Foreword

In most cases, words in one language do not mean exactly the same thing as words in another language. For example, the English word 'leg' does not include that part of the Ashe 'odak' below the 'ikporodak', while the Hausa 'ƙafa' corresponds more closely to 'odak'.  On the other hand, the English word 'hoe' fails to distinguish between the Ashe words 'igan' and 'utɛ̃'.  An 'igan' is more like a 'shovel' or a 'plow', but none of them are the same.  In this first attempt at an Ashe-English-Hausa dictionary, we have not yet been able to completely explain the meanings of each language's words in the other languages; we have only given the words or phrases that come closest in meaning to the words in the other languages.  We hope that someone will do a more complete job in the future.