[:en]A typical dictionary entry looks like this:
lasai [l-asáí] (pl. lasa [l-asá], nom. sg. [l-ásai], nom. pl. [l-ása]) n. m. termite lasai oibor (lit. white termite) a family of termites
First the headword is given, in this case lasai, followed by the pronunciation in phonetic script. The phonetic script is important for anyone who learns Samburu, since it gives the tones as well as the vowel quality that the orthography does not capture. Any variant forms are included in parenthesises: for nouns and adjectives and some other words these usually are the accusative plural form, the nominative singular, and the nominative plural forms. Sometimes no variant forms are given (e.g. no nominative form). This does not mean that no variant form exists; it only means that we have no data recorded.
A few words (e.g. genitive particles, the preposition te) have both [-ATR] and [+ATR] varieties. These words will conform in [ATR] value to the word that follows, such that the word has a [-ATR] form when it is followed by a word with [-ATR] vowels, while it has a [+ATR] form when it is followed by a word with [+ATR] vowels.
The variant forms are followed by information about part of speech, in this case “n. m.”, which stands for “noun, masculine”. Many entries have examples, like lasai oibor above, with their English translation.
Some entries have cross-references. A cross-reference is in some aspects similar to the headword, but it is not a synonym. Synonyms, words with exactly or nearly the same meaning, are also sometimes given, and sometimes antonyms. Antonyms are often opposites, such as the pair lkikau first-born and ldung’oret last-born. Sometimes a cross-reference, synonym or antonym is followed by a number. In such cases the number refers to the relevant sense number of the word. For example, the word a-dumunye has the synonym a-inyuototo 1; this means that sense 1 of a-inyuototo is synonym to a-dumunye (but not sense 2 of a-inyuototo).
Sometimes the etymology, that is the origin, of a word is given. For some plants, trees and animals, the scientific name is given.
Some verb entries contain grammatical information with conjugation paradigms. These forms have been documented and are included to make documentary evidence about the language more fully available. Sometimes paradigms show irregularities in conjugation.
Verb headwords are presented in the infinitive form, starting with <a-> for singular infinitives and <aa-> for plural infinitives. The dash after <a-> or <aa-> separates the infinitive marker from the stem of the verb. Since headwords are listed alphabetically starting with the first letter of the word, the dictionary starts with verbs, and singular verb forms appear before plural forms.
Nouns are presented with a gender prefix (l-, n-, m-, nk-) attached to the noun stem. In the phonetic script the dash separates the gender prefix from the noun stem.
Sometimes a word has several senses, but sometimes the definitions or meanings are very different from each other. In such cases we list the word twice (or more) as headwords. An example is the word a-baa, where a-baa1 has three senses, all somewhat related to each other, but where a-baa2 has a definition which is very different from the definitions of a-baa1.
The small subscript number after e.g. a-baa1 is a homophone number; homophones are words with the same pronunciation but different meanings. The dictionary will also show homophone numbers for words where singular and plural forms are identical in spelling, but different in pronunciation (e.g. ltepes1), and for words where a singular form is identical to the plural form of a different word, or vice versa (e.g. lache1 which is identical with the plural of lacheyio).
A few headword forms include a plus sign, e.g. ana + ti-. The plus sign stands for “followed by”. In the example ana + ti-, the plus sign means that the word ana is followed by a word prefixed with ti-.[:de]
Dictionary Entries explained
See https://lugungu.webonary.work/dictionary-entries-explained/ for an example[:]
