Wilfrid H.G. Haacke and Eliphas Eiseb. A Khoekhoegowab Dictionary with an English-Khoekhoegowab Index

Abstract

Having dedicated more than 20 years to this single major lexicographic project, the authors, Professor Wilfrid H.G. Haacke and Pastor Eliphas Eiseb, have pro-duced a dictionary of amazing quantity and quality. The newly published Khoekhoegowab Dictionary comprises some 25 000 Khoekhoegowab entries and the English renderings in the English-Khoekhoegowab index amount to over 26 000 entries. While these figures are quite impressive in themselves, the reader will also find a thorough analysis of the Khoekhoegowab entries as well as refined English translations. The dictionary attempts to address the interests of linguists as well as the needs of the speech community. Unavoidably, the divergent interests of these two groups force the authors to accept a number of compromises that result in some inconvenience for both the target audiences. Despite these limitations, linguistic research on African languages will find the dictionary a source of eminent importance for both historical linguistics as well as typological studies. And mother-tongue speakers will greatly benefit from this publication, which, thanks to financial support from the German technical assistance agency GTZ, is available at a price that is affordable for the Namibian public.