Lugungu Dictionary Sep 2012

Introduction
The Bagungu people speak the Lugungu language. The Bagungu reside primarily in
Buliisa, Masindi and Hoima districts in North Western Uganda where the number
of mother-tongue speakers is approximately 49,000 people.
Until now there has been no Lugungu dictionary available which could be used in
schools, to encourage local writers to be more actively involved in committing
their cultural stories, beliefs, and local history to paper, and to encourage the
development of literature in Lugungu.
This dictionary has been compiled from various sources, with most of the words
being collected during a community-based word collection workshop that was held
in January 2003. The initial database was based on research by James Mbabazi
and Ronald Moe from the mid 1990s. Subsequent linguistic research from 1999 -
2005 by Martin Diprose added to the word list. Since then, those working under
the auspices of SIL International, including Businge Makolome Robert, Isaac
Bitamale, Angalia Mukondo, Seremos Rwahwire, Daniel Wairindi, and Jotham
Mugasa have added and updated many other words.
We are very much aware of the limitations of this first edition and welcome
feedback and corrections. It is our intention to continue working on this
dictionary—especially to make corrections where needed. In addition it is planned
to make the dictionary available in electronic format on a website. This website
will contain the complete dictionary, with alphabetic and semantic meaning based
search facilities.
Our hope and prayer is that this dictionary will be an important step toward longterm
Lugungu language and culture preservation which should go hand in hand
with development in the region.
Businge Makolome Robert and Martin Diprose
SIL International
PO Box 750
Entebbe
UGANDA
September 2012
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