*
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as well as new items, was obtained from Mr J. U. Egharevba, the author
*of a short history of Benin in the vernacular,^1 and some items, from
*Mr J. E. Edegbe, translator and interpreter of the Church Missionary
*Society at Benin City. During my second stay in Nigeria, I worked
*through the first proofs of this Dictionny with Mr Amadasu and
*Mr S. Obayuwana.
* Some words have been taken from publications of the Church
*Missionary Society, mainly from the Communion Service (quoted as
*Akugbe) and the Gospel of St Mark.
* A certain number of important names have been included, and these
*as well as titles, praise-names, etc. have been written with a capital so
*as to stand out more clearly. Names composed of other words contained
*in the dictionary have not been entered under their respective headings
*but are given as separate items, e.g. Iʋi‿eze (cf. oʋi “child”).
* The collection of words contained in this dictionary is by no means
*exhaustive. Gaps will be found especially among the following groups:
* 1. Nouns of action of the type u＋verbal stem＋ʋ̃ɛ, e.g. ukɔʋ̃ɛ [ ˩ \ ˩ ]
*“planting”, which apparently can be formed from every verb but do
*not seem always to be in use.
* 2. Composite nouns consisting of prefix＋(ɔ- denoting noun-agents,
*i- nouns of action, u- things, often tools, etc.)＋verbal stem＋object, with
*all syllables on low tones irrespective of their original tones, e.g. ɔmaxe
*[ ˩ ˩ ˩ ] “potter”, from ma [ ˥ ] and axe [ ˩ ˥ ] ; itẽrhã [ ˩ ˩ ˩ ] “tree-felling”,
*from tɔ̃ [ ˥ ] and erhã [ ˩ ˥ ] ; ugbĩnamɛ [ ˩ ˩ ˩ ˩ ] “umbrella”, from gbĩna
*[ ˩ ˥ ] and amɛ [ ˩ ˩ ] . They seem to be formed very freely though probably
*certain combinations are not in use.
* 3. Nouns derived from more than one verb, e.g. iyayi [ ˩ ˥ ˦ ] “faith”,
*from ya [ ˥ ] and yi [ ˥ ].
* All these formations have been entered as far as they have come to
*the author’s notice, and it is hoped that students of the language will
*find no difficulty in determining the meaning of new words of these
*types by tracing their constituent elements. The same method is
*advised in the case of verbal combinations which are not found in the
*dictionary.
* Etymological references, indicated by cf., are intended to elucidate
*the derivation and composition of words as well as the sources of loan-
*words. For the tones of loan-words the following works have been
*consulted―Ibo: Dr I. C. Ward, Introduction to the Ibo Language, and
*R. F. G. Adams, A Modern Ibo Grammar. Hausa: G. P. Bargery,
*^1 Ekherhe Vbe Ebe Itan Edo, 2nd edition, C. M. S., Benin City, 1934, quoted as
*Egh. Hist. Also in English as A Short History of Benin, by J. U. Egharevba, 1936,
*Church Missionary Society Bookshop, Lagos.
* Recently, a short Bini-Yoruba-English vocabulary has been published by the
*same author, but since I obtained a copy of it only when this dictionary was in
*the press, I have not included any words from it here.
*ix
