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* PREVIOUS WORK ON THE LANGUAGE

* The language group was studied by N. W. Thomas in 1909-10, and

*the results of this study were published in his Report on the Edo speaking

*Peoples, vol. 1, in 1911. The Bini language itself is represented by a

*collection of texts, some phonetic and grammatical notes, and a Bini-

*English vocabulary (quoted as N.W.Th.).

* The manuscript of another Bini vocabulary which, as I was informed,

*had been compiled by the Roman Catholic Mission at Benin City,

*was unfortunately not available.

* A third Bini dictionary (Bini-English and English-Bini) is the one

*compiled (issued in 1932 in typescript) by H. L. M. Butcher, M.A.,

*who has for a long time been an administrative officer in the Benin

*Division. This last dictionary is in many respects a great advance on

*the other. It does not contain as many words as the one first mentioned,

*but those given appear in a more suitable form, for N. W. Thomas very

*often gave short, unseparated sentences as items in his dictionary.

*Butcher’s dictionary gives separate words, e.g. verbs, instead of groups

*containing pronoun+verb+object. He was also able to use the ortho-

*graphy which, in the interval, had been decided upon by the Church

*Missionary Society for their publications, while Thomas was virtually

*facing an unwritten language. Another new and important feature of

*Butcher’s dictionary is the tone-marking found in every heading.

* INFORMANTS. SCOPE AND SOURCES OF THE INFORMATION COLLECTED

* The word-material presented here is to a great extent based on the

*two dictionaries above mentioned. The bulk of it was collected with the

*help of Mr H. G. Amadasu of Benin City, mostly during the period from

*November 1933 to July 1934. To the contents of the dictionaries, other

*words were added as they occurred in texts,^1 sentences, proverbs,

*songs, etc. Words that cannot be readily understood without some

*knowledge of the cultural context in which they are used have been

*explained by means of short descriptions, and in other items notes have

*been added, indicating certain associations which those words would

*evoke in a Bini speaker but not in a European student of the language.

*Illustrative sentences have been incorporated wherever possible, but a

*collection of proverbs and sayings intended for the dictionary has been

*omitted in order not to increase its volume unduly.

* Most of these notes and descriptions were also supplied by Mr Amadasu,

*but other information, especially concerning institutions at the Ɛguae,

*^1 “A. Biogr.” This abbreviation refers to a text containing a biography of the

*first informant; “Ɔxwahɛ Songs”, to songs used in the cult of the god Ɔxwahɛ

*[ ˩ / ˩ ], also obtained from the first informant; Uke keʋe arhuaɽo, to a text supplied

*by J. U. Egharevba.

*viii
