Nhaheun - French - English Lexicon

by Michel Ferlus (Paris)

Edited and Annotated by Pascale Jacq and Paul Sidwell
University of Melbourne

The present volume is a lexicon of Nhaheun, with glosses in French and English, and etymological commentary in English. There are more than 1500 entries. In total there are 160 pages, including introduction, transcription guide and semantic index. Nhaheun is a West Bahnaric language, and Bahnaric itself is a branch of Mon-Khmer. Nhaheun is presently spoken by plantation farmers on the Boloven Plateau in the south of the Lao PDR. Materials for the lexicon were collected in the 1960s and 70s, but until now have not appeared in a consolidated listing. To our knowledge existing published sources are not as extensive as this list. Nhaheun is phonologically divergent among West Bahnaric languages, in particular showing consonant lenitions which are not shared by its close relatives. Also Nhaheun is under strong Lao influence. The lexicon is intended as a useful reference and data source for comparative linguistics. The latter is especially strengthened by the inclusion of extensive etymological commentary by the editors, who are specialists in Bahnaric historical phonology and lexicography.

ISBN 9783929075564. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 16. 150 pp. 1998.

A Dictionary of Yogad

Philip W. Davis & Angel Mesa
Rice University

Yogad is a Philippine language spoken in Echague and several nearby towns in Isabela Province, which is located in the Cagayan Valley in central eastern Luzon. Ethnologue, citing a 1975 census, estimates the number of speakers at 14,000. The variety of Yogad represented in the dictionary is that of a male speaker (the second author) in his mid-sixties, who is a native of Echague. Although Yogad is his first language, he is also fluent in Ilokano, Tagalog, and English; and he has some knowledge of Ibanag.
The information which we have chosen to include in the dictionary and its organization are a result of the experience in writing a grammar of Yogad (Davis, Baker, Spitz & Baek 1998) with Angel Mesa. The user of this dictionary is referred to that work (The Grammar of Yogad: A functional explanation), which should be used in conjunction with the present dictionary in order to gain the best understanding of Yogad. The grammar and dictionary offer complementary perspectives of the language, and together they provide the most complete view.
In the Yogad - English portion of the dictionary, each entry of an item will ideally contain several pieces of information with respect to how that item interacts with certain contexts. First, following its gloss(es) and other information, we note how the lexical item behaves with the determiners of the language, usually yu/nu or tu (Cf. Davis, Baker, Spitz & Baek. 1998, Chapter 2, section 4). Here, we discover whether the item will be more 'noun'-like or more 'verb'-like. Generally, Yogad lexical resources function with indifference to the syntactic positions in which we expect 'nouns' and 'verbs' to appear. For example, the language may be described as VSO, but any lexical item can fill the 'V' position and accept the 'verbal' affixes. Conversely, any lexical item which can appear in the 'V' position can also occur in the 'S' or 'O' position with a determiner and appear to be a 'noun'. Rather than mark entries as 'n' or 'v', we let the sense of the root in the context of determiners provide the relevant information.
Lexical items can sometimes appear in the 'V' position without accompanying affixes, and some must. Those possibilities are noted next in each entry. Not all lexical items work in this way, and where they do not, we mark that fact with an asterisk. Knowing the ways in which a lexical item cannot be used is as important for understanding the lexical resources of the language as is knowing how they can be used. Throughout, we follow the practice of including and marking unacceptable or meaningless combinations. Next, there will appear a sequence of examples which fix the possibilities of occurrence with the 'verbal' affixes of Yogad; and this includes some eighteen affixal combinations. The first four (pairs of) affixes focus on the 'S', and the remaining ones focus on the 'O'. At least one affix (ma-) may select either the 'S' or the 'O' for focus. Again, the reader is referred to Davis, Baker, Spitz & Baek (1998) for detailed discussion of the meaning of these affixes.
Following the detailing of affixal combinations, examples will be provided to illustrate the possibilities of reduplication. There are several such patterns in Yogad. And finally, where useful, additional examples of usage will close out an entry. At any point in an entry, there may occur material between double quotation marks. These are verbatim comments by the speaker, which may help elucidate the sense of an expression and also how it differs from closely related ones.
It is obvious that each lexical entry will have numerous pieces of information included concerning it ... that is, if the plan of the dictionary were completed as just described. In its present state, this information is fragmentary, and its completion will always remain an ideal. The intent is to create a functional description of the Yogad lexicon as it meshes with the semantics of Yogad grammar, i.e., a 'functional dictionary'.
The dictionary concludes with an English - Yogad section which directs the reader to the Yogad entry in which the English expression will be found. Because of the semantic variation of the Yogad roots in combination with their affixes, we cite only the Yogad lexical root corresponding to each English entry. The root by itself may not have the associated meaning, which may appear only when the root is in the appropriate grammatical context. The reader will then have to search through the entry for that root to find exactly how Yogad contrives to match the English.

ISBN 9783895865855. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 17. 420pp. 2000.

Comparative West Bahnaric Dictionary

Pascale Jacq & Paul Sidwell
University of Melbourne

The dictionary consolidates wordlists collected by Jacq and Sidwell during fieldwork to the Lao PDR (1996 to 1998), plus some material from other sources. The languages treated are Oi, Cheng, Sapuon, Talieng, Kraseng, Nhaheun, Laveh, Loven and Alak. The listing is according to semantic fields and includes both native vocabulary and borrowings, with some etymological commentary.

The introduction includes a discussion of the current linguistic situation in the south of the Lao PDR, with maps and a listing of languages and villages where they are spoken. The recording and transcription of data is discussed, and some brief remarks are made on the phonology and grammar of the languages. A preliminary genetic classification based upon the lexical data is also presented. A bibliography of West Bahnaric studies completes the introduction.

ISBN 9783895865589. Languages of the World/ Dictionaries 21. 250pp. 2000.

Léxico bilingüe aparai-português / português-aparai

Eliane Camargo
Centre d’Etudes des Langues Indigènes d’Amérique (CELIA/CNRS)

Como contribuição a documentação de línguas amazônicas, o presente léxico bilingüe ilustra o aparai com aproximadamente 3600 entradas lexicais. As entradas lexicais são, em sua maioria, exemplificadas com enunciados em língua vernacular (aparai) tendo sua tradução em português, proporcionando ao leitor exemplos do emprego dos termos lexicais e/ou gramaticais na estrutura da língua. Pertencente à família lingüística caribe, o aparai é falado por cerca de 500 pessoas, sendo que apenas a metade identifica-se como sendo aparai por linhagem patrilinear. Muitos falantes falam aparai por terem mães aparais, outros por usarem essa língua como língua de comunicação (entre wayanas e tiriyós, por exemplo).

Atualmente, os aparais ocupam o alto e médio rio Paru de Leste, no extremo norte do estado do Pará, no Brasil, território que dividem com wayanas e com tiriyós. Uma pequena porção, que vivia na região do rio Jari, vive hoje no alto rio Maroni, na Guiana Francesa, junto com wayanas. O aparai é a lingua de alfabetização no rio Paru de Leste e bastante difundida nessa região, contrariamente no rio Maroni, onde o seu conhecimento está em vias de desaparecimento.

ISBN 9783895863066. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 22. 140pp. 2002.

Loven (Jruq) Consolidated Lexicon

Pascale Jacq & Paul Sidwell
University of Melbourne

Loven (autonym Jruq, also known as Boloven or Lawen) is a West-Bahnaric (Mon-Khmer) language. There are around 20,000 Loven living on the Boloven Plateau, Champasak province, southern Lao P.D.R.

The consolidated lexicon is compiled from a number of sources, including the authors' 1998 fieldnotes, and secondary sources including: Lavallée's (1901 manuscript) vocabulary as presented in Cabaton (1905), Phraya Prachakij-karachak (1919, republished by Thomas & Srichampa 1995), Bondet de la Bernadie (1949), Ferlus (manuscript), Huffman (1971 manuscript) and Thomas & Andrianoff (1978 manuscript).

There are more than 1500 entries and a semantic index. The main entries are given according to the practical orthography developed by the authors, and are supported by subentries of the various forms as recorded in the sources. There is also some etymological commentary based on the authors recent comparative work, and a description of the little known indigenous Loven writing system, which was used during the 1920s and 1930s.

ISBN 9783895866234. Languages of the World/ Dictionaries 23. 130pp. 1999.

Mà´dí English - English Mà´dí Dictionary

Mairi J Blackings
University of Strathclyde

Mà´dí is a Central Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharn phylum, which is spoken in Uganda and South Sudan. This dictionary, composed by a native linguist, is written using the suggested orthography for the language, which encourages the distinction between the advanced and retracted tongue root vowels and the marking of tones. Though the main entry is primarily in the Lokayi dialect spoken in South Sudan, where applicable, cross-references have been made across all the other main dialects of the language.

The core part of this second edition of the dictionary has about 7000 entries. For ease of transition to the suggested new orthography, each entry begins with the old orthography (with no vowel quality distinction or the marking of tones). This is followed by its representation in the new orthography, the word class, and English glosses. Many entries also include derived or inflected words, idioms, and example sentences. Where appropriate, alternative pronunciations, dialectal variations and spellings are provided. Loanwords are indicated, and a source language, where possible is suggested. The borrowed lexicon of the language with loanwords from Arabic (in the Sudan), English (Uganda and the Sudan), Swahili (mostly in Uganda) and Italian (mostly religious register), indicates the socio-cultural and political contacts of the Mà´dí people. Interesting features of the language found in this dictionary include the use of the apostrophe to represent the glottal stop when placed before a vowel and the implosive when it precedes a consonant. The language also has a number of secondarily and doubly articulated consonants. This dictionary should be a useful tool for the native speaker both at home and in diaspora, the comparative linguist or the relief worker among others.

Languages of the World/Dictionaries 25. 252pp. 2011.

ISBN 9783862880539 (print)

ISBN 9783862889532 (e-book, pdf)