Languages
Sierra Leone speaks more than a dozen languages. Here is where to find their dictionaries: free online, on loan from a library, or to buy. The books belong to their makers, so we point to them rather than keeping copies here.
Across the whole country: the language most Sierra Leoneans share, whatever they speak at home.
A Krio–English Dictionary
Clifford N. Fyle & Eldred D. Jones
1980
The standard Krio dictionary, some 30,000 words with their meanings and uses. Out of print: the Internet Archive lends a scanned copy, and used copies turn up.
Borrow ↗Krio Dictionary
Peter C. Andersen, Sierra Leone Web
Online, letter by letter. The quickest way to look a word up.
Open ↗Krio–English / English–Krio Dictionary & Phrasebook
Hippocrene Books
A small paperback: over 4,000 words both ways, everyday phrases, a short grammar and some proverbs.
Buy ↗Krio on Wiktionary
Wiktionary's volunteers
A few dozen words so far, and anyone can add more.
Open ↗A Mende–English Dictionary
Gordon Innes
1969
The standard Mende dictionary, from Cambridge University Press. The Internet Archive lends a scanned copy.
Borrow ↗Vocabulary of the Mende Language
James Frederick Schön
1884
A missionary's word list. Useful for older words; the spelling is not today's.
Read ↗The Mende Language
F. W. H. Migeod
1908
Phrases, a short grammar and word lists, written by a colonial officer.
Read ↗An English–Temne Dictionary
Christian Frederick Schlenker
1880
English to Temne, printed for the Church Missionary Society. The oldest large Temne word list; the spelling has changed since.
Read ↗Temne Traditions, Fables and Proverbs
Christian Frederick Schlenker
1861
Not a dictionary, but stories and proverbs in Temne with English beside them.
Read ↗A Limba–English Dictionary
Mary Lane Clarke
1922
Reprinted in 1971; the original and the reprint both turn up secondhand.
Read ↗Word lists that cover several of Sierra Leone's languages side by side.
Polyglotta Africana
Sigismund Koelle
1854
About 280 words in more than a hundred African languages, many of Sierra Leone's among them, written down in Freetown from people freed from slave ships. Now searchable online.
Open ↗Sierra Leone Heritage glossary
SierraLeoneHeritage.org
Short entries on peoples, languages, societies and customs.
Open ↗Languages of Sierra Leone on Wiktionary
Wiktionary's volunteers
Whatever words volunteers have added, language by language.
Open ↗Still looking
Know of one, or does your family keep a word list, an old school primer or a Bible in one of these? Tell us.
Tell us about one →The old books are out of copyright and free to read. Their spelling is older than today's, and some of their wording reflects the colonial times they were written in. Library loans need a free Internet Archive account, and some copies are lent only to readers with print disabilities.