Reference

An extensive dictionary (almost 1800 pages) of the Upriver dialects of Halkomelem, an Amerindian language of B.C.,giving information from almost 80 speakers gathered by the author over a period of 40 years. Entries include names and dates of citation, dialect information, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic information, domain memberships of each alloseme, examples of use in sentences, and much cultural information.

This is a dictionary of Bole, a little documented language of the Chadic family, spoken in northeastern Nigeria. This is one of the most comprehensive dictionaries of any Chadic language other than Hausa. All entries for Bole are fully marked for tone and vowel length. The Bole-English-Hausa section has full definitions and explanations of meaning in English with numerous examples of use. Each entry has a Hausa gloss. The English-Bole section is intended mainly as an index to the Bole-English-Hausa section. There are appendices of flora and fauna terms, cultural terms, pronouns, and comprehensive paradigms of verb forms.

This pioneering book is the prototype of the etymological thesaurus that has been the goal of the Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus project (STEDT) since 1987. It presents nearly 170 Proto-Tibeto-Burman etymologies in the semantic area of the reproductive system, along with discussions of possible Chinese cognates. Special attention is paid to patterns of semantic associations between the reproductive system and other areas of the lexicon.

Many indigenous American languages face imminent extinction, and the dictionary, often the only written documentation of these languages, stands as a powerful tool in preserving them. These essays, written by leading scholars in Native American language studies, provide a comprehensive picture of the theory and practice of Native American lexicography. The contributors discuss the technical, social, and personal challenges involved with the complex task of creating a dictionary of a Native American language. The book is also the first of its kind to address both standard and new issues surrounding the challenging task of transforming oral languages in general into written dictionaries. Making Dictionaries will be an invaluable source for those involved with all aspects of documenting and understanding endangered languages and for the increasing number of native communities engaged in language reclamation and preservation efforts.

Although Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia and English its international language, until publication of this book in hardcover there was no concise Amharic-English, English-Amharic dictionary. Students of Amharic as well as visitors to Ethiopia and foreign workers will benefit from this concise dictionary with phonetic transcriptions that allow for its use by those unfamiliar with Amharic script.