Hausa-English Dictionary and English-Hausa Vocabulary. In the case of Yoruba and Jekri, the tones are based on notes made by the author in London and Nigeria. References to other dialects or languages of the same group are not included, since no comparative study of the group is intended here.
Word groups composed of verb＋object in which the vowel of the verbal stem is elided or contracted have been sparingly introduced as separate items. (But none of the verb＋object-groups the first element of which is gbe 1 [ ˥ ], ya 1 [ ˥ ], zɛ 1 [ ˥ ].) In these as well, the sign cf. is used in order to indicate the heading under which the word-group is treated.
Words preceded by v. refer to synonyms, to expressions covered by the same general idea, or to generic terms covering the item to which the reference is attached.
Both kinds of references, those indicated by cf. and those marked v., are usually found at the end of each item if they concern the item as a whole. Words that have appeared in the item already (i.e. in descriptions, etc.) are not repeated as references.
Furthermore, occasional reference is made to figures contained in Ling Roth, Great Benin (quoted as L.R.) and Read and Dalton, Antiquities from the City of Benin (quoted as R.D.).
NOTE ON BINI SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY
The orthography of the Bini words in this dictionary is not the one used in Bini publications at present, but follows the lines indicated in the Memorandum on a Practical Orthography for African Languages published by the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures.
The Bini language has seven vowels : i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u; a is a forward variety; e and o rather close. Instead of ɛ and ɔ, e̩ and o̩ are at present used in Bini books, in which, generally, the tradition of Yoruba writing is followed.
With the exception of e and o, the vowels also occur nasalised, as the result of assimilation with preceding nasals, and also as separate phonemes. When a nasalised vowel in the context is elided in front of an e or o, only a nasalised glide shows its previous existence, the middle and end of the e or o vowel remain unnasalised, at least in slow speech. (In quick speech, e and o are possibly, nasalised throughout in such cases.) Nasalisation is marked with a tilde (～) above the letter representing the vowel. In Bini books it is at present marked by an n following the vowel, as in Yoruba.
Nasalised vowels are, however, left unmarked when they follow the nasal consonants, i.e. m, ʋ̃, n, ɽ̃, ny, nw, as their nasalisation is the result of assimilation.
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