Introduction

 

The Banyole people speak the Lunyole language. The Banyole reside primarily in Buteleja district in Eastern Uganda where the number of mother-tongue speakers is over 530,000 people.

 

Until now there has been no Lunyole dictionary available which could be used in schools, to encourage local writers to be more actively involved in committing their cultural stories, beliefs, and local history to paper, and to encourage the development of literature in Lunyole.

 

This dictionary has been compiled from various sources, with most of the words being collected during a community-based word collection workshop which was held in 2002. The initial database was based on Ebibono byʼOlunyole nʼOlusungu Olungeresa ‘Words of Lunyole and English’ compiled by Michael A. Whyte and published by the Lunyole Language Association in 1994. Subsequent linguistic research from 1999 - 2002 by Douglas A. Wicks added to the word list. Since then, many other words have been added and updated by those working under the auspices of SIL International.

 

We are very much aware of the limitations of this first edition and welcome feedback and corrections. It is our intention to continue working on this dictionary—especially to make corrections where needed. In addition it is planned to make the dictionary available in electronic format on a website. This website will contain the complete dictionary, with alphabetic and semantic meaning based search facilities.

 

Our hope and prayer is that this dictionary will be an important step toward long-term Lunyole language and culture preservation which should go hand in hand with development in the region.

 

Sylvester N. M. Musimami and Martin Diprose

September 2012



SIL International

PO Box 750
Entebbe
UGANDA