Introduction

The Mbelime-French dictionary deals with Mbelime, the primary language of about 70,000 people in the Communes of Cobly and Boukoumbé in the Atacora department of northwestern Benin, as well as in neighbouring Togo. Mbelime is spoken by the Bebelibe.

Work for the dictionary started in 2004 when SIL Togo-Bénin organised a workshop on methodology and principles of dictionary-making in African languages in Kara, Togo. Since then, Mbelime-speakers and members of SIL collaborated to collect Mbelime words and translate them into French. The orthography presented in this dictionary follows the reform of the Commission Nationale Linguistique Mbèlimè (CNLM) of 2017 and conforms to the requirements of the document Alphabet des langues nationales de la République du Bénin, 6th edition of 2008.

Work on the Mbelime-French dictionary continues. Mbelime-speakers are invited to contribute towards its improvement by proposing their comments, questions and corrections to the SIL team in Cobly, Bénin, or send them via the page “Contact Us”.