For nouns, the singular form is used as the main entry form.
eʼnɔn (Pl. menɔn) n 14/6. bird.
For verbs, the infinitive form with the prefix is given:
âbéd v. mould fufu.
Often there are words which are identical in form which have unrelated meanings, called homonyms. These are marked with a numerical subscript:
âbid1 v. 1) rub ointment on. 2) sweep lightly.
âbid2 v. 1) pass something through a hole. 2) put (hand) into.
ngii1 (Pl. ngii) n 9/10. lion.
ngii2 (Pl. ngii) n 9/10. 1) eggs (of fish, jigger, etc). 2) underdeveloped eggs of a hen.
The different pronunciations between long oo and long aa vowels are indicated with IPA (International phonetic alphabet) characters in square brackets after the headword:
âláa1 [aː] v. {-e} chew. Aláádé nyam. He chewed the meat.
âláa2 [ɒː] v. {-e} tell. Aláŋgé mə́ aá áhyag. He told him that he should come.
sáá [ɒː] (Pl. besáá) n 1/2. father.
páan [ɒː] (Pl. páan) n 9/10. thin kitchen knife.
âbóo1 [oː] v. {-e} care for. Abóŋgɛ mwǎn. He cares for the child.
âbóo2 [ɤː] v. 1) abandon (e.g., village). 2) go into exile. 3) fleeing a fight.
sóó [oː] (Pl. besóó) n 1/2. your father.
sóo [ɤː] pro. we two, pronoun for first plus second person dual inclusive.
The plural form is added for most nouns which have a plural form.
eʼnɔn (Pl. menɔn) n 14/6. bird.
bɔ̌le (Pl. mɔ̌le; myɔ̌le) n 14/6. canoe.
dyɔn (Pl. mɔn; myɔn) n 5/6. market.
Verb stems are often formed from a root plus a suffix, called extensions. These are indicated before the part of speech abbreviations for verbs in curly brackets:
âyəg1 v.adj. 1) be red. 2) be ripe, ripen.
âyəged {-ed} v. make ripe.
âyə́ge {-e} v. learn, study.
âyə́ged {-ed} v. teach.
âyə́gtɛn {-tɛn} v. mimic, imitate (with intent to annoy)
âláa1 [aː] {-e} v. chew.
âláa2 [ɒː] {-e} v. tell.
After each word we have indicated the part of speech or word class to which the word belongs.
éʼniin num. four (for nouns of class 8).
tyɔ́g (Pl. tyɔ́g) n 9/10. spoon, of wood or metal.
âheb v. jump. Sêhebé á eʼkɛ́-mîn. We jumped over the fence.
For abbreviations, go to the abbreviations tab.
For all nouns, the noun class gender is given in the form of the usual Bantu numbering system. Akoose has the following singular/plural combinations or genders:
1/2, 3/4, 3/2, 5/6, 7/8, 7/6, 9/10, 9/6, 14/6, 19/13.
mbɛlɛ́ (Pl. bembɛlɛ́) n 1/2. cat.
abaŋ (Pl. mebaŋ) n 5/6. scar.
edíb (Pl. eʼdíb) n 7/8. 1) stream, river.
ekáá (Pl. mekáá) n 7/6. hand, arm.
There are also many nouns that do not have a singular/plural distinction. This is indicated with just the class number for the singular form.
ekekíd n 7. epilepsy.
abaá1 n 1. 1) honey. 2) resin. 3) sticky substance.
mekií n 6. blood.
Contractions are indicated as follows
áde1 (Contr. â; ɛ̂) conj. 1) as. 2) when. 3) if.
Dialectal and other variants are indicated in brackets after the headword:
angool [oː] (Dial.var. angoon) n 5/6. leaf for wrapping meat.
âbíd (Dial.var. âbwíd) v. go out, come out.
Akoose has a good number of words borrowed from other languages like Duala, German, English, etc. This is indicated as follows in square brackets, sometimes followed by the word in the source language:
mbonja (Pl. mbonja) [from Duala: mbonji.] n 9/10. flower.
âsán1 [from English.] v. shine.
âsán2 [from English.] v. sign (signature).
ésɛl (Pl. éʼsɛl) [from German: Esel.] n 7/8. donkey.
The meaning of the headword is given after the part of speech in form of a one or several translation equivalents or a descriptive expression:
enyɛn n 7. sunshine, sun.
âləŋ1 v. 1) tap. 2) skim off, collect liquid.
In some cases the literal meaning of the headword follows the definition.
akoŋ á kaké (Pl. mekoŋ mé kaké) n 5/6. tool for harvesting cocoa. Lit. cocoa knife.
Words frequently have more than one meaning which are related, but distinct. Such distinctions in the sense are indicated by numbers followed by a closing bracket:
nlém n 3. 1) heart. 2) lung (including heart). 3) hope. 4) happy. 5) climax.
nló n 3. 1) head. 2) top, peak. 3) first. 4) end. 5) dream.
âbwɔg1 v. 1) support. 2) stake. 3) protect supernaturally. 4) spellbind. 5) cause to stand still.
For a number of animals and plants the scientific name has been included.
chokôd e ekone (Pl. byokôd bé ekone) n 7/8. four horn chameleon. Chamaeleo quadricornis.
ékɔŋɛ́bɔŋ [from Igbo.] n 7. 1) fluted pumpkin, gourd. Cucurbita pepo, C. maxima.
mbaaŋgé (Pl. mbaaŋgé) n 9/10. cocoyam. Xanthosoma sagittifolium; X. mafaffa.
Many words are illustrated by way of a phrase or sentence. The sentence in Akoose is in bold characters followed by an English translation in normal characters:
âpuud {-ed} v. cause to come back to life, cause to revive. Apuúté ane mod awě abédé bɛnbɛn ne kwééd. He brought the man back to life from the brink of death.
âbid1 v. rub ointment on. Bǐd mə́ bwɛl á ekáá éche éwag mə́ nɛ̂. Rub medicine on his hand where it pains him so.
In some cases the literal meaning of the example sentence follows the free translation.
awalɛɛ n 1. epidemic; flu epidemic. Awalɛɛ eelə́gɛɛ́ kúb. The epidemic killed all fowls. Lit. didnʼt leave any chickens.
In order to show relationships of derivation and compounding between words subentries are included under some of the main entries.
âchem v. recognize, realize. ‣ âchemled ‣ âchemted ‣ eʼchem ‣ eʼchemléd.
âkwág v. be ashamed, feel guilty. ‣ âkwáged ‣ âkwágɛn ‣ akwáké.
ngɛ̂n 1) n.mod. ordinary. 2) adv.m. for nothing, freely, for no reason; useless; pointless, lacking, insubstantial. 3) adv.m. bare, only. ‣ etɔm é ngɛ̂n ‣ nyáké e ngɛ̂n ‣ nzab é ngɛ̂n.
An attempt has been made to indicate semantic relations between words such as synonymy and antonymy. Numbers after the synonym refer to a given sense.
âbáb v. warm up. Syn. âwóge.
bǐn (Dial.var. bwǐn) n 14. 1) day. 2) weather. Syn. epun; mbwɛ; sú.
Cross references are used to refer back to the word from which a particular word is derived or to show some other relationship that holds between words.
âbɔ́ɔ v. 1) be lost, get lost. 2) lack. Cf. âbɔ́d.
mbwɛne n 3. bamboo pieces (used to make thatches). cf. mbún.
mekáá n 6. sleeves. Cf. ekáá.
mesɛn n 6. urine. Cf. mesɛ́n.
A small number of verbs have irregular paradigms, i.e., their conjugation doesn’t follow the regular pattern. This is the case for verbs with the syllable structure consonant plus ɛ like âbɛ, âkwɛ and âdyɛ́. The forms for the imperfective, the perfect and the future negative are given.
âdyɛ́1 (Impf. adyâg; Perf. adyédé; FutNeg. êedyáá) v. eat.
âkɛ (Impf. akag3; Perf. akií1; FutNeg. êekaá) 1) v. go. 2) v.aux. go.
âkwɛ (Impf. akwag; Perf. akwedé; FutNeg. êekwaá) v. 1) fall. 2) fail.
Each index item consists of three lelements. The English word, the Akoose word (preceded by ‣) and the part of speech of the Akoose word (in brackets).
canoe ‣ bɔ̌le n.
Subscript numbers after the Akoose word refer to the corresponding homonym in the main dictionary.
slash ‣ âkɔd2 v.