Venda Afrikaans English Improved Trilingual Dictionary: Venda Afrikaans Engels Verbeterde Drietalige Woordeboek

This improved edition of the Trilingual Elementary Dictionary: VENDA · AFRIKAANS · ENGLISH, University of South Africa 1976 is not yet the more comprehensive edition that was envisaged
in the 'Foreword' of the above work.

The original edition of the Trilingual Dictionary was the result of the need to provide those
students who follow the Special Course in Venda with a practical word list. After publication it was
found, however, that the interest in and need for such a work was much wider than anticipated and
that the basic need pointed towards a small practical dictionary.

In the field of dictionaries for a language like Venda there are at least the following needs:
1. A practical bi- or trilingual elementary dictionary.
2. A comprehensive bi- or trilingual dictionary which inter alia also includes idiomatic use and tone
of words.
3. A reference dictionary like Van Warmelo's Tshivenfia-English Dictionary (1937) of which a
thoroughly revised edition is envisaged for the near future.

The compilers therefore decided to start with step one by producing this improved dictionary which
to a large extent - also as far as content is concerned - will differ from the elementary work which
was its forerunner. The number of entries were doubled in the revised edition but at the same time
examples of use were limited to only the few instances which were found to be indispensable. Tone is
no longer indicated, which does not imply, however, that the compilers regard it of lesser significance. Tone is considered to belong to a work like the one mentioned in 2 above. It is therefore also
the intention to start with this second phase as soon as possible.

It is taken for granted that those who want to make use of the book, have at least an elementary
knowledge of the grammatical and sound systems of Venda and therefore further information on
these aspects will not be supplied here.

In compiling this dictionary use was made of several existing dictionaries and word lists of which
the following two need special mentioning:
(a) The dictionary of Van Warmelo as mentioned in point 3 above.
(b) The Venda terminology and orthography no. 3 (1972) as compiled and published by the
Department of Education and Training.

This dictionary was popular - since its first edition in 1982, it was revised and reprinted in the following years: 1990, 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2009.