A VOCABULARY OF SlJKyMA Compiled by I. Richardson ; edited by W. M. Mann While at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Professor Richardson worked for several years on Sykyma (F.21 in Guthrie’s classification,1 spoken in the Lake Province of Tanzania) with the assistance of Mr. Tryphon Wagi from Maswa District. One outcome of this work was Richardson’s published thesis, The Role of Tone in the Structure of Sykyma, S.O.A.S., 1959 (referred to hereafter as RTSS). Another was the present vocabulary, which Richardson was unable to finalize because of other commitments.2 In preparing this vocabulary for publication, I have naturally made considerable use of Richardson’s thesis. I have also been able to consult Professor M. Guthrie, who has first-hand knowledge of Sykyma, and Mr. Tobias Mabele from Mwanza District.3 For comparisons with Swahili, I had assistance from Dr. J. Knappert, and with Kikuyu, from Mr. T. G. Benson. Orthography The orthography used corresponds to that of RTSS, except that the voiced bilabial fricative is written p and the corresponding plosive b.4 The closer varieties of i and u are distinguished by a cedilla.5 Long vowels are distinguished by writing the vowel double, except before a nasal compound 6 or after a semi-vowel, where special conventions operate according to the tonal behaviour of the syllable.7 ny and sy are treated as digraphs for the palatalized nasal and sibilant,8 and following short or long vowels are distinguished by single or double vowel as after 1 M. Guthrie, The Classification of the Bantu Languages, London, 1948. 2 Previous published vocabularies include : A. Seidel, Das Kisukuma : Grammatische Skizze und Vokabular, appended to C. Waldemar Werther, Zum Victoria Nyanza, Berlin, 1894 ; C. Herrmann, ‘ Kissukuma, die Sprache der Wassukuma ’, Mittheilungen des Seminars fiir Orientalische Sprachen, I, 3, 1898, 146-198. In addition, Dahl’s dictionary of the related Nyamwezj (E. Dahl, Nyamwesi-Worterbuch, Hamburg, 1915) records items as belonging to Sykyma. 3 The following abbreviations are used : R Richardson (in MS vocabulary) ; W Wagi; M Mabele. 4 The sounds in -Pol- ‘ rot ’ and -bok- ‘ cheat ’ respectively. RTSS used b alone for the fricative and with / superimposed for the plosive. 5 Sykyma has seven distinct vowel-qualities, although the usual orthography only distinguishes five. Compare -siig- ‘ tittle-tattle ’ and -sjjm- ‘ thank ’, -Puut- ‘ drink ’ and -Pyyt- ‘ grow mouldy ’. 6 m, n or i) with a consonant following. 7 See pp. 5 f. There is no distinction of length in syllables of these shapes except—to judge from tonal behaviour recorded in R—when y or w are in stem- or radical-initial position. It seems best in this case to treat y and w as consonants, with vowel-doubling to mark length. 8 According to dialect [§] or [/].