Illo-Busa dictionary

The Illo-Busa dictionary, with English finderlist, was compiled in Nigeria over a seven year period. It forms a trilogy together with the simultaneously published Kyanga and Shanga dictionaries. This cluster of languages belongs to the Eastern sub-division of the Mande language family. Dictionaries of the other three languages of this cluster, Boko, Bokobaru and Busa/Bisã, also compiled by the author, were published by Lincom Europa in 2004. The database is stem based so that any word that begins with a lexeme stem will appear as a sub-entry under that lexeme. The 5000+ head and subwords are written in Illo-Busa orthography, followed by phonetic representations including tones, a part of speech label, and glosses in English. Borrowed words, etymology, synonyms and variants are given as appropriate, with the borrowings being mainly from Hausa and English. Once a break-away from Busa/Bisã, the Illo-Busa language is now slightly closer to Boko. The 49 page introduction includes an historical survey and a summary of Illo-Busa phonology and grammar. The author’s PhD thesis, the Boko/Busa Language Cluster, was published by Lincom Europa in 1998. It describes the grammar of Boko, Bokobaru and Bisã. ISBN 9783862888054. Languages of the World/Dictionaries 65. 221pp. 2017.