Credits & acknowledgements

We are truly grateful to the members of the Dii Literature team in Mbé, as well as all the Dii speakers who have shared their knowledge of the language and culture with me throughout the years. Their willingness has allowed this dictionary to become a reality. I am especially grateful to Pastor Matthew Kadia who carefully reviewed the data and served as my main language expert. We also want to thank Father Léon Robert who corrected the French definitions in the first edition of the dictionary. Please forgive my French grammar mistakes that may still be found in this manuscript.

Considering that a dictionary is a long-term commitment, I very much appreciate the Cameroonian government for giving me permission for research between the following project dates: (no. 173) from April 11, 1977, and the last time (no. 38/87) from December 8, 1987.

I also express thanks to SIL who made the dictionary available on the SIL site in Yaoundé.

I admit being neither a fluent French nor a Dii speaker, despite the many years spent in Cameroon. My role as coordinator and technical assistant involved assimilating and processing the data provided by the team.

The reader will note that I have deliberately kept certain expression in the explanations of the Dii words, because it is through those expressions that others will be able to comprehend the Dii language. I also included some anthropological explanations enabling a better understanding of Dii rites and rituals.

If this dictionary serves one purpose, I hope that it will stimulate the Dii to do the necessary research to improve the current version in the future.
Lee E. Bohnhoff
Orfordville, WI, USA, December 2014