A Nika-English Dictionary (1887)

A dictionary of Mijikenda (formerly Kinyika) dialects collected by Johannes Rebmann and Johann Ludwig Krapf beginning as early as 1846. Rebmann collected most of the data from local informants in Kisulutini, a settlement near Rabai Mpya.

Figure 1 CMS Mission Station at Kisulutini

Figure 2 Johannes Rebmann

Figure 3 Johann Ludwig Krapf

Language Codes

Mijikenda is referenced as:

NYF in Ethnologue (https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nyf/)

E.70 Nyika in Maho"s updated Guthrie Classification Codes

Mijikenda

Nika, or kinyika, is the previous name for ChiMijikenda, a Bantu language spoken by around one million people in eastern Kenya. It is closely related to Kiswahili, Shicomorian, Kipokomo, and Kielewa, which together form the Sabaki Branch of Northeast Central Bantu languages. Krapf and Rebmann distinguished three dialects in their dictionary: Giryama (northern), Rabai (central), and Digo (southern). Modern linguistic studies generally distinguish among two (northern and southern). Since the language collection was primarily conducted in settlements around Rabai, dictionary entries are considered to be from the Rabai dialect unless indicated otherwise.

Language Sources

The compilers included many words from other Bantu languages, including dialects of Kiswahili, as indicated in the table below. It is not always apparent if these inclusions should be regarded as loanwords into ChiMijikenda dialects or simply gathered along with ChiMijikenda data.

Abbreviation	Meaning
K.	Collected by Krapf, but Rebmann thinks the word needs more investigation.
Kid.	Kidigo (a southern Mijikenda/Nika dialect)
Kig.	Kigiriama (a northern Mijikenda/Nika dialect)
Kij.	Kijomba (a Kiswahili dialect, Jomvu town near Rabai)
Kik.	Kikamba, (a Central Kenya Bantu dialect)
Kim.	Kimvita (the Kiswahili dialect of Mombasa)
Kins.	Kiniasa (Nyasa dialect, Mozambique origin)
Kir.	Kiravai / Kirabai (a central Mijikenda/Nika dialect)

 

Editorial Quality

Informants for the language data have not been identified. Most were likely Rabai men in the surrounding community of Kisulutini. Rebmann appears to be the primary collector of the linguistic data, but it was compiled and edited by Krapf. The final editing for publication was accomplished by Thomas Henry Sparshott, "the best available scholar for the purpose". As such, many of the entries are incomplete, providing only words in ChiMijikenda without any corresponding definition. Some entries include only a headword.

A foreword to the dictionary indicates that Rebmann had prepared a copy for printing and sent it from Germany to England, but this copy was lost. So, the dictionary is based on a "rough copy" that was missing several pages. Attempts were made to fill in the missing pages through correspondence with missionaries in the field. Research is ongoing to identify those pages and the missionaries.

Noun Class Treatment

The assignment of nouns to Bantu noun classes is systematic in this dictionary. Instead of using numbers, the editors provided the appropriate genitive marker and the plural prefix of the entry.

For example, the root of the word Muodia is odia, with Mu- as the noun class prefix. "wa" is the form of the word "of" that connects Muodia to other nouns, as in: Muodia wa mbao, a quiver of wood. The prefix Mi- is the plural prefix for this noun class. It is given to distinguish it from the class of nouns for people, which has the prefixes Mu-, Wa-. The following chart draws on descriptions by Krapf in his Giryama Vocabulary, but we have modified it to conform with current ordering of noun classes by most linguists.

Class	Sg	Genitive particle	Relative particle	Pl	Genitive particle	Relative particle
1/2	Mu	Wa	ye	a	wa	Ye
3/4	Mu	wa	o	mi	Ya	Yo
5/6*	"x"	ra	ro	ma	ga	Go
7/8	Ki	cha	cho	vi	zha	Zho
9/10*	"n"	ya	Yo	"n"	za	Zo
11/12	Lu	lwa	Lo	n / ny	za	Zo
13/14	Ka	ka	Ko	u	wa	O
15/6**	U	wa	o	ma	ga	Go
17a		ha	ho
17b		kwa	ko
17c		mwa	mo
18	Ku	kwa	ko