A dictionary forty years in the making goes to the printer
Nine thousand entries, four dialects, and a decision about orthography that took a decade on its own.
By the newsroom
21 August 2026
1 min
The first cards were written in 1986 on the back of band office stationery. The last entry was checked in March.
The orthography argument is the part outsiders find hardest to follow and speakers find easiest: a writing system is a decision about who the written language is for. The committee chose the one the schools can teach.
Two thousand copies. The first four hundred go to households in the community before a single one goes anywhere else.
Corrections and clarifications: tell us what we got wrong.