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Many words in the language are not listed as the headword of an entry. In general only the simplest and most basic form of a group of grammatically related words has been chosen to serve as the headword of the entry that covers them all. The more complex words that are formed by adding affixes or by reduplication are shown in the grammatical key of the entry, and some are exemplified in the sentences given. For example, the following words are all included in the entry that has the headwordttā:

The numbers preceding the examples are those that appear in the grammatical key of the entry to refer to the various forms.

The changes in form that will give a dictionary user the most trouble are those that occur at the front end of a word. These are of three main types: (a) the addition of a prefix to the headword, (b) a double consonant at the beginning of the headword, and (c) words that begin inw ory. The first two types are illustrated above: the (2) forms ofttāinvolve subject pronoun prefixes such ase-andrō-,and the (3) forms involve the causative prefix, which has the formkō-with this word. And since the headwordttābegins with the double consonanttt,there are different W and E forms for (1), (6), and (11).
 

7.1. The Causative Prefix ka-,kā-, ke-,kō-, ko-.

If a word that cannot be found in the dictionary begins with akand one of the above vowel sounds, there is a good possibility that thekand the vowel are a prefix which has been added to the basic form of the word, which follows. This prefix often has the meaning 'to cause to' or 'to cause to be', and is thus called "the causative prefix":

Since many words like those in the second column are not listed as headwords in the dictionary, they must be found by looking for the word without the prefix, the form in the first column. An entry with a headword like one of those in the first column will have grammatical Code 3 if it can form a word together with the causative prefix, and the 3 will be followed by any special information about the causative form, if there is more than one form, or if it is irregular in some way. Quite often the entry will also contain an example sentence illustrating a use of the causative form.

Some causative forms double the first consonant of the headword. For example, there are two causative forms fordeḷọñ'enter':

7.2. Other prefixes.

Another common prefix has the shaperi-, rū-,orru-as inrieọñōd'fisherman',rūkaki'teacher', andruwa'sailor', and is used to form these and other (MRG page 139). Only a few of the most common such nouns are listed as headwords, and the number 4 in the Grammatical Key labels other words that can have this prefix added to form person nouns. Thus if a person noun cannot be found under the letterrincluding the prefix, it can probably be found by looking for the remainder of the word, without the prefix. Since a number of person nouns have their first consonant doubled when this prefix is added, it may be necessary to look under the single consonant. For example,rūttariṇae'soldier' will be found undertariṇae,not underttariṇae.

The other derivational prefixes of the language do not form as many different words as do the causative and person prefixes, and the authors have attempted to include all words containing these prefixes as headwords to their own entries. Such prefixes include the negative prefixja-(orjplus another vowel) (MRG page 161) as injowan'lazy', the instrumental (MRG page 169)le-as inleinjin'use an engine', and the possessed (MRG page 255)ṇa- as inṇakijen'to feed'.
 

7.3. Double Consonant Words.

There are many words that begin withiorefollowed by a double consonant in the pronunciation of the Rālik dialect, such asillu'angry' oreṃṃan'good', for example. In the pronunciation of the Ratak dialect, these same words do not begin withiore,but have the identical consonants separated by a vowel:lilu, ṃōṃan Instead of listing each of these words at two different places in the dictionary, underiorefor the Rālik pronunciation, and under the consonant that appears twice for the Ratak pronunciation, they have been listed only once under the that appears twice, but in a form that is not exactly like either pronunciation. The form used as the headword contains the letters that are common to both the Rālik and Ratak pronunciations, but omits the vowels that are different. Thuseṃṃanandṃōṃancan both be found underṃṃan,andilluandliluunderllu,just as in the example above the entry forettāandtōtāwas headed byttā.This same dialect-neutral form is also used in example sentences so that readers of either dialect can give the word their customary pronunciation.

There is an additional complication for some Rālik users of the dictionary concerning words that begin with double consonants, as for example the words which are pronounced and writtenkukure'play' andkokwaḷ'sennit' in the Ratak dialect. Some Rālik speakers spell the first wordikkure and others spell itiukkure,inserting an extra u before the k's to show how the vowel changes its sound before these rounded consonants. Similarly, for the second word, some Rālik speakers spell itekkwaḷand others spell iteokkwaḷ,inserting ano.Rālik speakers attempting to look up such words must ignore not only theioreat the beginning, but theu orothat follows as well. Thus these two words are listed underkkureandkkwaḷ.However, the Rālik dialectal spellings that follow such headwords contain the extrau's ando's as they were put there by the computer following the spelling conversion rules.

The most common pattern for forming distributive verbs (MRG page 162) involves the doubling of the first consonant and reduplicating the final syllable of a word. Most such distributives are not given as headwords, but are listed under the form without consonant doubling or reduplication. Thus a word such askkijdikdik (W:ikkijdikdik,E:kūkijdikdik)'teeming with rats' will be found together with the Grammatical Key Code 5 underkijdik.Thus it is a good general rule to look for any word with double consonants under the single consonant if it cannot be found under the double.
 

7.4. Words That Begin in w.

Many words that begin with thew phoneme and haveu, ū, o, ọ,orō as the first vowel have often been spelled in two different ways, with or without thew:

The tendency has been to write the w when the next consonant in the word is light, but to omit the w when the next consonant is heavy:

This is the pattern that has been followed for the headwords in this dictionary, although other common spellings and cross references are given for the common exceptions to the pattern. [Thew phoneme has generally been written before all the other vowels(i, e, ā, anda)regardless of the second consonant.] Thus, if a word beginning withw cannot be found underw, the reader should look undero, ọ,or u. If a word often spelled withooru at the beginning cannot be found under these vowel letters, the reader should look underwo-, wu-, orwū.
 

7.5. Words That Begin with y.

They phoneme at the beginning of words is generally not shown in writing before the vowelsi, e,orā. Beforeu andū it is written as ani,and beforeo, ọ, ō,andait is written as ane,as iniu'coconut apple',iūñ'yes',eo'the',eọr'carve',eō'me', andeakeak'skin ulcer'. When they phoneme is at the beginning of a word beforea(orā),there have been some differences in spelling practices, although the most common pattern has been to show they as anepreceding theawhen the next consonant is heavy (but not rounded), and to write theaas anāwhen the next consonant is light:

Two exceptions to this pattern are words in which the second consonant is r ort,as inār'lung' andāt'name', where even thoughr andtare heavy consonants, the light pattern of the second column is followed. There is also some tendency not to follow this pattern when the second consonant isk,(a heavy consonant), as inākil'to peel' andākūt'delouse'. The pattern is usually followed if thekis at the end of the word or followed by another consonant, butāis often written when a vowel follows. This is well illustrated by the spellings of the two pronunciations of the transitive verb meaning 'to unload something':eaktuwevs.ākūtwe.The best rule to follow in looking for words that begin inya is to look in both places: underā,and underea.(And although many such words have also been spelled with simplye[as inelikinvs.ālikin'after'], the reader should remember to look for them underāoreain this dictionary.)
 

7.6. Vowel Changes.

Finally, some problems in locating words may be caused by changes in vowel letters brought about by the use of new vowel letters such asọ and ū, or by the more regular use of letters such asāfor the sounds they stand for. The reader may be thinking of the causative prefix in its basic shape ofka-and not be thinking of how its vowel sound changes before a word such aswiin'to win' to form a word such askọwiinin'award'. Or the reader may not think of how its sound changes before the numberemān'four' to givekein kāāmān'the fourth'.

Such changes usually involve a move of one square to the right or left (or up or down) in the basic vowel chart of the language (MRG, top of page 39), and it may be well to keep this chart in mind as a means of remembering possible vowel changes.

The examples given above of the causative prefix show right-left change among the low vowels. The third person plural subject pronoun prefix of verbs, which varies betweenre-, rō-,andro-,is an example of right-leftchange among the mid vowels, as inreitok'they come',rōṃṃan'they are good', androkkut'they are close together'. The person prefix which varies betweenri-,rū,andru-as discussed in section 7.2 is an example of left-right change among high vowels.

Change between high and mid vowels is caused by several of the rules of the language discussed in MRG 2.5.3 beginning on page 78. Examples of different forms of the same word with changes caused by these rules arepet-piten'pillow',ōn-ūnen'nutrition', andob-ubōn'chest'. Change between mid and low vowels is caused by several other rules, especially the low-vowel dissimilation rule (MRG 2.5.5 on page 92), as shown by the following pairs:māj-mejān'eye',bar-bōran'head', andḷọñ-ḷọñan 'canoe roller'. Because of these many possible changes, it is well to try to find a word one is looking for with a neighboring vowel in the chart if it cannot be found containing the first expected one.