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Rina, A. Dj., Kabba, John Lado B. (2011) “dede”, in Kamus Bahasa Lamboya, Kabupaten Sumba Bakat [Dictionary of Lamboya Language, West Sumba Regency], Waikabubak: Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata, Kabupaten Sumba Bakat, page 14
1936, Melville J. Herskovits, Frances S. Herskovits, Suriname folk-lore, New York: Columbia University Press, page 424:
Bɔfru dɛ krei̯, Dia dɛ krei̯, Tamanwa 'ɛ krei̯. Nō mō ala den meti 'ɛ gowe wą' wą'. Nō mō Hagu drapɛ, 'ɛ bari, ‘Bia, bia, bia, / Mi yɛre suma dɛdɛ, / Ma karaki dɛ bro.’
[Bofru e krei, Dia e krei, Tamanwa e krei. Nomo ala den meti e gwe wanwan. Nomo Agu drape e bari, 'Bia, bia, bia / Mi yere suma dede / Ma karaki e bro.']
Buffalo was crying, Deer was crying, Anteater was crying. No sooner did all the animals go away one by one, than Hog called out, ‘Bia, bia, bia, / I hear a person died, / But his backside breathes.’
Alberto Rodriguez, Nalúa Rosa Silva Monterrey, Hernán Castellanos, et al., editors (2012), “dede”, in Ye’kwana-Sanema Nüchü’tammeküdü Medewadinña Tüwötö’se’totojo [Guidelines for the management of the Ye’kwana and Sanema territories in the Caura River basin in Venezuela] (overall work in Ye'kwana and Spanish), Forest Peoples Programme, →ISBN, page 126
de Civrieux, Marc (1980) “dede”, in David M. Guss, transl., Watunna: An Orinoco Creation Cycle, San Francisco: North Point Press, →ISBN
Guss, David M. (1989) To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 116, 117, 202–203: “dede”
Ọlọ́un á kẹ́ dede ẹni ― God will care for all of us(Ijebu)
Usage notes
This noun often looks and acts as a qualifier or determiner, and while usually before nouns, can occasionally come after. Some examples:
Dede olùkù mi fẹ́ràn ẹ̀bà jíjẹ. ― All of my friends love to eat eba.
Ìgbà dede ― All the time
However, it is not a traditional adjective as when it's combined with subject pronouns, it becomes ungrammatical and must be used with the possessive pronouns, showing that it's a noun in the spoken varieties of the Èdè-Yorùbá-Ìṣẹkírì continuum. An example:
Dede ẹni yún Èkó. ― All of us went to Lagos.
In the example above, the possessive pronoun, ẹni(“our”), instead of a(“we”), as Dede a yún Èkó would be ungrammatical.
