Sengwer
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  • Please provide some background information about this language. Where is it spoken? What communities speak this language? Is this language endangered?
  • What are the names of the people who built this dictionary? Whose voices are in this dictionary?
  • Where did the data in this dictionary come from? Please describe if you collected the data yourself. If you used any published reference sources, please list them.
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This Sengwer Trilingual Dictionary was created as a collaborative effort between one linguist and the Sengwer community between March 2022 and April 2023. It is meant, first and foremost, as a tool for the community itself to conserve their linguistic and cultural heritage as well as a way to improve literacy and use in the younger generations. By documenting words and receiving consensus through community reviews and word-collection workshops, we worked to create a standard and a foundation that can be used as a reference for writing and education. In addition, this dictionary can also be a tool that linguists and other academics can use as a reference or inspiration for their research. The creation of the dictionary was funded by the Endangered Languages Fund (ELF) thorugh their Language Legacies grant.

A version of this dictionary was printed and published by Moi University, Kenya. Unfortunately, it is not available to buy any longer. A few copies are still available for community members or universities. If you are one of these and would like a copy delivered, please feel free to contact us. 

Note on the IPA transcription
The transcription used in this dictionary is for the most part phonemic, with the exception of obligatory voicing of plosives in the clusters /lt nt mp ŋk ɲc lc/ which are transcribed as /ld nd mb ŋg ɲɟ ŋg/. 
Three tones were identified in Sengwer: high (á), low (à) and falling (â). Since the domain of the tone is thought to be the syllable, tone is marked on the first vowel only. This means that /áa/ should be interpreted as [áá] rather than, for instance, [áà], and /âa/ should be interpreted as [áà] rather than, for instance, [âà]. Syllable boundaries are not marked, unless they occur between vowels. Since hiatus in Sengwer is very common and can occur between vowels of the same quality, the length of each syllable can be ambiguous for the reader. For instance /lɛlɛɛɛk/ could be interpreted as [lɛ.lɛ.ɛɛk] or [lɛ.lɛɛ.ɛk] or even (perhaps absurdly) [lɛ.lɛ.ɛ.ɛk], however only [lɛ.lɛ.ɛɛk] is correct. Therefore, in the IPA entry this word will be found as /lɛlɛ.ɛɛk/.