Help

The answers to the following questions should help successfully use the dictionary. If you have question you would like to ask that isn't answered here, leave a comment and we will add the answer to this page as soon as we can.

How do I search?

You can search the dictionary from searchbar on the home page or the search page. No matter where you are on the site, you can always get to the search page quickly by clicking on the magnifying glass in the top right of the page.

First select whether you want to search for Nuer or English using the radio buttons. Nuer is selected by default.

To search the dictionary type the word or first few letters of the word you are looking for into the search box and click Submit.

If you are searching for a Nuer word, you can use the buttons in the searchbar to type Nuer characters that might not be on your keyboard. But if you are using your own keyboard or character viewer to type a vowel with diactritics, type the vowel character first (e.g. ɛ), then the combining diaeresis (¨) and then the combining low line (_).

What do the search results show?

The search results show the number of matches in the dictionary for the sequence of letters you have searched for. The results only show that sequence when it occurs at the beginning of a word.

To see more about a word, including examples that you can listen to, click on the word or its English translation.

If you search for a word and you don't get any results, then it could be that it isn't currently included in the dictionary. Why not make a suggestion for it to be included?

What does each dictionary entry show?

Each dictionary entry shows a Nuer word written in the Nuer orthography. Below it, there is a transcription of the word uisng the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For nouns this is a transcription of the Jikany Gatjok dialect spoken in South Sudan, but for verbs the trascription is from the Lou dialect.

Underneath the IPA transcription, the part of speech of the enty is provided. Most entries are nouns or verbs.

Most entries are accompanied by examples and sound recordings. Examples are provided in Nuer orthography. You can listen to each example by clicking on the symbol. The dialect name given underneath the example is the variety used in the recording.

What do the paradigms show?

For each variety of Nuer we have data for, at least one paradigm is shown. If there is more than one paradigm shown for a variety, it means that there is more than one way to make these forms.

Noun paradigms show the form of the noun in each case and number combination.

Verb paradigms show the form of the verb in different derivations. In each paradigm, the verb is shown first in its agreeing forms. Then the bare form, negative non-finite and (general) non-finite form are shown.

For each paradigm you can toggle between the orthographic form of the word and its IPA transcription using the toogle switch.

For nouns and verbs, you can highlight the vowel grade of the stem using the Grades button. Press the Reset button to remove the highlighting.

For verbs only, you can also highlight the vowel length, tone and stem-final consonant properties of the stem using the Length, Tone and Stem coda buttons. Press the Reset button to remove the highlighting.