Entries explained

 

The different elements of an entry

Each word in this dictionary constitutes an entry an entry an entry an entry. Each word is supplemented by a certain amount of information. To make it easier for you, this information is presented in the order in which it follows one another in the dictionary:

 

The tone

After entering the word, we repeat it by marking its tone.

In Karaboro spelling the tone is not written, with a few exceptions (see “spelling rules”). But when it comes to writing words in isolation, writing in tones allows them to be better distinguished. Tone is sometimes the only thing that allows words with different meanings to be distinguished, so we thought it was important to note it in the dictionary. To do this, the word of each entry is repeated in brackets with the pitch marks on each vowel and the initial nasal consonants. Examples: baha baha baha baha [bàhā] “sisal”; baha baha baha baha [bāhā] “porridge”.

To mark the pitch, we used the following conventional signs:

à = low tone, ā = mid tone, á = high tone, a᷆ = mid-low tone, â = high-low tone, a᷇ = low-mid tone

The marked tones are the base tones. There is a lot of variation in the pronunciation of tones, especially on verbs and pronouns. Please see the pronoun and verb tables in the appendices for explanations.

 

The plural of nouns

Most nouns have a plural form (when there are more than one of something). Plural forms are introduced by: PL and directly follow the singular form with tone.

When the tone of the plural is distinguished from that of the singular, it is also marked. The entry for “woman” will therefore look like this: cɔɔ [cɔ̄ɔ] Pl: ca. [ca᷆].

 

Word categories

Karaboro, like any other language, understands different categories of words (eg: “noun”, “verb”, etc.). We specify the category of a word by abbreviations in slanted letters (called “italics”). For some categories we have found it useful to mark subdivisions, especially in the case of nouns and pronouns. Here are the categories used and the list of their abbreviations:

 

French translation

Each word is translated into French. Sometimes, explanations are given between parentheses. Sometimes, it turns out that several words in French correspond to the same word karaboro. If the meanings are very different, we have given sentences illustrating each meaning.

 

The original language for borrowings

If the word is a loanword from French or jula, this is indicated by: “Source: jula” or “Source: French”.

 

Illustrative sentence and proverbs

For a large part of the entries you will find illustrative sentences which show how the word is used. This illustrative sentence is then followed by a French translation.

When a good proverb contains the word in question, we have taken it as a sentence illustrative. Sometimes we added an explanation in parentheses to the translation of the proverb to better understand its meaning.

 

Synonyms

They are introduced by the abbreviation: “Syn. »

 

Reference to other words

References are introduced by: “See”. We have made referrals in the following cases:

1) for the different forms of the same category of pronouns due to agreements with the noun they replace, 2) for the different forms of the same adjective due to agreement with the noun 3) for the noun which constitutes the basis of a fixed compound noun (kungbãy [kúngbã̀y] “the big city” See: klo).

 

Subentries

For some words, we have made subentries if they come from the same word. The Subentries are written in bold like the main entries, but without newlines.