Igbo Technical Dictionary Compilation: A Stimulating Experience

Abstract

Scanning through bookshelves in university/college libraries or bookstands in bookshops for written materials on Igbo language and culture, one would easily discover that Igbo dictionaries are the least available. In spite of the indispensable pedagogical role, which dictionaries generally play in the learning process at all levels, there is, as of now, only a few published Igbo dictionaries, most of which are rather substandard and scanty in terms of form and content. By implication therefore, this area of Igbo language development – lexicography - has strangely been relegated to the background. This ugly situation poses great difficulty not only to Igbo students alone, but also especially to none Igbo speakers, who study Igbo as a second language. However, this is not the case with the other two major Nigerian languages: Hausa and Yoruba, where one has quite a good number of well developed monolingual, bilingual and multilingual dictionaries. Therefore, through practical examples of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual dictionary compilations, this paper is intended to create awareness in this direction as well as prove to Igbo scholars that Igbo dictionary compilation could be a stimulating experience.