Introduction

The Baatonum language group (Bariba [bba]) has over 941,000 speakers and resides in northeastern Benin and northwestern Nigeria.

This Baatonum - French lexicon was created from expressions used in the region of Baru Wuu, that is to say the region of Niki - Daari - Boori. We therefore did not take into account the expressions that are specific to other regions nor the degraded forms typical of peripheral regions, considering that it is absolutely necessary to identify a collection based on the most classical form of the language. This dictionary is a basic compilation, bringing together only the most common words. It therefore does not in principle include the technical terms used and known only to certain specialists (pharmacopoeia, rare animals, etc.). Neither do proper names (people, villages, clans, etc.) appear in this document. Before proceeding to use this dictionary, we recommend that you carefully read a few instructions provided.

We will gladly accept suggestions for improvements to this work as well as anything that we might find helpful in establishing a revision. We want to thank all those who helped us in carrying out this work, and among them especially the late Madame Jean Soutar of the SIM, as well as Fathers Sanu and Thébault Biɔ, Léonard Goragui, Pasteur Pierre Barassounon and the International Society of Linguistics who trained us and implemented software for this work.

We also thank the Baatonum National Linguistic Commission (CNLB) and SIM International for their support for carrying out this work.