Mbay Texts

This collection of Mbay texts was gathered during the periods 1977-1979 and 1988-1990 as part of the research for the Dictionary of Mbay and A Reference Grammar of Mbay by the same author. The collection contains approximately 30 texts of various types. It includes a selection of typical Mbay tales and riddles, a few recipes for typical foods (e.g. 'boule' and 'long sauce'), descriptions of games (e.g. 'jacks' and 'warriors'), several 'how to' descriptions of typical Mbay activities (e.g. 'how to make a mud house' and 'how to make soap'), and a few descriptions of cultural phenomena (e.g. 'lion-men' and 'returned spirits').

The texts are written with the same transcription used in the Dictionary of Mbay, and there is a morpheme-by-morpheme translation of each line followed by a more colloquial translation.