In August, a team led by Bob Lunt completed and published a Wichí–Spanish language dictionary to complement the Wichí Bible translation, which was first published in 2002.
The Wichí language, spoken by up to 50,000 people in parts of Argentina and Bolivia, is the most common language of the Mataco-Mataguayan language family.
Work on the dictionary began in 1977. Following the completion of the Wichí Bible translation project, Bob Lunt was able to devote more time to producing the dictionary and it has now been published by Sociedad Bíblica Argentina (Argentine Bible Society), who also published the Wichí Bible.
Initial reports have indicated that the dictionary has been more popular among Argentines than anticipated. The work will help standardise the Wichí alphabet, which was agreed upon by a representative group of Wichí in 1998, and will facilitate communication between Wichí and others.
