find the word listed under a root palapaandi,
instead it is listed as balabaande which is the more common version
(from ilibalabaande).
An attempt is made here to include known variants of this
type, especially where simple root-alphabetization doesn’t put the variants
together (balabaandi and balabaande, which are put into a single
entry. When the first sound of the root varies according to speaker (parapaandi
~ barabaandi), two entries are made so you can look the word up as parapaandi
or as barabaandi. Similarly, the roots ‘heat up’ and ‘grind’ are both listed
twice, as hya and sha for heat up’, and sya and sha
for ‘grind’. The combinations sy and hy may be pronounced as sh,
so a speaker of an “sh-dialect” may not know whether other dialects say hya
or sya, therefore each word is entered with both possible spellings.
(These are common enough words that you are more likely to know that ‘grind’ is
usually spelled sya and ‘heat up’ is hya, however this resource
is not designed to only be used by experts in the language).
It may help the user to know what the most common patterns
of variation are. The treatment of the consonants p, t, k, ch, b, d, g, j
tends to be quite variable, because of sound changes that historically
differentiated the Luhya group of languages from other Bantu languages. Many
Logoori speakers are aware that words with p, t, k in languages such as
Tiriki or Nyore correspond to Logoori words with b, d, g respectively.
This replacement was historically general and active, and explains why Swahili posta
‘post office’ is widely pronounced ebóósta. Some speakers pronounce the
word as epóósta, reflecting the Swahili pronunciation which they also
know. The direction of change seems to be one-way: p, t, k, ch from
outside Logoori become b, d, g, j but b, d, g, j in a word from
outside Logoori (ɪdííni ‘religion’, from Swahili ultimately Arabic) keeps
that consonant as is.
The purpose of the recordings is to give the user,
especially one who is not highly experienced in the language, an idea
how words
are pronounced and what it means when I write
“ɪmbárabará” versus
“ɪmbárabára”.
Or, if one personally pronounces “knife” as [ʊm’banʊ]
and you doubt that anyone
would say [m’bano], you can listen to a recording of both
pronunciations. There
is no implication about what pronunciations are “correct,
standard, typical”,
nor even necessarily “typical for that person”.
The main pronunciation entry attempts to say what is the
most common pronunciation, at least in my experience. For instance ‘ring’ is
pronounced [ebéde] and ‘cow’ is [eng’oombe]. Tone can be highly variable in
some words, therefore there is no “most common” pronunciation of imbiling’oongo,
though it is entered as [ɪmbɪ́rɪng’oong’o] since there is usually at least a H
tone on the first root vowel. Cases of extreme variation are mentioned in the
“further information” section of the entry.
One final note about pronunciation. There is a minor controversy over “l” versus “r”, discussed in the grammar and the “Writing” paper. I embrace both possibilities. For spelling, I write l and not r, but usually I phonetically transcribe that sound as [r] when it is single ([ɪmbára] ‘scar’, [ɪllago] ‘law’). In transcriptions of individuals, I do use single [l], both in words like umujaluo which is pronounced as [ʊmʊjálwo] and similar variants – not *[ʊmʊjárwo], and also for some individuals who do pronounce l more like phonetic [ɭ]. Since looking up words is primarily about spelling, you would look up “law” under l (there is no menu entry for r).