Luganda language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since February 2006. (help, talk)
Luganda
Ganda
Spoken in: Uganda 
Region: Mainly Buganda region
Total speakers: First language: 3.01 million (1991)

Second language: 100,000 (1991)
Language family: Niger-Congo
 Atlantic-Congo
  Volta-Congo
   Benue-Congo
    Bantoid
     Southern
      Narrow Bantu
       Central
        J
         Nyoro-Ganda
          Luganda
Language codes
ISO 639-1: lg
ISO 639-2: lug
ISO/FDIS 639-3: lug
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Luganda, also known as Ganda, is a Bantu language. It is spoken mainly in the Buganda region of Uganda by a population of over three million people. With 100,000 second language speakers, it is the most widely spoken second language in Uganda next to English. The language is used in some primary schools in Buganda as pupils begin to learn English, the official language of Uganda.

Contents

[edit] History and development

Luganda, the native language of the people of Buganda, developed over the centuries as a spoken language. Its written form is only as recent as the arrival of the Arab and European influence among the Baganda. It is not easy, and of course it is not within the scope of this discussion, to trace its origins, but it is proper to assume that in a dynamic society with such well structured cultural, social, and political institutions like those of the Baganda, the language must have experienced a reciprocal influence during most of the changes the society went through over the course of its history. It was not however, until after the second half of the nineteenth century that Luganda was first written down and appeared in print in its own right. The following discussion is neither meant to be a grammar nor a dictionary of the language; the focus is solely on how the language is written (i.e. transcribing sound into alphabetic characters). The first writing clearly was a pilot venture, an improvisation by the early missionaries, who tried to put the language in a written form to make their work among the Baganda easier. The creation of written Luganda words mainly depended on the interpretation and impression that these foreign listeners had of the Luganda word sounds. It was not surprising that Speke spelled Kyabaggu {Chabagu}. Looking at the earlier prints by various writers such as Speke, Stanley and others would confirm the suspicion that each wrote according to the interpretation that he perceived. It was therefore necessary to undertake a serious study of the sounds in the Luganda language in order to formulate a proper phonetic system that would help in transferring the sound of words into proper alphabetical symbols that would be meaningful in written form.

The first writers, however, found this very difficult, as many of them were not linguists and the Luganda language had little linguistic similarity with their mother tongues. It became an academic adventure for them as they tried to correlate the linguistic features of their native languages with the sounds they were simply detecting in the Luganda words. These efforts were necessary because the task of imparting the Christian norms and social standards of their home base to the Baganda demanded a system of communication in a medium that was natural and easily understandable in Buganda. A system of writing in the vernacular was therefore developed and for the first time, the Luganda word sounds were represented in alphabetical symbols.

[edit] Phonology

A notable feature of Luganda phonology is its geminate consonants and distinctions between long and short vowels. Baganda generally consider consonantal gemination and vowel lengthening to be two manifestations of the same effect, which they call simply "doubling" or "stressing".

[edit] Vowels

Vowels Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open a

All five vowels have two forms: long and short. The distinction is phonemic but can occur only in certain positions. After two consonants, the latter being a semivowel, and before two consonants, the former being a nasal, all vowels are long. Before a geminate, all vowels are short. The quality of a vowel is not affected by its length.

[edit] Consonants

The table below gives the consonant set of Luganda, grouping voiceless and voiced consonants together in a cell where appropriate, in that order.

bilabial labiodental alveolar postalveolar palatal velar
plosive p, b t, d k, g
nasal m n ɲ ŋ
trill r 1
fricative f, v s, z
affricate ʧ, ʤ
approximant w j
lateral l 1 ʎ 2
  1. The liquids [r] and [l] are actually allophones but since the distinction is reflected in the orthography and is generally recognised by native speakers, they are shown here as separate phonemes.
  2. The palatal lateral [ʎ] is an allophone of [lj].

Apart from [j], [r]/[l] and [ʎ], all these consonants can be geminated, even at the start of a word: bbiri /bb'iri/ (two), kitto /ʧ'itto/ (cold). The affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ] are realised as [tʧ] and [dʤ] respectively when geminated: kinakkinaye /ʧin'atʧinaye/ (to hurry), jjenje /dʤ'eːnʤe/ (cricket). The semivowel [w] is geminated as ggw: eggwanga /eggw'aːŋga/ (country) from wanga /w'aːŋga/.

The nasals [m], [n], [ɲ] and [ŋ] can behave as vowels at the start of a word: nkima /n̩ʧ'ima/ (monkey), mpa m̩p'a (I give), nnyinyonnyola /ɲ̩ɲiɲ'oɲɲola/ (I explain). Therefore it could be said that these consonants are never geminated at the start of a word.

[edit] Phonotactics

Syllables can take any of the following forms:

  • V (only as the first syllable of a word)
  • CV
  • GV
  • NCV
  • CSV
  • GSV
  • NCSV

where V = vowel, C = single consonant (including nasals and semivowels but excluding geminates), G = geminate consonant, N = nasal consonant, S = semivowel

These forms are subject to certain phonotactic restrictions:

  • Two vowels may not appear adjacent to one another. When morphological or grammatical rules cause two vowels to meet, the first vowel is elided or reduced to a semivowel and the second is lengthened if possible.
  • A vowel following a consonant–semivowel combination (except [ggw]) is always long. After [ggw] a vowel can be either long or short.
  • A vowel followed by a nasal consonant–non-nasal consonant combination is always long.
  • A vowel followed by a geminate is always short. This rule takes precedence over all the above rules.
  • The velar plosives [k] and [g] may not appear before the vowel [i] or the semivowel [j]. In this position they become the corresponding postalveolar affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ] respectively.

The net effect of this is that all Luganda words follow the general pattern of alternating consonant clusters and vowels, beginning with either but always ending in a vowel:

  • (V)XVXV...XV

where V = vowel, X = consonant cluster, (V) = optional vowel

[edit] Orthography

Luganda spelling, which has been standardised since 1947, uses the Roman alphabet augmented with one new letter ŋ and a digraph ny which is treated as a single letter. It has a very high sound-to-letter correspondence: one letter usually represents one sound and vice-versa.

The distinction between simple and geminate consonants is always represented explicitly: simple consonants are written single; geminates are written double. The distinction between long and short vowels is always made clear from the spelling, but not always explicitly: short vowels are always written single; long vowels are only written double when their length cannot be inferred from the context. Stress and tones are not represented in the spelling.

The following phonemes are always represented with the same letter or combination of letters:

  • Short vowels (always spelt a, e, i, o, u)
  • All consonants apart from [l], [r], [ʧ] and [ʤ]
  • The postalveolar affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ], when followed by a short vowel (always spelt c, j), except when the short vowel is itself followel by a geminate consonant

The following phonemes can be represented with two letters or combinations of letters, with the alternation predictable from the context:

  • Long vowels (spelt a, e, i, o, u where short vowels are impossible; aa, ee, ii, oo, uu elsewhere)
  • The liquids [l] and [r] (both spelt r after e or i; l elsewhere)

The following phonemes can be represented with two letters or combinations of letters, with unpredictable alternation between the two:

  • The postalveolar affricates [ʧ] and [ʤ], when followed by a long vowel, or a short vowel and a geminate consonant (can be spelt either with c, j or with ky, gy)

It is therefore possible to predict the pronunciation of any word (with the exception of stress and tones) from the spelling. It's also usually possible to predict the spelling of a word from the pronunciation. The only words where this is not possible are those that include one of the affricate–vowel combinations discussed above.

[edit] Vowels

The five vowels in Luganda are spelt with the same letters as in many other languages (for example Spanish):

  • a [a]
  • e [e]
  • i [i]
  • o [o]
  • u [u]

As mentioned above, the distinction between long and short vowels is phonemic and is therefore represented in the orthography. Long vowels are written as double (when length cannot be inferred from the context) and short vowels are written single. For example:

  • bana /bana/ 'four (e.g. people)' vs baana /baːna/ 'children'
  • sera /sela/ 'dance' vs seera /seːla/ 'overcharge'
  • sira /sila/ 'mingle' vs siira /siːla/ 'walk slowly'
  • kola /kola/ 'do' vs koola /koːla/ '(to) weed'
  • tuma /tuma/ 'send' vs tuuma /tuːma/ '(to) name'

In certain contexts, phonotactic constraints mean that a vowel must be long, and in these cases it is not written double:

  • A vowel followed by a nasal consonant–non-nasal consonant combination
  • A vowel that comes after a consonant–semivowel combination (apart from ggw which can be thought of as a geminated w)

For example:

  • ekyuma /eʧ'uːma/ 'metal'
  • ŋŋenda /ŋ̩ŋ'eːnda/ 'I go'

But

  • eggwolezo /eggw'olezo/ 'court house'
  • eggwoolezo /eggw'oːlezo/ 'customs office'

Vowels at the start or end of the word are not written double, even if they are long. The only exception to this (apart from all-vowel interjections such as eee and uu) is yee 'yes'.

[edit] Consonants

With the exception of ny [ɲ], each consonant sound in Luganda corresponds to a single letter. The ny combination is treated as a single letter and therefore doesn't have any effect on vowel length (see the previous subsection).

The following letters are pronounced as in most languages (for example English):

  • b [b]
  • d [d]
  • f [f]
  • j [ʤ]
  • l [l]
  • m [m]
  • n [n]
  • p [p]
  • s [s]
  • t [t]
  • v [v]
  • w [w]
  • y [j]
  • z [z]

A few letters have unusual values:

  • c [ʧ]
  • ny [ɲ]
  • ŋ [ŋ]

The letters l and r represent the same sound in Luganda—[l]—but the orthography requires r after e or i, and l elsewhere:

  • alinda /al'iːnda/ 'she's waiting'
  • akirinda /aʧil'iːnda/ 'she's waiting for it'

There are also two letters whose pronunciation depends on the following letter:

  • k is pronounced [ʧ] before i or y, [k] elsewhere
  • g is pronounced [ʤ] before i or y, [g] elsewhere

Compare this to the pronunciation of c and g in many Romance languages. As in the Romance languages the 'softening letter' (in Italian i; in French e; in Luganda y) is not pronounced itself, although in Luganda it does have the effect of lengthening the following vowel (see the previous subsection). Unlike the Romance languages, however, Luganda orthography has no way of forcing k or g to take on their 'hard' sounds, equivalent to the use of h in Italian or the substitution of qu and gu for c and g in French. This is not needed because the sound combinations [ki], [gi] etc. don't occur in Luganda. See also the previous section on phonotactics.

Finally the sounds [ɲ] and [ŋ] are spelt n before another consonant with the same place of articulation (in other words, before other palatals and velars respectively) rather than ny and ŋ:

  • The combinations [ɲ̩ɲ] and [ɲɲ] are spelt nny
  • The combination [ɲj] is spelt nÿ (the diaeresis shows that the y is a separate letter rather than part of the ny digraph, and the [ɲ] is spelt n before y as in the above rule; in practice this combination is very rare)
  • [ŋ] is spelt n before k or g (but not before another ŋ)

[edit] Alphabet

The Luganda alphabet is composed of twenty-four letters:

18 consonants: b, p, v, f, m, d, t, l, r, n, z, s, j, c, g, k, ŋ, ny; 5 vowels: a, e, i, o, u; 2 semi-vowels: w, y. Since the last consonant ŋ does not appear on standard typewriters or computer keyboards, it is often replaced by the combination ng' - including the apostrophe! (Note that in some non-standard authographies, the apostrophe is not used, which can lead to confusion with the distinct and different sound arising from the letter combination ng). In addition, the letter combination ny is treated as a unique consonant.

Other letters (h, q, x) are not used.

[edit] Grammar

Like the grammars of most Bantu languages, Luganda grammar can be said to be noun-centric in the sense that most words in a sentence agree with a noun. Agreement is by gender and number, and is indicated with prefixes and infixes attached to the start of word stems. The following parts of speech agree with nouns in class and number:

[edit] Noun classes

NB: In the study of Bantu languages the term noun class is often used to refer to what we call gender in comparative linguistics and in the study of certain other languages, and in this article we shall use both terms.

There is some disagreement as to how to count Luganda's noun classes. Some authorities count singular and plural forms as two separate classes while others treat the singular–plural distinction as being separate from class. By the former method there are 19 classes while by the latter there are 10, because one class doesn't have a singular–plural distinction.

The latter method is consistent with the study of non-Bantu languages: we recognise, for example, that German has three genders—masculine, feminine and neuter—and two numbers—singular and plural. To ignore the grammatical and semantic relationship between 'masculine singular' and 'masculine plural' (for example Mann 'man' and Männer 'men') and treat them as two genders out of a total of six would be perverse; so here we shall regard number as being distinct from gender, giving ten noun classes, nine of which have separate singular and plural forms.

As is the case with most languages, the distribution of nouns among the classes is essentially arbitrary, but there are some loose patterns:

  • Class I contains mainly people, although some inanimate nouns can be found in this class: musajja 'man', kaawa 'coffee'
  • Class II contains all sorts of nouns but most of the concrete nouns in Class II are long or cylindrical. Most trees fall into this class: muti 'tree'
  • Class III also contains many different types of concepts but most animals fall into this class: mbwa 'dog'
  • Class IV contains inanimate objects and is the class used for the impersonal 'it': ekitabo 'book'
  • Class V contains mainly (but not exclusively) large things and liquids, and can also be used to create augmentatives: ebbeere 'breast', lintu 'giant' (from muntu 'person')
  • Class VI contains mainly small things and can be used to create diminutives, adjectival abstract nouns and (in the plural) negative verbal nouns and countries: kabwa 'puppy' (from mbwa 'dog'), kanafu 'laziness' (from munafu 'lazy'), bukola 'inaction, not to do' (from kukola 'to do, act'), Bungereeza 'Britain, England' (from Mungereza 'British, English person')
  • Class VII contains many different things including the names of most languages: Oluganda 'Luganda', Oluzungu 'English language' (from muzungu 'European, white person)
  • Class VIII is rarely used but can be used to create pejorative forms: gubwa 'mutt' (from mbwa 'dog')
  • Class IX is mainly used for infinitives or affirmative verbal nouns: kukola 'action, to do' (from the verb kola 'do, act')
  • Class X, which has no singular–plural distinction, is used for mass nouns, usually in the sense of 'a drop' or 'precious little': tuzzi 'drop of water' (from mazzi 'water'), tubaka 'sleep'

The class that a noun belongs to can usually be determined by its prefix:

  • Class I: singular (o)mu-, plural (a)ba-
  • Class II: singular (o)mu-, plural (e)mi-
  • Class III: singular (e)n-, plural (e)n-
  • Class IV: singular (e)ki-, plural (e)bi-
  • Class V: singular li-, eri-, plural (a)ma-
  • Class VI: singular (a)ka-, plural (o)bu-
  • Class VII: singular (o)lu-, plural (e)n-
  • Class VIII: singular (o)gu-, plural (a)ga-
  • Class IX: singular (o)ku-, plural (a)ma-
  • Class X: (o)tu-

Note that there are a few only cases where prefixes overlap: the singulars of Classes I and II (both beginning with mu-); the singular of Class III and plurals of Classes III and VII (all beginning with n-); and the plurals of Classes V and IX (both ma-). Genuine ambiguity, however, is rare, since even where the noun prefixes are the same, the other prefixes are often different. For example there can be no confusion between omuntu (Class I) 'person' and omuntu (Class II) 'seat' in the sentences Omuntu ali wano 'The person is here' and Omuntu guli wano 'The seat is here' because the verb prefixes a- (Class I) and gu- (Class II) are different, even if the noun prefixes are the same. The same is true with the singular and plural of Class III: Embwa talywa 'The dog is eating' vs Embwa zilywa 'The dogs are eating' (compare English The sheep is eating vs The sheep are eating where the noun is invariant but the verb distinguishes singular from plural).

There are also some nouns that have no prefix. Their genders must simply be learnt by rote but such nouns are in fact quite rare:

  • Class I: ssebo 'gentleman, sir', nnyabo 'madam', Katonda 'God', kabaka 'king', kyayi 'tea', kaawa 'coffee'
  • Class III: kapa 'cat'

[edit] Agreement with noun classes

Adjectives, verbs, certain adverbs, the possessive and a few special forms of conjunctions are inflected to agree with nouns in Luganda.

[edit] Adjectives

As in most Indo-European languages, adjective must agree in gender and number with the nouns they qualify. For example:

  • omuwala omulungi 'beautiful girl' (Class I, singular)
  • abawala abalungi 'beautiful girls' (Class I, plural)
  • emmotoka erirungi 'beautiful/good car' (Class V, singular)
  • amamotoka amalungi 'beautiful/good cars' (Class V, plural)

The adjective -lungi changes its prefix according to the gender (Class I or II) and number (singular or plural) or the noun it's qualifying (compare Italian bella ragazza, belle ragazze, bel ragazzo, bei ragazzi).

[edit] Verbs

As in many Afro-Asiatic languages, every verb must also agree with its subject in gender and number (as opposed to number only as in Indo-European languages). For example:

  • omusajja anywa 'the man is drinking' (Class I, singular)
  • abasajja banywa 'the men are drinking' (Class I, plural)
  • embuzi enywa 'the goat is drinking' (Class III, singular)
  • embuzi zinywa 'the goats are drinking' (Class III, plural)
  • akaana kanywa 'the baby/infant is drinking' (Class VI, singular)
  • obwana bunywa 'the babies/infants are drinking' (Class VI, plural)

Here, the verb nywa changes its prefix to according to the gender and number of its subject (compare Arabic ar-rajul yashrib 'the man drinks', ar-rijaal yashribou 'the men drink', al-mara'ah tashrib 'the woman drinks', an-nisaa' yashribna 'the women drink').

Note, in the second and third examples, how the verb agrees with the number of the noun even when the noun doesn't explicitly reflect the number distinction.

[edit] Adverbs

True adverbs in the grammatical sense are far rarer in Luganda than in, say, English, being mostly translated by other parts of speech—for example adjectives or particles. When the adverb is qualifying a verb, it's usually translated by an adjective, which then agrees with the subject of the verb. For example:

  • Ankonjera mubba 'She slanders me badly'
  • Bankonjera babba 'They slander me badly'

Here, 'badly' is translated with the adjective -bba 'bad, ugly', which is declined to agree with the subject—changing its prefix to mu- when the subject is singular or ba when it's plural.

Other concepts can be translated by invariant particles. for example the intensifying particle nnyo is attached to an adjective or verb to mean 'very', 'a lot'. For example: Lukwago anywa nnyo 'Lukwago drinks a lot'.

There are also two groups of true adverb in Luganda, both of which agree with the verbal subject or qualified noun (not just in gender and number but also in person), but which are inflected differently. The first group is conjugated in the same way as verbs and contains only a few words: tya 'how', ti 'like this', tyo 'like that':

  • Njogera nti 'I speak like this'
  • Abasiraamu basaba bati 'Muslims pray like this'
  • Enkima elya bweti 'The monkey eats like this'
  • Enkima zilywa ziti 'Monkeys eat like this'

The adverb ti 'like this' (the last word in each of the above sentences) is conjugated as a verb to agree with the subject of the sentence in gender, number and person.

The second group takes a different set of prefixes, based on the pronouns. Adverbs in this group inclusde -nna 'all', -kka 'only', -mbi, -mbiriri 'both' and -nsatule 'all three':

  • Nkuba nzekka 'I work alone'
  • Okuba ggwekka 'You work alone'
  • Nkigula emmotoka nzekka 'Only I will buy the car'
  • Nkigula emmotoka lyokka 'I will only buy the car'

Note how, in the last two examples, the adverb -kka agrees with whichever antecedent it's qualifying—either the implicit nze 'I' or the explicit emmotoka 'the car'.

[edit] Possessive

The possessive in Luganda is indicated with a different particle for each singular and plural noun class (according to the possessed noun). An alternative way of thinking about the Luganda possessive is as a single word whose initial consonant cluster is altered to agree with the possessed noun in class and number.

Depending on the possessed noun, the possessive takes one of the following forms:

  • Singular wa, plural ba (Class I)
  • Singular gwa, plural gya (Class II)
  • Singular ta, plural za (Class III)
  • Singular kya, plural bya (Class IV)
  • Singular lya, plural ga (Class V)
  • Singular ka, plural bwa (Class VI)
  • Singular lwa, plural za (Class VII)
  • Singular gwa, plural ga (Class VIII)
  • Singular kwa, plural ga (Class IX)
  • Twa (Class X)

If the possessor is a personal pronoun, the separate possessive form is not used. Instead, the following personal possessives are used:

  • Wange 'my', wo 'your (singular possessor)', we 'his, her'; waffe 'our', wammwe 'your (plural possessor)', waabwe 'their' (Class I, singular possessed noun)
  • Bange 'my', bo 'your (singular possessor)', be 'his, her'; baffe 'our', bammwe 'your (plural possessor)', baabwe 'their' (Class I, plural possessed noun)
  • Gwange 'my', gwo 'your (singular possessor)', gwe 'his, her'; gwaffe 'our', gwammwe 'your (plural possessor)', gwabwe 'their' (Class II, singular possessed noun)
  • Gyange 'my', gyo 'your (singular possessor)', gye 'his, her'; gyaffe 'our', gyammwe 'your (plural possessor)' gyabwe 'their' (Class II, plural possessed noun)
  • Tange 'my', etc. (Class III, singular possessed noun)
  • Etc.

Compare these to the French possessive adjectives:

  • Mon 'my', ton 'your (singular possessor)', son 'his, her, its'; notre 'our', votre 'your (plural possessor', leur 'their' (Masculine singular possessed noun)
  • Ma 'my', ta 'your (singular possessor)', sa 'his, her, its'; notre 'our', votre 'your (plural possessor)', leur 'their' (Masculine singular possessed noun)
  • Mes 'my', tes 'your (singular possessor)', ses 'his, her, its'; nos 'our', vos 'your (plural possessor)', leurs 'their' (Plural possessed noun)

There are also a few nouns that take special forms when used with a possessive:

  • Kitange 'my father', kitaawo 'your (singular) father', kitaawe 'his/her father'

[edit] References

  • Ashton, Ethel O., and others (1954) A Luganda Grammar, London: Longmans, Green.
  • Snoxal, R.A. (1967) Luganda-English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, Oxford
  • Katamba, Francis (1993) A new approach to tone in Luganda, in Language. 69. 1. pp.33-67

[edit] External links

Wikipedia
Luganda language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/u/g/Luganda_language.html"