MADAN, A.C.

English-Swahili Dictionary. Compiled for the Use of the Universities Mission to Central Africa.

Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1894. First edition. "For the purpose of this work Swahili means 'Swahili as generally spoken and understood in Zanzibar'..This dialect has no literary standard. Its vocabulary is ill-defined and fluctuating, the proportion of Arabic words (for example) varying largely in different sections of its very mixed population, while words from every dialect in use between the Coast and the Great Central Lakes, and from Delagoa Bay to Further India, from time to time assert their claim to be incorporated in it, and even a certain proportion from the languages of Modern Europe.."(Preface). 17.5cms x 12cms x 2.5cms. Pp.viii/415/8 (publisher's catalogue), owner's names to both sides of the front free endpaper, a few ink spots to pp.30-31 and to a few edges of margins. Maroon bevelled cloth, gilt title to spine rubbed, boards worn with red (paint?) spots to front and rear. Scarce as first edition. Good.** "Arthur Cornwallis Madan (1846–1917) was a British linguist and Anglican missionary who became famous for his research on African languages and his Swahili dictionaries.He was educated at Marlborough College and studied at Christ College of Oxford University from 1865 to 1869. After obtaining his bachelor's degree, he taught at Christ College as a tutor from 1870 to 1880; during this period he also got a master's degree. He joined the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. In 1880 he was sent to Zanzibar, where he learned Swahili and assisted bishop Edward Steere in his language research and translation work. When Steere died in August 1882, Madan finished Steere's manuscript of a Swahili grammar until the end of the year. ("A handbook of the Swahili language as spoken at Zanzibar, edited for the Universities' Mission to Central Africa"). Madan was considered the mission's chief linguist in East Africa. He continued to work on Swahili dictionaries. Initially this was a pioneer's work, as Ludwig Krapf's dictionary of Swahili, the first for this language, had not yet been published. In 1894 Madan's English-Swahili dictionary was published, followed by a Swahili-English dictionary in 1903. He is remembered mostly for his dictionaries and other writings about the Swahili language. His dictionaries became the base for the Standard English-Swahili Dictionary and Standard Swahili-English Dictionary, which are known under the name of "Madan-Johnson". (wiki).

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Book number: 47574

Catalogue: Foreign Language: : Swahili

Keywords: Madan English Swahili Dictionary Universities Mission Central Africa Zanzibar Foreign African Language Reference 49054 Foreign Language: : Swahili