A vocabulary with a short grammar of Xilenge, by bishop Smyth and J. Matthews

Published in 1902 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, this volume was compiled by William Edmund Smyth, the first Bishop of Lebombo, in collaboration with John Matthews. It was created to support missionary work in the region of Mozambique where the Xilenge language, a dialect of the Chopi language, was spoken. The work was intended as a practical linguistic tool for clergy and administrators working within the Anglican diocese to facilitate communication and liturgical translation.

The text reflects the late nineteenth-century tradition of missionary linguistics, focusing on codifying indigenous languages to translate religious texts. Designed as a structured reference, it provides a phonetic vocabulary and a foundational grammar outline to assist speakers of English in navigating the morphology of Xilenge. At the time of its release, it was a specialized academic and ecclesiastical resource, valued primarily for its role in the systematic documentation of Southern African Bantu languages during the colonial era.