Insects

Finished a big batch of insects beginning with gōng/kawng-, mostly crop pests. The Burmese descriptions are a little ropy, but that's all I can do...

Progress check

I did a check to see how many words in the dictionary are basically ready for print. It takes the computer about 15 or 20 minutes to return the results of such a search so I don't do it very often. Anyway, I've just passed the 10,000-word mark (out of roughly 12,000 words). So I'm about 5/6 of the way there...

This is good news, notwithstanding the fact that as the pool of remaining words dries up it will contain a higher density of ugly fish which I've avoided catching: those problem words which need completely revising, or which require substantial looking up...

Anyway: 2,000 to go.

Lovemaking in Wa

Nice saying for today to describe lovemaking: "Taix caong lai: kai:, ngai: baoh lai: klieb." - The hands and feet are intertwined, the faces are pressed close.

KL finished - more of K...

I finally finished KL this morning - there were some tricky words, and a good number of birds that I just had to flag up in preparation for the Burma trip later this month - and I hope that U Myint Shwe and I will be able to sort them out. I may be pinning my hopes on him too much, but at least I'll have tried even if we can't work out Burmese translations for all the birds and animals and so-on that are missing.

Anyway, I've checked and there are 1681 words beginning with K so it's no wonder it's taken me months to wade through them. There are probably less than 150 left so I should polish off K for good (except for flagged words) fairly soon.

Favourite finding in the dictionary today - a curse:
"Kieh siyawng teei nawh ka: sawm: ngawb." - May a dragon eat him before breakfast!

KR ongoing

I've been working on K for months it seems. Today I shall probably finish off KR- - mostly tubers, and odd words but nothing too taxing.

This blog is a way to chart what I hope will be the final months of the Wa Dictionary Project, first conceived in 2001 or so, started properly in 2003 and now awaiting completion.

I have a sabbtical until April 2009 to finish it off, and work on other projects, so I'll document my progress here. We'll see how it goes.