A Dictionary of Margi (Nigeria) – Margi–English with English–Margi Index

Based on Carl Hoffmann’s Material. With an English Summary

Author: Carsten Peust. Series edited by: Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Norbert Cyffer, Rainer Voßen.

Series: WeStu Westafrikanische Studien Volume 40

2019
166 pp.
Text language(s): English
Format: 160 x 240 mm
340 g
Paperback
€ 39.80

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Carl Hoffmann (13th June 1925–28 April 2007) conducted fieldwork on Margi, a Central Chadic language spoken in north-eastern Nigeria, in the 1950s, the result of which was his famous Grammar of the Margi Language. He left behind extensive hand-written notes on the vocabulary of the language, which meet the same high-quality standards of his grammar but remained unpublished. The present dictionary makes these materials available to the public, focussing on the most relevant and ascertained portions of Hoffmann’s records while omitting some entries of more dubious quality.

This results in a dictionary with more than 2,000 head-words, often detailed by further sub-entries. The dictionary covers not only the basic vocabulary of the language, but also includes several expressions that belonged to the sphere of traditional religion and material culture and are no longer familiar to modern speakers. Borrowings from neighbouring languages, notably Kanuri, Hausa and Fulani, are indicated.

Hoffmann’s transcriptions are not phonemic but tend to over-differentiate particularly the vowel system. The introductory sections of this dictionary provide a discussion of some crucial issues of phonology and enable the readers to translate Hoffmann’s notations into more abstract phonological representations, if desired. They also elucidate some additional grammatical topics going beyond what has been known from Hoffmann’s published grammar.

Under these links you will find descriptions of further Nigerian languages and cultures of various language families:

Accompanying material:

• A Dictionary of Emai (ISBN 978-3-89645-468-3)
• A Grammar of Duya (ISBN 978-3-89645-476-8)
• A Grammatical Outline of Gùrdùn / Gùrùntùm (Southern Bauchi, Nigeria) (ISBN 978-3-89645-461-4)
• A Grammatical Sketch of Bure (ISBN 978-3-89645-528-4)
• A Reference Grammar of Degema (ISBN 978-3-89645-047-0)
• A Reference Grammar of Oko (ISBN 978-3-89645-553-6)
• Das Hone und seine Stellung im Zentral-Jukunoid (ISBN 978-3-89645-107-1)
• Dictionary of Hausa Crafts / Kamus na Sana’o’in Hausa (ISBN 978-3-927620-52-0)
• Eine Grammatik der Kwami-Sprache (Nordostnigeria) (ISBN 978-3-927620-49-0)
• Historical Perspectives on Chamba Daka (ISBN 978-3-927620-47-6)
• Reference Grammar of Kanuri (Nigeria) (ISBN 978-3-89645-670-0)
• The Lamang Language and Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-294-8)

Cross-reference:

• A Grammar of Kuteb (ISBN 978-3-89645-422-5)
• Advances in Minority Language Research in Nigeria vol. I (ISBN 978-3-89645-426-3)
• Búun Saba – Proverbs, Sayings and Maxims in Eastern Tangale (ISBN 978-3-89645-467-6)
• Copy Pronouns (ISBN 978-3-89645-424-9)
• Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache mit Audio-CD (ISBN 978-3-89645-008-1)
• Our People’s Own (Ina Lamang) (ISBN 978-3-89645-290-0)
• Síndi – Tangale Folktales (ISBN 978-3-89645-110-1)

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