XHOSAROOTS

This is dedicated to my daughter, the living spirit of a queen of old; she who restored what was destroyed and raised up what had been shattered, Ah! Makare and my niece, the most intelligent person I know. Before them, I am not worthy. They breathe life into me and inspire me to be the best I can be so I can leave behind a legacy they can be proud of.

The Dictionary
IsiXhosa is one of the oldest and most beautiful languages the world has ever known. Unfortunately, it is also dying a slow death. This resource was driven by the desire to preserve the language, for posterity.

The main considerations that went into the making of this dictionary were that it is digital in format and that it has to be built for the language of isiXhosa from inception and therefore the design had to respond to the language itself.

Taking the first consideration (digital format) to account, I decided to experiment with the idea that I wanted to transfer the concept from paper to the online space without the inherent liabilities that accompany the paper form. So the first decision I made was not to arrange words in alphabetical order. In my view, it makes no sense; I cannot imagine any value in someone trying learn a language by go from word to word alphabetically. The digital format allows for search functionality, an efficient way to find specific words. Words arranged randomly suffice for anyone interested in exploring the language.

The second consideration was of vital importance as it freed me from the limitations that would have otherwise been imposed by trying to emulate English or virtually all other dictionaries. As such, this ended up being a resource that could greatly enhance a user's ability to understand word construction in the language and allow her/him more confidence to speak.

Note on the Language

Morphology
IsiXhosa is a polysynthetic language with the verb, for the most part, forming the foundation of word construction; the root. Through agglutination of affixes and other words to root words, the verb is transformed into other word classes and throughout that transformation, the root word in most instances remains intact. In cases where the root mutates, the transformation is hardly so radical that it renders it unrecognisable. XHOSAROOTS, is born out of that; it is a dictionary that is centred on roots.

When you explore a word, the insights you gain goes beyond just the definition of the word or providing it's equivalent in a different language, this dictionary takes you to the root and lets you witness the transformations in action. In that way, it not only enhances your ability to appreciate and to learn the language but also pushes you ever deeper into the culture that conceived it.

Game of Tones
In addition, isiXhosa is also a tonal language; that is to say part of the meaning is encoded in the tone. Take simamele for example. Depending on how it is pronounced, the meaning could be, "Listen to us" or "We are listening." Since "standard" spelling does not account for the tone (which I believe is a serious problem), each word is accompanied by a sound clip where-ever possible. With the aim of having a sound clip for every word in our records.

Finally
This dictionary is a living thing; with the imperfections expected of anything that draws breath. Along the way, we'll break it and then heal what's broken. We hope to nurture it into the best XHOSA dictionary 'thing' the world has ever seen.

I hope it will prove useful.

Motlatsi, mfo kaPotla. Ndiyema apho!