Foreword

This Djimini-French lexicon was elaborated by the Djimini church community with the help of linguist Kevin WARFEL, who facilitated a Rapid Word Collection workshop from 3-27 July, 2017, in Dabakala, capital of the department.

More than 45 dedicated participants worked to compile a collection of approximately 13,000 words. After the departure of the linguist Kevin, a team of four was set up to continue the work with editing vocabulary, grammar, deleting duplicates and making other corrections.
The group of four editors are as follows:
Pastor OUATTARA Nambalapan Matthieu, COULIBALY Dianko Justin, TOURE Nambolossé Bamoussa et OUATTARA Tanga Pétanry Moïse.

This lexicon has been elaborated in order to perpetuate literacy in the Djimini language and serve as an orthographic and reference standard for those who are not Djiminis and for the Djiminis who have lost their mother tongue.

We used a simple spelling system and often added explanatory notes to avoid ambiguities.

This dictionary is a work in progress that will benefit from the combined effort of the speakers who can suggest words that are not yet present in the dictionary. Eventually, when the language will modernize and acquires new words, it can be updated. Please leave your comments on the Contact Us page.