Upload Aiko's Lugbara Dictionary (since 2016).txt

Aiko's Lugbara Dictionary (since 2016).txt

@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Introduction:
 This machine translation tool was created painstakingly from scratch (zero) with gritty nerves on the 3rd Agofe's 90th birthday afternoon (Saturday 26th November 2016) after a South Sudanese Acholi-Madi in Tennessee, USA (named Suzy Abdelfarag [aka Suzzana, Mamur, Akema] who spoke "fluent" Arabic) asked me via Facebook to teach her Luganda (so that she could understand her favourite Ugandan musicians eg Jackie Chandiru who is a Lugbara-Ganda and Mowzey Radio). Dismissively, Suzy wanted more than just the basic words I started the lessons with, but while checking out a Luganda Dictionary at www.archive.org, I literally SNAPPED without apologies because of what I had noticed about self-learning versus waiting for teachers to teach during my school career. Reinforced every year, Aiko's Lugbara Dictionary is where the Old and New meet (like Synthetic Imagination) linking the Niger Basin to Congo, Sudan and Uganda. It's a Lugbara Language Museum for historical, scientific and cultural research: Use Ctrl + F (key combination) or add this one-page electronic dictionary as a file to any AI chatbot to swiftly find any words you want! There is no English to Lugbara section, but you can try Data Augmentation (ie reverse-translate using an electronic Search tool when you want to find a Lugbara translation for the English word you already know). I'm only human and apologise in advance for any mistakes: I've cleaned thousands of errors by the way especially before Volume 10 (rationalised a lot spiritually and while proofreading spellings). I was even tempted to delete all the data, but resilience convinced me to keep polishing instead; therefore corrections and suggestions are always welcome through WhatsApp: +256-781-345712 or Email: aikoug@gmail.com! I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in the name of JESUS (like Tower of Babel language multiplication by YHWH in Genesis 11 and Galileans filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost amazingly speaking other languages in Acts 2:1-13)! Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that: JESUS Christ is Lord [YESU Kurisito ni Opi] (Philippians 2:10-11)!
 
 Pronunciation Parameters:
-In Lugbara phonology, every Lugbara word ends with one of the five vowels eg nyanya = tomato; mucele = rice; karoti = carrot; ovakedo = avocado; osu = bean. Letters Q [Kaya] and X [Ekasa, Alamakanda in Aringa dialect] are not used (meaning only 24 on a keyboard can do), but four unique ones with an apostrophe are added: 'B, 'D, 'W and 'Y (which all sound like putting H after them though personal names omit the apostrophe). The 28 letters in the Simplified Lugbara Alphabet sound like this: Ah, Ba, Bha, Cha, Da, Dha, Eh, Fa, Ga, Ha, Ii (as in Israel), Ja, Ka, La, Ma, Na, Oh, Pa, Ra, Sa, Ta, Uw (as in soUnd), Va, Wa, Wha, Ya, Yha, Za. One of the sweetest things about Lugbara is that words are pronounced the way they are written. Since nursery in Jinja (Busoga), I was confusingly taught to recite English vowels separately in a different acoustic compared to the vowels in the ABC to Z(ed) rhyme, but later realised that the former sequence was exactly how Lugbara vowels sound. Consonant clusters (with silent letter denoted by rounded brackets) in Lugbara are: (D)J, DR, (G)B, HW, (K)P, MB, M(G)B, MV, ND, NDR, NG, NY, NZ and TR while diphthong (vowel) clusters and other noteworthy phonetics include the following:
+In Lugbara phonology, every Lugbara word ends with one of the five vowels eg nyanya = tomato; mucele = rice; karoti = carrot; ovakedo = avocado; osu = bean. Letters Q [Kaya] and X [Ekasa, Alamakanda in Aringa dialect] are not used (meaning only 24 on a keyboard can do), but four unique ones with an apostrophe are added: 'B, 'D, 'W and 'Y (which all sound like putting H after them though personal names omit the apostrophe). The 28 letters (comprising 23 consonants and 5 vowels) in the Simplified Lugbara Alphabet sound like this: Ah, Ba, Bha, Cha, Da, Dha, Eh, Fa, Ga, Ha, Ii (as in Israel), Ja, Ka, La, Ma, Na, Oh, Pa, Ra, Sa, Ta, Uw (as in soUnd), Va, Wa, Wha, Ya, Yha, Za. One of the sweetest things about Lugbara is that words are pronounced the way they are written. Since nursery in Jinja (Busoga), I was confusingly taught to recite English vowels separately in a different acoustic compared to the vowels in the ABC to Z(ed) rhyme, but later realised that the former sequence was exactly how Lugbara vowels sound. Consonant clusters (with silent letter denoted by rounded brackets) in Lugbara are: (D)J, DR, (G)B, HW, (K)P, MB, M(G)B, MV, ND, NDR, NG, NY, NZ and TR while diphthong (vowel) clusters and other noteworthy phonetics include the following:
 
 aa as in rat, for example leta-a
 
@@ -72,11 +72,46 @@ uu (preferably single U) as in chew, for example cuu (pronounced chu)
 
 z (letter Z becomes J after N) as in jean, for example onzi (pronounced onji). Otherwise, most times remains z as in zebra, for example ozu and when the first letter of a word, for example zukulu.
 
-Simplified Lugbara (Foundational 2-letter Words below including exactly 25 diphthong clusters have more than 140 [which is 28 alphabet letters multiplied by 5 vowels at the end] possible English meanings):
+The Old Vocabulary was small because some words have multiple meanings based on three major tones (to five including rising and falling), pronunciation or context eg o'du can mean day, thigh, omen, leopard; etc. However, the existing language which has a simplified 5-fold framework keeps getting New words added eg simu = phone; etc. Most nouns can denote both singular and plural (though adding yi after them also does); exceptions include mva [child] which becomes anzi [children]; etc while others are pronounced differently eg agu, agupi, etc. Adding suffixes -jo, -ko, -ru, -si and -yo to nouns creates new words; verbs also have -ku, -ma, -nga, -ta, -za and -zu. Adjectives follow the Subject eg buku eka = red book. In the entries ahead, semi-colon (;) shows different tones and meanings while goal brackets [ ] show translation. Lugbara sentences in past tense are structured using the Subject-Verb-Object arrangement like in English, but present continuous and future tenses follow S-O-V and ni [is] or nga [will, shall] may be added after the Subject to mark the difference eg YESU nga 'ba onzi pa [JESUS will save sinners]. When words are written together, the intended meanings may not change; so be very keen to spot the mashups eg Amanga votiyi 'be minira = Ama nga voti yi 'be mini ra [We will cast votes for you surely]. Short forms include: Ma mu ku = A mu ku [I'm not going]; Mi nya capati osu si = I nya capati osu si [You eat chapati with beans]; Eri ma mutuka = I-ma mutuka [His motorcar]...
+
+Some words are borrowed or modified from English plus other languages like Swahili, Luganda, Lingala, etc. Lugbara words are often written the same way they are pronounced; repeated letters especially consonants look ambiguously redundant and can be reformed eg Vurra, Uleppi, Owaffa, Oluffe, Okollo, Ofudde, Mekki, etc unless very special and meaningful (What you see is what you hear [WYSIWYH]).
+
+Marks for Simple Tones:
+In English, some words have different spellings, but the same pronunciation eg chase/ chess; chat/ chart; hat/ heart/ hurt; lace/ less; load/ lord; mane/ men; son/ sun; etc. In Lugbara, the same spelling can have different pronunciations (hence meanings) based on three (to five including rising and falling) tones indicated by accents as below.
+
+´ High tone eg aí [salt], drí [head], tí [cow];
+
+- Mid tone eg aī [accept, pray], drī [hand], tī [strangle] (Mid tone is the most common tone in Lugbarati);
+
+` Low tone eg aì [ask, beg], drì [(to) heat], tì [produce]...
+
+
+Word Classes include:
+1. Ecipiri (Conj[unction])
+
+2. Obi (Adv[erb])
+
+3. Ru (N[oun])
+
+4. Ruparia (Pron[oun])
+
+5. Usuta (Interj[ection])
+
+6. Vutivutia (Post[position] instead of Preposition)
+
+7. Wura (Adj[ective])
+
+8. 'Yeta (V[erb])
+
+Studying Lugbara made me appreciate GOD's creativity: There are only five one-letter words, exactly 140 two-letter words and 115 three-letter words with a consonant in-between two vowels eg ada, emi, ise, etc though extra words from over 10 consonant clusters increase the number eg mba, nzu, etc. However, the systematic multiplication is amazing plus easy to follow even if you do not know the various meanings of the words. 
+
+The 2-letter words below including exactly 25 diphthong clusters have more than 140 [which is 28 alphabet letters multiplied by 5 vowels at the end] possible English meanings:
 aa ae ai ao au
-ba be bi bo bu// 'ba 'be 'bi 'bo 'bu
+ba be bi bo bu
+'ba 'be 'bi 'bo 'bu
 ca ce ci co cu
-da de di do du// 'da 'de 'di 'do 'du
+da de di do du
+'da 'de 'di 'do 'du
 ea ee ei eo eu
 fa fe fi fo fu
 ga ge gi go gu
@@ -94,11 +129,38 @@ sa se si so su
 ta te ti to tu
 ua ue ui uo uu
 va ve vi vo vu
-wa we wi wo wu// 'wa 'we 'wi 'wo 'wu
-ya ye yi yo yu// 'ya 'ye 'yi 'yo 'yu
+wa we wi wo wu
+'wa 'we 'wi 'wo 'wu
+ya ye yi yo yu
+'ya 'ye 'yi 'yo 'yu
 za ze zi zo zu
 
-Extra 50 Words from 10 Consonant Clusters (Four left out because of silent letters):
+Meanwhile, 3-letter words with one consonant in-between two vowels have more than 115 (multiplied by 5) meanings below; replace the first letter (which is A) with the other four vowels to make a total of 575 words eg eba, ebe, ebi, ebo, ebu... iba, ibe, ibi, ibo, ibu... oba, obe, obi, obo, obu... uba, ube, ubi, ubo, ubu... (About 125 words with only vowels are left out eg aua, eii, etc because some look abstract):
+aba abe abi abo abu
+a'ba a'be a'bi a'bo a'bu
+aca ace aci aco acu
+ada ade adi ado adu
+a'da a'de a'di a'do a'du
+afa afe afi afo afu
+aga age agi ago agu
+aha ahe ahi aho ahu
+aja aje aji ajo aju
+aka ake aki ako aku
+ala ale ali alo alu
+ama ame ami amo amu
+ana ane ani ano anu
+apa ape api apo apu
+ara are ari aro aru
+asa ase asi aso asu
+ata ate ati ato atu
+ava ave avi avo avu
+awa awe awi awo awu
+a'wa a'we a'wi a'wo a'wu
+aya aye ayi ayo ayu
+a'ya a'ye a'yi a'yo a'yu
+aza aze azi azo azu
+
+Here is a list of 50 extra words from 10 Consonant Clusters (Four left out because of silent letters):
 dra dre dri dro dru
 hwa hwe hwi hwo hwu
 mba mbe mbi mbo mbu
@@ -110,36 +172,7 @@ nya nye nyi nyo nyu
 nza nze nzi nzo nzu
 tra tre tri tro tru
 
-The Old Vocabulary was small because some words have multiple meanings based on three major tones (to five including rising and falling), pronunciation or context eg o'du can mean day, thigh, omen, leopard; etc. However, the existing language which has a simplified 5-fold framework keeps getting New words added eg simu = phone; etc. Most nouns can denote both singular and plural (though adding yi after them also does); exceptions include mva [child] which becomes anzi [children]; etc while others are pronounced differently eg agu, agupi, etc. Adding suffixes -jo, -ko, -ru, -si and -yo to nouns creates new words; verbs also have -ku, -ma, -nga, -ta, -za and -zu. Adjectives follow the Subject eg buku eka = red book. In the entries ahead, semi-colon (;) shows different tones and meanings while goal brackets [ ] show translation. Lugbara sentences in past tense are structured using the Subject-Verb-Object arrangement like in English, but present continuous and future tenses follow S-O-V and ni [is] or nga [will, shall] may be added after the Subject to mark the difference eg YESU nga 'ba onzi pa [JESUS will save sinners]. When words are written together, the intended meanings may not change; so be very keen to spot the mashups eg Amanga votiyi 'be minira = Ama nga voti yi 'be mini ra [We will cast votes for you surely]. Short forms include: Ma mu ku = A mu ku [I'm not going]; Mi nya capati osu si = I nya capati osu si [You eat chapati with beans]; Eri ma mutuka = I-ma mutuka [His motorcar]...
-
-Some words are borrowed or modified from English plus other languages like Swahili, Luganda, Lingala, etc. Lugbara words are often written the same way they are pronounced; repeated letters especially consonants look ambiguously redundant and can be reformed eg Vurra, Uleppi, Owaffa, Oluffe, Okollo, Ofudde, Mekki, etc unless very special and meaningful (What you see is what you hear [WYSIWYH]).
-
-Marks for Simple Tones:
-In English, some words have different spellings, but the same pronunciation eg chase/ chess; chat/ chart; hat/ heart/ hurt; lace/ less; load/ lord; mane/ men; son/ sun; etc. In Lugbara, the same spelling can have different pronunciations (hence meanings) based on three (to five including rising and falling) tones indicated by accents as below.
-
-´ High tone eg aí [salt], drí [head], tí [cow];
-
-- Mid tone eg aī [accept, pray], drī [hand], tī [strangle] (Mid tone is the most common tone in Lugbarati);
-
-` Low tone eg aì [ask, beg], drì [(to) heat], tì [produce]...
-
-
-Word Classes include:
-1. Ecipiri (Conj[unction])
-
-2. Obi (Adv[erb])
-
-3. Ru (N[oun])
-
-4. Ruparia (Pron[oun])
-
-5. Usuta (Interj[ection])
-
-6. Vutivutia (Post[position] instead of Preposition)
-
-7. Wura (Adj[ective])
-
-8. 'Yeta (V[erb])
+With bigger letter quantities, all combinations become multiples of the above words. To make Lugbara feel less difficult to learn, try breaking words down into one, two or three-letter chunks; NDR is the main cluster that gives you four-letter sets. It is finished!
  
 
 
@@ -1281,7 +1314,7 @@ a'yaru (adj) envious, jealous
 
 A'yaru (n) female-given name 
 
-a'yoro (n) squirrel (also a'yaro, pronounced ayhoro)
+a'yoro (n) squirrel (pronounced ayhoro, also a'yaro)
 
 aza (n) pity
 
@@ -1387,7 +1420,7 @@ Bangiriyo (n) the first trading centre or T-Junction (diversion) after River Asa
 
 Banyale (n) first son of Dribidu and Ofunyaru in Lugbara mythology
 
-banza (n) loan, debt (also deni, deno, pronounced banja)
+banza (n) loan, debt (pronounced banja, also deni, deno)
 
 bari (adj) good, proper
 
@@ -1861,7 +1894,7 @@ dani (adv) maybe, probably, perhaps
 
 dania (n) coriander
 
-danzi (n) dance (also ongo tuza, pronounced danji)
+danzi (n) dance (pronounced danji, also ongo tuza)
 
 Davidi (n) David, Da (also Daudi, Dawudi, Devidi)
 
@@ -3913,7 +3946,7 @@ Landani (n) London, LDN eg Amaguru ni aa Landani-a. = Amaguru stays in London.
 
 Langa (n) Lugbara Kari Parliament eg Kurisitofa Yiki ni Langa ma Sipika. = Christopher Yikii is the Speaker of the Lugbara Kari Parliament.
 
-lanzura (n) single, unmarried man (also ojolo, pronounced lanjura)
+lanzura (n) single, unmarried man (pronounced lanjura, also ojolo)
 
 lapiri (n) reader eg Emanueli Feta ni E'yo Laza lapiri. = Emmanuel Feta is the E'yo Laza (news)reader.
 
@@ -4065,7 +4098,7 @@ Luganda nzeza (n) Luganda speaking or communication (also Luganda nzeta)
 
 lugba (n) yellow one-seeded fruit from a thorny tree species found in Africa (plus Middle East/ Arabian Peninsula, South Asia/ Indian Subcontinent and Central America/ Caribbean), desert date shrub, soap berry tree, Egyptian myrobalan, Egyptian balsam, Zachum oil tree, lalob in Arabic, aduwa in Hausa, taboraq in Tuareg, mchunju in Swahili, ekorete in N’gakarimojong, ecomai in Ateso, thoo in Alur, botanically named Balanites (/Ximenia/ Agialid) aegyptiaca, origin of the name Lugbara after a group broke away from the Ma’di in search of greener pastures and found an edible tree called lugba; they ate some fruits and took extra with them but a woman who lost her harvest started asking about her lugba ri or desert dates hence this group was called Lugbara though the Ma’di still call them Lugbani (pronounced luba, also lugbo, logba or logbo) eg Lugbara ni Muganda omve A’bua desu Ma’di vini eri omve 'Lugba ni'. = A Lugbara refers to a Muganda as a Banana yet a Ma’di also calls him/ her a 'Desert date'.
 
-Lugbara (n) northwest Ugandan tribe recognised in the National Constitution since Independence but occupied Central Africa long before colonialists arrived, among the Top 10 Most Populous Tribes in Uganda, eastern Congolese natives (in Aru and Mahagi), also found in southern South Sudan, with similar names and words like West Africans; someone with both or at least one Lugbara parent or ancestor - Omulugwara (in Luganda), people whose common ancestry according to mythology is at Mt. Wati and occupy the plateau west of the White (Albert) Nile, (also Logbari, pronounced Lubara - letter G is silent) eg Idi Amini ni Lugbara agaa, Kakuwa agaa. = Idi Amin is half Lugbara, half Kakwa.
+Lugbara (n) northwest Ugandan tribe recognised in the National Constitution since Independence but occupied Central Africa long before colonialists arrived, among the Top 10 Most Populous Tribes in Uganda, eastern Congolese natives (in Aru and Mahagi), also found in southern South Sudan, with similar names and words like West Africans; someone with both or at least one Lugbara parent or ancestor - Omulugwara (in Luganda), people whose common ancestry according to mythology is at Mt. Wati and occupy the plateau west of the White (Albert) Nile, (pronounced Lubara - letter G is silent, also Logbari) eg Idi Amini ni Lugbara agaa, Kakuwa agaa. = Idi Amin is half Lugbara, half Kakwa.
 
 Lugbara a'bi (n) Lugbara ancestry, Lugbara ancestors, heritage
 
@@ -8662,9 +8695,9 @@ Semakula = Male-given name with meaning related to gains [Se maku la = Pulled th
 
 
 LOST IN TRANSLATION (Lugbara AI):
-This encyclopedic research documentation is inspired by (and dedicated to) Cynthia Letasi, aka Rejoice (The Beautyful One [Roger that Ayi Kwei Armah] and Green Riding Hood [Now Mrs. Mungufeni whose husband I was a fan of after his song "DJ Pastor" before she proclaimed that they were dating] born on Thursday 17th August 1995) who changed my worldview like a valuable pearl (Matthew 13:45-46), worth far above rubies (Proverbs 31:10), Kumari in Nepal (Orient) or Divine Feminine between 2001-6; made me feel like Bob Harris in Arua (not Japan) around 2003 because she was 11 years younger than me, but inversely over four years ahead in speaking the language of the land we played on (If a snake, Balaam's donkey, ants, prophesied Beast and parrots can talk, then how about stones?). This pre-teen Lugbara girl drained amalala ga kibuga [Luganda for: city haughtiness] out of me. To be honest, she was my first "superhigh" crush within Arua (West Nile) after the Y2K Computer Bug Doom's Day didn't happen though I never told her my exact heartfelt reality for multiple years (Just tried to show it through kind, unapologetic treatment because I loved her smile and hawking eyes until she confessed something unexpected, but very stunning that I will treasure until infinity). Cynthia engraved her fingerprints in my heart. Everytime I left Arua for campus in Mukono, I would feel my heart pain around Madi Okollo, but calm down in Nebbi Town. Her lookalikes included the volatile Tonto Dikeh (Nigerian I watched on Top TV in KLA), lyric-savvy Sheebah Karungi who broke out around 2009, decent Betty Mpologoma, unflinching Victoria Bagaya on NBS, worry-free Spice Diana as well as the easygoing Scarlett Johansson who automatically became my all-time favourites; I knew CL before all of them except maybe Betty who began her diamond singing career in 1999. Queenie, one of the lead vocalists in the Miracle Cathedral Rubaga (MCR) Proclaim Music choir also has that Cynthia aura plus Jommie Nankya (Bukedde TV), Pretty Banks, Sheila Gashumba, etc. Even though I reconnected with Xnthi (nickname I gave her meaning Numberless or Infinite value) via Facebook at the turn of the 2010s, I did not see her again physically until Tuesday 12th February 2019 walking southwards with her darkskinned female friend on the hyper-straight Arua Avenue at the Ediofe Road Junction (while I escorted my cousin to a printshop before he rushed to Onduparaka to see his sister). That was about 13 unlucky years since the last time, but only three surreal days after dreaming about her. I smiled like GOD's sun was shining on me in the afternoon before rush hour; it was the same day Onduparaka drew 0-0 with URA FC in the Ugandan top-flight league. Obsession is not a crime, just harness it like human solar electricity: Rise and shine! Disconnection is re-direction; too much love will heal you. Love is indestructible and the Greatest Thing: I admired Cynthia's pleasant appearance and shameless, supadupa fluency at a very tender age of 6 to 11 plus felt inspired to polish my own linguistics by reading Lugbara afresh since I learnt my mother tongue in Busoga (Birth to 11 years) and Buganda only by listening to Lugbara people talk despite being downgraded as backward or Lower class (Not Upper). Depression Management (Edification): Detach your mind and heart (Subconscious) from negative criticism, abuse, belittlement, mockery, disrespect, pokopoko or contempt! Even though I spoke and understood the language, I couldn't transcribe Lugbara well like English but when moonstruck by our Mt. Wati Road (Arua) neighbour's adorable brownskinned daughter, I was motivated to re-study this vernacular from Northwestern Uganda in black and white (scraping from music lyrics, Bibilia, Straight Talk newspapers, brochures, internet articles, other literature, then a Fountain Publishers 2009 dictionary compiled by Willy Ngaka, Edward O'du'bua and Paul Iga Ongua [bought for a Twenty10 gig from Sarah Ojirot at Uganda Deaf Women's Organisation; my Design Manager from UCU named Edmund Asingwire (Munyankole studying Business Administration) also hired me after campus to do artwork in Lugbara for him and Jolynn Investments Limited - One Nation under GOD], exclusively English dictionaries, a Chinese Dictionary for finding word classes, Google web searches for synonyms plus asked various people including my Parents and Facebook friends like Okitembeki Ndengendu [Enoch Opika Diku], etc). Consequently, I would perhaps grasp Lugbara the way ShaoLan Hsueh created Chineasy, then fabricate my own Synthetic Artificial Lugbara Technology (SALT), Informative Synthetic Encoder (ISE, the Grasshopper Translation Machine) or Ojapi Converter (Bypassing the Language Barrier). My big brother Victor Draman(i) Afayo (an I.T. Specialist based in KLA City) wanted to create a Lugbara.net website and gave me the assignment of doing research for him in the latter half of the 2000s; I decided to create my own Lugbara Culture blog (Amazing World of Lugbara) plus Facebook groups with the data around 2008, a process that inspired this vocabulary-book too. The words here are the ones used on UBC Radio (formerly Radio Uganda), Voice Of Life (probably since 1997 though I started listening in 2000), Arua One (since 2002), Koboko FM, Nile FM (since 2004), Radio Pacis, Access FM (since Monday 19th March 2018) plus BTN Television (from 2003), Westnile TV (from around 2020) and in voice commands for Airtel Uganda, et cetera. During one of the Mobile Monday sessions in KLA City, I asked a Google Executive from Germany who came to UG around 2012 if Lugbara could be added to the advanced Google Translate machine. He replied that he would forward my concern to the relevant office. Additionally, I posted a request at Wikimedia for a Lugbara Wiktionary but there weren't enough volunteer editors as is the requirement for the project to hatch; a Lugbarapedia would be the eventual outcome. Tualu.org [West Nile Portal] announced that they were working on a project of over 500 Lugbara words but I could not find their draft PDF. Nevertheless, Tualu posted a long and thorough Dictionary of Lugbara Personal Names by Alex Matua Asumi and his colleagues: Fortunate Drateru, Moses Dramiga and Proscovia Adrupiyo. There were no names listed with the letters H, Q and X, but the ones posted are more than enough; I commend them for that, a masterpiece about Ru'daza Lugbara niri (Naming in the Lugbara Tradition). Saidi Omar Dramani (Islamic University In Uganda - Mbale) also posted a PDF of his 2007 dissertation research for a Lugbarati Dictionary; it was very helpful. Fountain Publishers has Lugbarati Buku Anzini for Secondary School children, approved by Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) plus National Curriculum Dvelopment Centre (NCDC) in Kyambogo. Language has to be preserved through documentation and transmitted to anyone connected or interested because cultural heritage represents a collective identity of values, diversity, traditions and assets passed around from generation to generation eg my Parents (James + Elizabeth Ndezo Dramani) to me, though my Mother departed in Twenty22 (during Volume 7) - She used to tell me: If you cannot express something in Lugbara, then use English! My father meanwhile said translation is difficult sometimes and I should be out with people to learn more, but still helped me find words quite well. Some relatives and natives would laugh at my pronunciations or choice of words but it didn't phase me. In Bantuland, I was never ashamed to be called Omulugwara even if it was a byword for stupidity, Naked People (Only Karamoja was ranked before us) and backwardness among some communities. Aren't we all descendants of Noah, the Flood Survivor? One day, I bypassed two dudes on Acacia Avenue in KLA and heard them speak what sounded like broken Lugbara; I reasoned later that it might have been Madi or another related language. Also, Aringa is like Lugbara Patois, Pidgin or Filipino. During May 2023, someone asked me why I study Lugbara yet it is not useful and I told him not to belittle my mother tongue like that; garbage or waste appears worthless until it's recycled and given value or repackaged like brickets or beads, biogas, etc: Lugbara is a multinational language spoken mainly across three colonial borders which converge at Salia Musala (about 2 hours by car northwards from Arua City). There are about six Lugbara clans in DR Congo (Kari Culture Minister - John Godo, a UPC stalwart, taught me that in 2009: When I went to Ariwara [inside DRC] the following year, I was stunned by the amount of Lugbara songs playing loudly near the markets, more than Lingala or even English; many place names in Orientale Province as spotted on Google Maps look like Lugbara words). #SpeakLugbara on International Mother Tongue Day (21st February)! I strongly believe Generative AI can learn Lugbarati and make it reuseable and applicable in various fields; Deep Learning Indaba (DLI), Ambani, Masakhane (We Build Together) African Language NLP, Translators Without Borders (TWB), Artificial Intelligence for Development-Africa Network (AI4D-Africa), Hugging Face, Deep Site, Foundation for Lugbarati Development Initiative (FLUDI), Quantum ML or Lugbara GPT type-of-way. Live translation of President M7's speeches (by people like Nahori Oya, Fred Bada, John Ondoma, etc), social media broadcasts (eg Getrude Abiria [Oku aka], Peace Victoria Eyotaru, X. Pillo Hilarious who resembles Ham Jay animations, Baby Girl, Scorpionbae, etc) plus other arrangements such as crusades, conferences, weddings, funerals and so on can also be a reference... In December 2013, the Lugbarati Language Board proposed an Orthography Guide with 45 letters (including 7 vowels and 38 consonants). Tonal Lugbara literature with its many character symbols (accents, crosses, dashes or hyphens, dots, umlauts, etc) seems advanced plus crowdily complex (like the new books commissioned from DR Congo that I used to see at the Radio Pacis Printery) and scares away learners or researchers, but the simpler version shared in this wordbook is legit too... Lugbara funeral songs have been replaced with church hymns and modern Gospel music... In my Allegory of Artificial Ignorance: For machines to learn Lugbara, humans (both self-motivated and paid contributors) must train them or organise datasets for AI to decode unsupervised... Artificial Dreams (or Hallucinations) can also come true like Dreamcast... My makeshift Word Interchange Theory (WIT) from 1996 was not far-fetched afterall (feeling like Michael Jordan versus Detroit Pistons: No rules); every challenge forces you to think of ways to sidestep (jump off/ bypass or leap over) it...
+This encyclopedic research documentation is inspired by (and dedicated to) Cynthia Letasi, aka Rejoice (The Beautyful One [Roger that Ayi Kwei Armah] and Green Riding Hood [Now Mrs. Mungufeni whose husband I was a fan of after his song "DJ Pastor" before she proclaimed that they were dating] born on Thursday 17th August 1995) who changed my worldview like a valuable pearl (Matthew 13:45-46), worth far above rubies (Proverbs 31:10), Kumari in Nepal (Orient) or Divine Feminine between 2001-6; made me feel like Bob Harris in Arua (not Japan) around 2003 because she was 11 years younger than me, but inversely over four years ahead in speaking the language of the land we played on (If a snake, Balaam's donkey, ants, prophesied Beast and parrots can talk, then how about stones?). This pre-teen Lugbara girl drained amalala ga kibuga [Luganda for: city haughtiness] out of me. To be honest, she was my first "superhigh" crush within Arua (West Nile) after the Y2K Computer Bug Doom's Day didn't happen though I never told her my exact heartfelt reality for multiple years (Just tried to show it through kind, unapologetic treatment because I loved her smile and hawking eyes until she confessed something unexpected, but very stunning that I will treasure until infinity). Cynthia engraved her fingerprints in my heart. Everytime I left Arua for campus in Mukono, I would feel my heart pain around Madi Okollo, but calm down in Nebbi Town. Her lookalikes included the volatile Tonto Dikeh (Nigerian I watched on Top TV in KLA), lyric-savvy Sheebah Karungi who broke out around 2009, decent Betty Mpologoma, unflinching Victoria Bagaya on NBS, worry-free Spice Diana as well as the easygoing Scarlett Johansson who automatically became my all-time favourites; I knew CL before all of them except maybe Betty who began her diamond singing career in 1999. Queenie, one of the lead vocalists in the Miracle Cathedral Rubaga (MCR) Proclaim Music choir also has that Cynthia aura plus Jommie Nankya (Bukedde TV), Pretty Banks, Sheila Gashumba, etc. Even though I reconnected with Xnthi (nickname I gave her meaning Numberless or Infinite value) via Facebook at the turn of the 2010s, I did not see her again physically until Tuesday 12th February 2019 walking southwards with her darkskinned female friend on the hyper-straight Arua Avenue at the Ediofe Road Junction (while I escorted my cousin to a printshop before he rushed to Onduparaka to see his sister). That was about 13 unlucky years since the last time, but only three surreal days after dreaming about her. I smiled like GOD's sun was shining on me in the afternoon before rush hour; it was the same day Onduparaka drew 0-0 with URA FC in the Ugandan top-flight league. Obsession is not a crime, just harness it like human solar electricity: Rise and shine! Disconnection is re-direction; too much love will heal you. Love is indestructible and the Greatest Thing: I admired Cynthia's pleasant appearance and shameless, supadupa fluency at a very tender age of 6 to 11 plus felt inspired to polish my own linguistics by reading Lugbara afresh since I learnt my mother tongue in Busoga (Birth to 11 years) and Buganda only by listening to Lugbara people talk despite being downgraded as backward or Lower class (Not Upper). Depression Management (Edification): Detach your mind and heart (Subconscious) from negative criticism, abuse, belittlement, mockery, disrespect, pokopoko or contempt! Even though I spoke and understood the language, I couldn't transcribe Lugbara well like English but when moonstruck by our Mt. Wati Road (Arua) neighbour's adorable brownskinned daughter, I was motivated to re-study this vernacular from Northwestern Uganda in black and white (scraping from music lyrics, Bibilia, Straight Talk newspapers, brochures, internet articles, other literature, then a Fountain Publishers 2009 dictionary compiled by Willy Ngaka, Edward O'du'bua and Paul Iga Ongua [bought for a Twenty10 gig from Sarah Ojirot at Uganda Deaf Women's Organisation; my Design Manager from UCU named Edmund Asingwire (Munyankole studying Business Administration) also hired me after campus to do artwork in Lugbara for him and Jolynn Investments Limited - One Nation under GOD], exclusively English dictionaries, a Chinese Dictionary for finding word classes, Google web searches for synonyms plus asked various people including my Parents and Facebook friends like Okitembeki Ndengendu [Enoch Opika Diku], 2012 Kyambogo University dissertation entitled "A History of the Logbari Clans of West Nile 1000-1925 AD" by Fr. Lazarus Ijoyi from Ofude [Maraca], etc). Consequently, I would perhaps grasp Lugbara the way ShaoLan Hsueh created Chineasy, then fabricate my own Synthetic Artificial Lugbara Technology (SALT), Informative Synthetic Encoder (ISE, the Grasshopper Translation Machine) or Ojapi Converter (Bypassing the Language Barrier). My big brother Victor Draman(i) Afayo (an I.T. Specialist based in KLA City) wanted to create a Lugbara.net website and gave me the assignment of doing research for him in the latter half of the 2000s; I decided to create my own Lugbara Culture blog (Amazing World of Lugbara) plus Facebook groups with the data around 2008, a process that inspired this vocabulary-book too. The words here are the ones used on UBC Radio (formerly Radio Uganda), Voice Of Life (probably since 1997 though I started listening in 2000), Arua One (since 2002), Koboko FM, Nile FM (since 2004), Radio Pacis, Access FM (since Monday 19th March 2018) plus BTN Television (from 2003), Westnile TV (from around 2020) and in voice commands for Airtel Uganda, et cetera. During one of the Mobile Monday sessions in KLA City, I asked a Google Executive from Germany who came to UG around 2012 if Lugbara could be added to the advanced Google Translate machine. He replied that he would forward my concern to the relevant office. Additionally, I posted a request at Wikimedia for a Lugbara Wiktionary but there weren't enough volunteer editors as is the requirement for the project to hatch; a Lugbarapedia would be the eventual outcome. Tualu.org [West Nile Portal] announced that they were working on a project of over 500 Lugbara words but I could not find their draft PDF. Nevertheless, Tualu posted a long and thorough Dictionary of Lugbara Personal Names by Alex Matua Asumi and his colleagues: Fortunate Drateru, Moses Dramiga and Proscovia Adrupiyo. There were no names listed with the letters H, Q and X, but the ones posted are more than enough; I commend them for that, a masterpiece about Ru'daza Lugbara niri (Naming in the Lugbara Tradition). Saidi Omar Dramani (Islamic University In Uganda - Mbale) also posted a PDF of his 2007 dissertation research for a Lugbarati Dictionary; it was very helpful. Fountain Publishers has Lugbarati Buku Anzini for Secondary School children, approved by Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) plus National Curriculum Dvelopment Centre (NCDC) in Kyambogo. Language has to be preserved through documentation and transmitted to anyone connected or interested because cultural heritage represents a collective identity of values, diversity, traditions and assets passed around from generation to generation eg my Parents (James + Elizabeth Ndezo Dramani) to me, though my Mother departed in Twenty22 (during Volume 7) - She used to tell me: If you cannot express something in Lugbara, then use English! My father meanwhile said translation is difficult sometimes and I should be out with people to learn more, but still helped me find words quite well. Some relatives and natives would laugh at my pronunciations or choice of words but it didn't phase me. In Bantuland, I was never ashamed to be called Omulugwara even if it was a byword for stupidity, Naked People (Only Karamoja was ranked before us) and backwardness among some communities. Aren't we all descendants of Noah, the Flood Survivor? One day, I bypassed two dudes on Acacia Avenue in KLA and heard them speak what sounded like broken Lugbara; I reasoned later that it might have been Madi or another related language. Also, Aringa is like Lugbara Patois, Pidgin or Filipino. During May 2023, someone asked me why I study Lugbara yet it is not useful and I told him not to belittle my mother tongue like that; garbage or waste appears worthless until it's recycled and given value or repackaged like brickets or beads, biogas, etc: Lugbara is a multinational language spoken mainly across three colonial borders which converge at Salia Musala (about 2 hours by car northwards from Arua City). There are about six Lugbara clans in DR Congo (Kari Culture Minister - John Godo, a UPC stalwart, taught me that in 2009: When I went to Ariwara [inside DRC] the following year, I was stunned by the amount of Lugbara songs playing loudly near the markets, more than Lingala or even English; many place names in Orientale Province as spotted on Google Maps look like Lugbara words). #SpeakLugbara on International Mother Tongue Day (21st February)! I strongly believe Generative AI can learn Lugbarati and make it reuseable and applicable in various fields; Deep Learning Indaba (DLI), Ambani, Masakhane (We Build Together) African Language NLP, Translators Without Borders (TWB), Artificial Intelligence for Development-Africa Network (AI4D-Africa), Hugging Face, Deep Site, Foundation for Lugbarati Development Initiative (FLUDI), Quantum ML or Lugbara GPT type-of-way. Live translation of President M7's speeches (by people like Nahori Oya, Fred Bada, John Ondoma, etc), social media broadcasts (eg Getrude Abiria [Oku aka], Peace Victoria Eyotaru, X. Pillo Hilarious who resembles Ham Jay animations, Baby Girl, Scorpionbae, etc) plus other arrangements such as crusades, conferences, weddings, funerals and so on can also be a reference... In December 2013, the Lugbarati Language Board proposed an Orthography Guide with 45 letters (including 7 vowels and 38 consonants). Tonal Lugbara literature with its many character symbols (accents, crosses, dashes or hyphens, dots, umlauts, etc) seems advanced plus crowdily complex (like the new books commissioned from DR Congo that I used to see at the Radio Pacis Printery) and scares away learners or researchers, but the simpler version shared in this wordbook is legit too... Lugbara funeral songs have been replaced with church hymns and modern Gospel music... In my Allegory of Artificial Ignorance: For machines to learn Lugbara, humans (both self-motivated and paid contributors) must train them or organise datasets for AI to decode unsupervised... Artificial Dreams (or Hallucinations) can also come true like Dreamcast... My makeshift Word Interchange Theory (WIT) from 1996 was not far-fetched afterall (feeling like Michael Jordan versus Detroit Pistons: No rules); every challenge forces you to think of ways to sidestep (jump off/ bypass or leap over) it...
 
-When I was in Senior 5 (during 2001), I told my hostelmates that one day there will be a radio device that converts words spoken on air into text like S2T (Speech-2-Text) or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and displayed on a screen, not just lyrics as Jango Radio does, but conversations too (Inspired by the way we transcribed classroom dictation from teachers). I was labelled "mulalu [Luganda for: mad]" but dreams are not hopeless; GOD's time brings them to life for instance Google Assistant, Meet (In-chat captions), Apple's Siri, TranSay (My Favourite), Lingmo One2One, Translate 4 Me, Waverly Labs Pilot, Mesay, Langogo, Translaty, MUAMA Enence, Xiaomi AI Translator, Clik, WT2 Translator, Travis, LeTrans, Sigmo, NTT DoCoMo Translation Service, OBTranslate (from Nigeria), Logbar ili, OpenAI's ChatGPT or Whisper, Assembly AI, iFlytek, etc. Twitter (X) Spaces is also not very far from my Ongo (Ojapi Converter) vision. Zero-Shot Machine Translation tech is a model that can learn to translate words into another language without having to see any examples... Meta's Universal Speech Translator is a very ambitious AI research project that might improve language-mixing or Computer-Assisted Translation... LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) which Blake Lamoine labelled "sentient" was originally introduced as Meena in 2020. It's a conversational Large Language Model (LLM) built by Google... The Madi-Lugbara language is related to the languages of Southern Nigeria eg Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Iduma, Igala, Igbira, Gbari and Nupe. In addition, we can include Ijo and Kalabari of the Niger Delta plus the Bariba - north of Yoruba and Aja (Ewe) spoken in Southern Dahomey (Benin), Togo and South-Eastern Ghana... Some people consider Lugbara a dialect of Madi but many do not accept this theory. In fact, a survey concluded that the Ogoko, Okollo and Rigbo dialects which are considered Southern Madi or Madi (I)ndri, should be categorised as dialects of Lugbara. Besides, we share the same names, numbers and many words. The only mother tongue interference I have heard from tribemates is mixing S with SH like when saying "soap" and "shop" or -TION with -SON eg "information" becomes "informason". Some interchange D with TH eg "together" is spoken as "togeder" while "three" may be pronounced "tiri" but most times, pronunciation is okay. Exactly 11 days before I created my electronic Lugbara Dictionary in Twenty16, Google Translate switched to Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) translating whole sentences at a time rather than piece by piece which GT used to do through Statistical Machine Translation since 28th April 2006. GNMT improves the Quality of Translation because it uses an Example-based Machine Translation (EBMT) in which the system learns from millions of examples... In 2020, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, Sunbird AI commenced the African language technology project. They created a large multilingual parallel text dataset of Ugandan languages, with translations in Acholi, Ateso, Luganda, Lugbara and Runyankole. On Saturday 11th October 2025, an AI Language Model called Sunflower (developed by Sunbird) was officially launched and it is described as "the ChatGPT for Uganda"... GeoPoll (a global research organisation) has datasets in Lugbara while JEHOVAH's Witnesses translate their publications into Lugbara (Available at www.jw.org). Companies like MTN, dfcu Bank, etc also use Lugbara in their PR content... It was very unreal to discover on Sunday 10th September 2023 while googling for "Lugbara AI" that the mother of Jeff Dean (55 year old Google AI Lead then) speaks "fluent Lugbara"; she lived in West Nile when Jeffrey was 5 years old. I guess she knows that Lugbara is learnable by machines; Meta introduced its own AI on WhatsApp a few days later. I love the fact that it paraphrases websites rejected by Wikipedia. Mark Zuckerberg believes AI will make superintelligent multi-lingual connections possible for all. When you copy some of the BigAMBO [Words] in this dictionary and paste as a chat message to Meta AI like a Paul and Silas jailbreak, it can learn Ugandan Lugbara by reading patterns and fine-tuning itself to chat with you even though it used a strange vocabulary as Lugbara in Twenty24 (probably Central or West African) like TranslatorMind the following year. Sam Altman (CEO at Open AI) also revealed that you can add knowledge and create a custom GPT by uploading files in the GPTs App Store. The Google.com AI Mode can fish out Lugbara words from throughout the internet and explain to you (Some are hallucinations, but others are spot on especially when it scrapes from bible translations). Self-Adapting or Adjusting LLMs (SEAL or SALMs) will learn new words by themselves. Teach AI to fish and it will fish all the fish-species to extinction... Push to the limits: Vibe-coding can also help you create Lugbara chatbots, games eg Scrabble or Pictionary plus other software for investors, traders, friends, lovers, in-laws, tourists, media watchers, music listeners, conference audiences, ethnodoxologists, migrants, refugees and those supertalented in Xenoglossy... United Nations (UN) calls the language Logbari. The ISO 639-3 Language Code for Lugbara is lgg while the Glottocode is lugb1240, but I wish the language code for Lugbara was simply LB or Lbr (which is actually my Lugbara Dictionary logo in a circle; it corresponds better though already taken by Lohorung language which is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nepal). The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!
+When I was in Senior 5 (during 2001), I told my hostelmates that one day there will be a radio device that converts words spoken on air into text like S2T (Speech-2-Text) or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and displayed on a screen, not just lyrics as Jango Radio does, but conversations too (Inspired by the way we transcribed classroom dictation from teachers. In Senior 6, GOD made the woman I loved the most at Makerere College School [named Lydia (Muganda)] to sit immediately infront of me; her back literally rested on my desk and sometimes when she skipped what was being dictated, she would turn around to fill missing words in her classwork book using my notes. That was truly heartwarming because I regarded her a perfect woman, but played it safe and she knew it simply because I believed competition was high (Just enjoyed the moments she gave me)! When I joined UCU the following year, I actually fell in love with another woman [Alice (Mukonzo)] because she reminded me of my old classmate: Stout plus graceful in gait, but a Gooner like me and not Kopite Red). I was labelled "mulalu [Luganda for: mad]" for mentioning the radio-text display but dreams are not hopeless; GOD's time brings them to life for instance Google Assistant, Meet (In-chat captions), Apple's Siri, TranSay (My Favourite), Lingmo One2One, Translate 4 Me, Waverly Labs Pilot, Mesay, Langogo, Translaty, MUAMA Enence, Xiaomi AI Translator, Clik, WT2 Translator, Travis, LeTrans, Sigmo, NTT DoCoMo Translation Service, OBTranslate (from Nigeria), Logbar ili, OpenAI's ChatGPT or Whisper, Assembly AI, iFlytek, etc. Twitter (X) Spaces is also not very far from my Ongo (Ojapi Converter) vision. Zero-Shot Machine Translation tech is a model that can learn to translate words into another language without having to see any examples... Meta's Universal Speech Translator is a very ambitious AI research project that might improve language-mixing or Computer-Assisted Translation... LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) which Blake Lamoine labelled "sentient" was originally introduced as Meena in 2020. It's a conversational Large Language Model (LLM) built by Google... The Madi-Lugbara language is related to the languages of Southern Nigeria eg Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Iduma, Igala, Igbira, Gbari and Nupe. In addition, we can include Ijo and Kalabari of the Niger Delta plus the Bariba - north of Yoruba and Aja (Ewe) spoken in Southern Dahomey (Benin), Togo and South-Eastern Ghana... Some people consider Lugbara a dialect of Madi but many do not accept this theory. In fact, a survey concluded that the Ogoko, Okollo and Rigbo dialects which are considered Southern Madi or Madi (I)ndri, should be categorised as dialects of Lugbara. Besides, we share the same names, numbers and many words. The only mother tongue interference I have heard from tribemates is mixing S with SH like when saying "soap" and "shop" or -TION with -SON eg "information" becomes "informason". Some interchange D with TH eg "together" is spoken as "togeder" while "three" may be pronounced "tiri" but most times, pronunciation is okay. Exactly 11 days before I created my electronic Lugbara Dictionary in Twenty16, Google Translate switched to Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) translating whole sentences at a time rather than piece by piece which GT used to do through Statistical Machine Translation since 28th April 2006. GNMT improves the Quality of Translation because it uses an Example-based Machine Translation (EBMT) in which the system learns from millions of examples... In 2020, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, Sunbird AI commenced the African language technology project. They created a large multilingual parallel text dataset of Ugandan languages, with translations in Acholi, Ateso, Luganda, Lugbara and Runyankole. On Saturday 11th October 2025, an AI Language Model called Sunflower (developed by Sunbird) was officially launched and it is described as "the ChatGPT for Uganda"... GeoPoll (a global research organisation) has datasets in Lugbara while JEHOVAH's Witnesses translate their publications into Lugbara (Available at www.jw.org). Companies like MTN, dfcu Bank, etc also use Lugbara in their PR content... It was very unreal to discover on Sunday 10th September 2023 while googling for "Lugbara AI" that the mother of Jeff Dean (55 year old Google AI Lead then) speaks "fluent Lugbara"; she lived in West Nile when Jeffrey was 5 years old. I guess she knows that Lugbara is learnable by machines; Meta introduced its own AI on WhatsApp a few days later. I love the fact that it paraphrases websites rejected by Wikipedia. Mark Zuckerberg believes AI will make superintelligent multi-lingual connections possible for all. When you copy some of the BigAMBO [Words] in this dictionary and paste as a chat message to Meta AI like a Paul and Silas jailbreak, it can learn Ugandan Lugbara by reading patterns and fine-tuning itself to chat with you even though it used a strange vocabulary as Lugbara in Twenty24 (probably Central or West African) like TranslatorMind the following year. Sam Altman (CEO at Open AI) also revealed that you can add knowledge and create a custom GPT by uploading files in the GPTs App Store. The Google.com AI Mode can fish out Lugbara words from throughout the internet and explain to you (Some are hallucinations, but others are spot on especially when it scrapes from bible translations). Self-Adapting or Adjusting LLMs (SEAL or SALMs) will learn new words by themselves. Teach AI to fish and it will fish all the fish-species to extinction... Push to the limits: Vibe-coding can also help you create Lugbara chatbots, games eg Scrabble or Pictionary plus other software for investors, traders, friends, lovers, in-laws, tourists, media watchers, music listeners, conference audiences, ethnodoxologists, migrants, refugees and those supertalented in Xenoglossy... United Nations (UN) calls the language Logbari. The ISO 639-3 Language Code for Lugbara is lgg while the Glottocode is lugb1240, but I wish the language code for Lugbara was simply LB or Lbr (which is actually my Lugbara Dictionary logo in a circle; it corresponds better though already taken by Lohorung language which is an endangered Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Nepal). The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!
 
 [GODisgreat!]