N. V. GROMOVA

Doctor of Philological Sciences

Institute of Asian and African Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Keywords: Africa, Tanzania, Swahili, Swahili dictionaries

The third edition of the Swahili Explanatory Dictionary was published in Tanzania in 2013, and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Republic of Tanzania* was reprinted in ^2014.1

This dictionary (including all its editions and reprints, which will be discussed below) is very popular in the world: it has already sold more than 2 million copies, which demonstrates the role and significance of this language not only in East Africa, but also far beyond its borders.

The explanatory dictionary has a long history. During the colonial period, mainly bilingual dictionaries written by well-known European researchers of Bantu languages were published. ² So, some of them, for example, "Swahili-English" and "Anglo-Swahili" by the Englishman F. Johnson's books, published in 1939, have been reprinted many times and have not yet lost their relevance, although, of course, they do not contain the new vocabulary of the rapidly developing Swahili language. The same researcher published in 1935 the first "Explanatory Dictionary of the Swahili Language" ³-small in format and by the time the countries of East Africa gained independence in the early 1960s. significantly outdated, despite numerous reprints in the next decade and a half.

Therefore, one of the first tasks of the Swahili Language Research Institute established in 1964 at the University of Dar es Salaam (on the basis of the East African Inter-Territorial Language Committee, which has existed in East Africa since 1930) was to create a new explanatory dictionary that meets the challenges of modern times and the requirements of the language policy pursued by Tanzania.

Swahili was declared the official language of Tanzania in 1967.It was in Swahili that primary school education was conducted (then and now), which played a major role in eliminating illiteracy in the country. The Swahili language was recognized as the most important tool for the development of national culture, education and economy. To solve this difficult task in the context of multilingualism (there are more than 120 ethnic groups in Tanzania), we needed not only textbooks, but also dictionaries.

Preparation of the first edition of the explanatory dictionary of modern Swahili took more than 15 years. The author of these lines, during a 10-month internship in 1978 at the aforementioned Institute, was able to observe the work of a large group of Tanzanian lexicographers and participate as much as possible in the discussion of a number of articles in this dictionary.

In 1981, the dictionary was published ⁴, which was a great achievement of that time. For many years, this dictionary remained the only reference book for all local and foreign specialists and ordinary users of Swahili, which has survived 43 (!) reprints.

In 1992, work began on revising and supplementing the first edition. In 1997, the manuscript was sent to the publishing house, and for 7 years lexicographers in East Africa held annual lexicographic conferences to clarify and improve the lexical corpus of the dictionary. The second edition, published in 2004.5, became larger in volume (447 pages, compared to 325 in ^the first), lexical content, and withstood 34 (!) reprints**.

In 2007, a small group of lexicographers (four specialists) published a ^6,000-word explanatory Dictionary for Elementary Schools6 that primary school students in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda should be proficient in. Dictionary entries are written in an accessible language, and the dictionary has a lot of black and white content.

* The Treaty on the Unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar entered into force on April 26, 1964.

** It should be noted that none of the Swahili dictionaries already published in Tanzania indicate the circulation.

drawings, and color drawings made up a separate dictionary of illustrations on 32 pages.

The third edition of the "Explanatory Dictionary of Swahili" 2013 mentioned above, which was developed by a large team of authors of the Swahili Language Institute, is also colorfully designed.

Periodically, the manuscript was updated by East African lexicographers and Swahili specialists from other countries (about 60 people). Its corpus contains more than 1,150 drawings that help the user (African and foreign) correctly understand the meaning of a word and find the appropriate equivalent in their language. The same purpose is served by color illustrations on 16 pages of the dictionary: these are various types of African animals, marine life, insects, fauna and flora, clothing and footwear, human internal organs, hairstyles, musical and working instruments, machine parts, etc. All this greatly facilitates the use of the dictionary and helps to achieve the desired equivalence.

The third edition of the Explanatory Dictionary of Swahili compares favorably with the previous ones with its volume (687 pages), including new vocabulary and modern terminology that appeared over the past 10 years or were omitted in previous editions. About 2000 new dictionary entries have been added to it, in particular - "chat", "blender", "afro style", "sms", "rickshaw on a three-wheeled covered motorcycle", "chandelier", etc. For borrowed words, the source language is specified.

Almost every dictionary entry contains examples of word usage, idiomatic expressions, proverbs, etc. The names of countries and their inhabitants are given in Swahili.

As in almost any major work, there are some typos in the new "Explanatory Dictionary of the Swahili Language". For example, the name "nutmeg tree" is given, but the name of the corresponding fruit is omitted/the dictionary entry kizimba ("nest") contains a synonym-kiribba, but the latter is not in its alphabetical place, etc. It seems unreasonable to include phonetic transcription in the dictionary, since the pronunciation norm of the Swahili language is quite simple, and for an ordinary user (not a specialist in phonology) this information is redundant.

A number of other comments can be made. But this does not reduce the value of the dictionary, which remains the best achievement of East African lexicographers in modern Ethan.

¹ Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu. Toleo la 3. University of Dar es Salaam and Oxford University Press. Nairobi, 2014. Kurasa 687, kurasa 16 za michoro ya rangi (Dictionary of the standard Swahili language. 3rd edition. Dar es Salaam University and Oxford University Press. Nairobi, 2014. 687 p., 16 p. color Fig.).

^{Krapf L.} 2 A Dictionary of the Swahili Language. London. 1882; Binns H. Swahili-English Dictionary. London. 1925; Velten C. Suaheli-Worterterbucher. Bd. 1 - 2. Berlin. 1910 - 1930; Madan A.C. English-Swahili dictionary. London. 1930; idem - Swahili-English dictionary. London. 1931; Sacleux Ch. Dictionnaire swahili-francais. Paris. 1939 - 1941; idem - Dictionnaire francais-swahili. Paris, 1949; and others. (note by O. T.).

^{Johnson F.} 3 Kamusi ya Kiswahili yaani kitabu cha maneno ya Kiswahili. Oxford University Press. London. 1935 (1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 twice) (Swahili Dictionary, i.e. Swahili word book). Oxford University Press. London. 1935 (1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978-twice).

⁴ Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu. Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili. Oxford University Press. Dar es Salaam, Nairobi. 1981. Kurasa 325 (Dictionary of the standard Swahili language. Institute of Swahili Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. Oxford University Press. Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, 1981. 325 p.).

⁵ Kamusi ya Kiswahili Sanifu. Toleo la Pili. Oxford University Press. Nairobi, 1981. Kurasa 447, majedwali 5 ya sarufi (Dictionary of the standard Swahili language. Oxford University Press. Nairobi. 2004. 447 p., 5 grammatical tables).

^{John G. Kiango, Abdulaziz Y. Lodhi, Isaac Ipara, Abdilahi Nassir.} 6 Kamusi ya shule za msingi. Oxford University Press. Nairobi, 2007. Kurasa 368, kurasa 32 za rangi (Dictionary for elementary schools. Oxford University Press. Nairobi. 2007. 368 p., 32 p. color of Fig.).

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