The Ik language Dictionary and grammar sketch Terrill B. Schrock African Language Grammars and Dictionaries 1 language science press African Language Grammars and Dictionaries Chief Editor: Adams Bodomo Editors: Ken Hiraiwa, Firmin Ahoua In this series: 1. Schrock, Terrill B. The Ik language: Dictionary and grammar sketch. 2. Brindle, Jonathan. A dictionary and grammatical outline of Chakali. The Ik language Dictionary and grammar sketch Terrill B. Schrock language science press Terrill B. Schrock. 2017. The Ik language : Dictionary and grammar sketch (African Language Grammars and Dictionaries 1). Berlin: Language Science Press. This title can be downloaded at: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/98 © 2017, Terrill B. Schrock Published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence (CC BY 4.0): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISBN: 978-3-944675-95-4 (Digital) 978-3-944675-96-1 (Hardcover) 978-3-944675-68-8 (Softcover) 978-1-544669-06-9 (Softcover US) DOI:10.5281/zenodo.344792 Cover and concept of design: Ulrike Harbort Typesetting: Sebastian Nordhoff, Terrill B. 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For Amber Dawn Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xiii I Introduction 1 1 The Ik language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 The dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 3 Using the dictionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.1 Writing system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.2 Structure of entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.3 Tips for finding words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 II Ik-English dictionary 11 a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 b . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 ɓ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 ɗ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 dz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 e/ɛ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 ɦy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 i/ɨ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 j . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 ʝ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Contents k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 ƙ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 ɲ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 ŋ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 o/ɔ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 p . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 tsʼ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 u/ʉ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272 y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 III English-Ik reversal index 279 IV Grammar sketch 475 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 2 Phonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 2.1 Consonants and vowels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477 2.2 Consonant devoicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 2.3 Vowel devoicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 2.4 Morphophonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478 2.5 Vowel harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485 2.6 Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 3 Morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 3.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490 3.2 Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 3.3 Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 3.4 Demonstratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 vi Contents 3.5 Quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492 3.6 Numerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493 3.7 Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493 3.8 Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 3.9 Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495 3.10 Ideophones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 3.11 Interjections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 3.12 Nursery words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 3.13 Complementizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497 3.14 Connectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498 4 Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 4.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501 4.2 Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502 4.3 Compounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508 5 Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512 5.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512 5.2 Personal pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512 5.3 Impersonal possessum pronoun (pssm) . . . . . . . . . . 514 5.4 Indefinite pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514 5.5 Interrogative pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515 5.6 Demonstrative pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 5.7 Relative pronouns (rel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517 5.8 Reflexive pronoun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518 6 Demonstratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519 6.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519 6.2 Spatial demonstratives (dem) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 6.3 Temporal demonstratives (dem.pst) . . . . . . . . . . . . 520 6.4 Anaphoric demonstratives (anaph) . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 6.5 Adverbial demonstratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522 7 Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524 7.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524 7.2 Nominative (nom) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526 7.3 Accusative case (acc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528 7.4 Dative (dat) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529 7.5 Genitive (gen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 7.6 Ablative (abl) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531 7.7 Instrumental (ins) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532 7.8 Copulative (cop) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 vii Contents 7.9 Oblique (obl) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 8 Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 8.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534 8.2 Infinitives (inf) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535 8.3 Deverbalizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539 8.4 Directionals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542 8.5 Aspectuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544 8.6 Voice and valence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 8.7 Subject-agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 8.8 Dummy pronoun (dp) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551 8.9 Mood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552 8.10 Verb paradigms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553 8.11 Adjectival verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558 9 Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 9.1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 9.2 Manner adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561 9.3 Temporal adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562 9.4 Epistemic adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565 10 Basic syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 10.1 Noun phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567 10.2 Clause structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569 10.3 Subordinate clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575 10.4 Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578 10.5 Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580 10.6 Complements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581 10.7 Comparatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582 10.8 Clause combining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583 Appendix A: Ik affixes 589 References 593 Subject index 595 viii Preface When I first heard about the Ik back in September 2005, I was thoroughly in- trigued. Here was a people just emerging from the mists of time, from that now dark and shrouded realm of African prehistory. Judging by appearances, their journey had not been easy. Their story spoke of great suffering in the form of sickness, suppression, starvation, and slaughter. And yet, somehow, there they were, limping into the 21 st century as survivors of conditions most of us cannot imagine. Having grown up in a safe and serene community in the American South, I thought the Ik seemed stranger than fiction. People like this actually exist out there? I found myself wanting to know more about them, wanting to know who they are. Subconsciously I sensed that anyone who could endure what they had endured could perhaps teach me something about being truly human. My quest to know the Ik has led me down a winding path to the present. Over the years I have been frustrated by my inability to enter fully into their world, to see reality through their eyes. More than once I wished I were an anthropologist, so I could get a better grasp of their essence as a people. But time and time again, life steered me right back to the language – to Icétôd . I gradually learned to accept that their language is a doorway to their spirit, and that as a linguist, I could only open the door for others, and point the way to the Promised Land while I remain at the threshold. This book can act as a key to that door, a key that has been carefully shaped and smoothened by hands tired yet trembling with purpose. Living in Ikland has taught me a lot about being human, but not in the way I expected. It was not by becoming ‘one with the people’ that I learned what it is like to survive subhuman conditions. And it was not physical starvation, or sickness, or slaughter that I was forced to endure. No, I was spared those things. Yet all the same, in Ikland I became acquainted with spiritual starvation, social sickness, and the wholesale slaughter of my cultural, religious, and intellectual idols. And just as the Ik have learned that life does not consist in ‘bread alone’, nor in health, nor in security – but can carry on living with dignity and humanity – I have learned that at the rock bottom of my soul, where my self ends and the world begins, there is where Life resides. That realization is my ‘pearl of great price’ for which I have sold everything else and would do it all over again. Acknowledgements Compiling a dictionary such as this one is a massive undertaking, far more so than I ever imagined it would be. Although I myself spent many hours, days, and months working alone on this project, a whole host of people put me in a position to do so. And it is here that I wish to acknowledge and thank them all. First, I want to express a heartfelt Ɨ lákásʉƙɔtíàà zùk ᵘ to all the Ik people of the Timu Forest area for welcoming us into their community and patiently putting up with the long process of a foreigner trying to learn their language. To the follow- ing Ik men and women, I give thanks for their participation in a word-collecting workshop that took place in October 2009, during which roughly 7,000 Ik words were amassed: Ariko Hillary, Kunume Cecilia, Lochul Jacob, Lokure Jacob, Lon- goli Philip, Losike Peter, Lotuk Vincent, Nakiru Rose, Nangoli Esther, †Ngiriko Fideli, Ngoya Joseph, Ochen Simon Peter, Sire Hillary, and Teko Gabriel. A second group of Ik men are sincerely thanked for giving me a clearer view of the Ik sound system and for helping me edit several hundred words during an orthography workshop in April 2014: Amida Zachary, Dakae Sipriano, Lokauwa Simon, Lokwameri Sylvester, Lomeri John Mark, Longoli Philip, Longoli Simon, Lopeyok Simon, †Lopuwa Paul, and Lotuk Paul. One of those men, Longoli Philip, deserves special thanks for the years he spent as my main guide into the grammar and lexicon of his mother tongue. The number and quality of entries in this book are owed in large part to his skillful labors. Four other men – Lojere Philip, †Lochiyo Gabriel, Lokwang Hillary, and †Lopuwa Paul – also deserve my thanks for teaching me bits of the language at various points along the journey. But it is another group of Ik men that I wish to give special honor. These are the ones who for an entire year went with me through every word in this dictionary to refine their spellings and define their meanings. They include the respectable elders Iuɗa Lokauwa, Locham Gabriel, and Lemu Simon, as well as our translators Kali Clement, Lotengan Emmanuel, and Lopeyok Simon. The three elders not only shared their intimate knowledge of the language with me but also befriended me with a grace and humility that can only come with age. Every moment I spent with them was a blessing I will never forget. As they said, if I ever come back, I should ask if those old men are still around. I pray they are. Acknowledgements Although teaching foreigners Ik-speak has usually been the domain of men, I wish to bring special attention to two Ik women who, through their resilient friendship and lively conversation, greatly enhanced my grasp of the language. These are the highly esteemed Nachem Esther and Nakiru ‘Akóóro’ Rose. Next, I want to gratefully mention those in the long line of linguists who worked on the Ik language and – in person or publication – passed their knowl- edge down to me: Fr. J. P. Crazzolara who wrote the first recorded grammatical description of the language; A. N. Tucker whose series of articles on Ik expanded my knowledge considerably; Fritz Serzisko who penned several insightful arti- cles and books on Ik and Kuliak; Bernd Heine who wrote numerous works on Ik and Kuliak and authored a grammar sketch and dictionary of the language (1999); Richard Hoffman who studied the grammar and lexicon, devised a practical or- thography, and tirelessly supported language development efforts on behalf of the Ik; Christa König who wrote several articles and an entire book on the Ik case system; Ron Moe who helped me lead a word-collection workshop; Keith Snider who trained me in tone analysis; Kate Schell who collected dozens of hours of recorded Ik texts; and Dusty Hill who supervised me throughout the process. Another group I wish to thank are our friends and family members whose generous and faithful donations have made it possible for us to live and work in Uganda since 2008. It has been a privilege to be financially supported in doing long-term work on the Ik language, and I do not take that for granted. For all their hard work pushing this project through to completion, I grate- fully acknowledge the series editors: Adams Bodomo, Ken Hiraiwa, and Firmin Ahoua. My sincere thanks also go the reviewers and proofreaders who helped me improve this manuscript, to Monika Feinen for drawing up a lovely map of Ikland (Figure 1), and lastly to Sebastian Nordhoff, whose patient help and tech- nical expertise in manuscript preparation I could never have done without. I also want to thank my dear family: my two adopted Ik daughters, Kaloyang Mercy and Lemu Immaculate, and my wife Amber Dawn. Their loving presence enabled me to carry out this long work in an otherwise isolated and often very lonely environment. The existence of this book is owed in large measure to Am- ber’s innumerable sacrifices big and small. It came into being at great cost to her. For that and many other reasons, I thank her from the bottom of my heart. Above all else, I want to praise the God whose Word became flesh – ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο – making a linguistic cosmos where my mind and the Ik language could collide and radiate bright rays of new knowledge out into the world. xii Abbreviations A transitive subject abst abstractive acc accusative adj.pl adjectival plural adv. adverb and andative anaph anaphoric anticip anticipative ATR advanced tongue root aux auxiliary bhvr behaviorative C consonant caus causative CC copula complement comp completive compl. complementizer cond conditional conf confirmational coordconn. coordinating connective cop copulative CS copula subject dat dative dem. demonstrative dist distal distr distributive dp dummy pronoun dur durative E extended object exc exclusive FF final form (pre-pause) gen genitive H high tone hypo hypothetical ideo. ideophone imp imperative inc inclusive inch inchoative inf infinitive infr inferential ins instrumental int intentional interj. interjection ipfv imperfective ips impersonal passive irr irrealis L low tone lit. literal M mid tone med medial mid middle n. noun NF non-final form nom nominative num. numeral nurs. nursery word O object obl oblique opt optative pass passive pat patientive phys physical property adverb Abbreviations pl. plural plur pluractional prep. preposition prf present perfect pro. pronoun prox proximal pssm impersonal possessum pst1 recent past tense pst2 removed past tense pst3 remote past tense pst4 remotest past tense quant. quantifier real realis recent recentive recip reciprocal refl reflexive rel. relativizer S intransitive subject seq sequential sg. singular sim simultaneous stat stative subj subjunctive subordconn. subordinating connective v. verb ven venitive 1 first person 2 second person 3 third person Ø zero realization - morpheme boundary = clitic boundary [...] phonetic form /.../ phonemic form ... morphemic form [ˊ] high tone [ˋ] low tone [ˆ] high-falling tone † deceased § section xiv Part I Introduction 1 The Ik language 1 The Ik language Ik is the native language of the Ik people who live on a narrow swath of land in the northeastern corner of Uganda, East Africa. The people call their language Icétôd , which means ‘Ik-speech’ or ‘Ik-talk’ and is pronounced ee-CHAY-TOad or in phonetic symbols, [ītʃétôd̻]. Ik belongs to a small cluster of languages called ‘Kuliak’, which also includes Nyang’ía of Lobalangit and Soo/Tepeth of Mounts Moroto, Napak, and Kadam – all in Uganda’s magnificent Karamoja Region. At the outset, let me state definitively that Ik is not a dialect of Karimojong, nor is it even Nilotic or ‘Hamitic’. And it is certainly not Bantu (as some have asked me). Scholars disagree as to whether it is related to Karimojong at all, but if it is, it would be a distant relationship within the great Nilo-Saharan language family, much as English is related to Russian or Hindi within Indo-European. One reason people assume Ik is a dialect of Karimojong is that the Ik have long been surrounded and dominated by the pastoralist Dodoth, Toposa, Turkana, and Jie. These groups, as well as the Karimojong proper, all speak mutually intelligible forms of a speech variety called ‘Ateker’, ‘Teso-Turkana’, or ‘Tunga’. Another reason Ik seems similar to Karimojong is that it has borrowed many hundreds of words from Teso-Turkana speech varieties over the centuries. In addition to lexical borrowing, the close contact between the Ik and Teso-Turkana peoples has caused Ik grammar to become more like Teso-Turkana in various ways. But despite the many superficial similarities one may see between Ik and Teso- Turkana, their grammatical systems are actually quite different. For instance, while their vowel inventories are similar, Ik has many more consonants than Teso-Turkana, including the ejectives /ƙ/ and /tsʼ/, which are found in no other Ugandan language. Ik also has an elaborate case system with eight cases all marked with suffixes, whereas Teso-Turkana languages mark only four cases, some using only tone to do so. And although both Ik and Teso-Turkana order their words as Verb-Subject-Object in main clauses, in subordinate clauses, Ik changes the order to Subject-Verb-Object. These are but a few examples among others that show the significant differences between Ik and Teso-Turkana. 2 The dictionary This book contains a bilingual Ik-English dictionary and an English-Ik reversal index. The dictionary section lists all the Ik words I have recorded up to now and offers English definitions for them. Including proper names, there are approxi- mately 8,700 entries in the dictionary. While I have done all I could to collect as 3 many words as possible within the limits of time and resources, no doubt many hundreds of other words still lurk out there in the recesses of Ikian minds. It will not be until more texts are written in Ik that these missing words might be gently coaxed out onto the page and into more books like the present one. Although the presumed purpose of a dictionary is to propound the current meanings of the words of a language, I fear that purpose is only partly achieved in this volume. The true meanings of words are lived meanings, intended by liv- ing beings in a living world. To capture them on a page is to encase them in black rock and white ice. A native speaker of Ik may recognize in my English definitions familiar traces of true meaning but never all of it. As a foreign, non- native speaker of the language, my grasp of the living meanings of Ik words is severely limited. For the only way to learn living linguistic meanings is to expe- rience life linguistically, through a language, through its words and phrases and tropes. Still, I have been fortunate enough to have had a few real-life experiences in Ik, for instance, when I learned the living meaning of the verb ɨsɛɛs ‘to miss’ by actually missing a bushpig boar as I tried to spear it when it charged toward me out of a thicket. The young Ik hunters never let me forget that miss, and as they retold the story with glee, they always used that particular verb. So when I hear it, I not only know what it means in terms of ‘missing’, but I also feel the living overtones that include shame, regret, loss of opportunity, diminution of manhood, and so on. That is how one learns the meanings of words. Due to the exceptional nature of such experiences, most of the Ik words in this volume I have had to define extrinsically, from the outside. Unfortunately, as a foreign lexicographer, I do not inhabit the words . All I could really do was try to understand the words as best I could and render them in perspicacious English, marking out a felicitous meeting place between two very different modes of lin- guistic being-in-the-world. To the degree that I succeeded in this endeavor, this is what I hope to be a worthwhile first full-scale Ik-English lexicon. The English definitions the reader will find are of various types. Some Ik words lend themselves easily to one-word, entirely accurate glosses, for example, gʉɓɛ́rá- as ‘leopard’. Others require a short phrase in English, for instance, ƙóré- as the ‘back of the knee’. Still others, the ones that are conceptually more distant from English, call for longer descriptions, as when makúlí- is defined as a ‘round grass beehive cover that goes over the end of a hollow beehive’. As well as being a record of modern Ik to be used for modern purposes, this dictionary also provides much data for historical research. Because the Ik have left little in the way of archaeology over the ages, and because oral histories tend to be vague, inconsistent, and undated, language is one of the few lenses through 4