Dholuo language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Luo Dholuo |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Kenya, Tanzania | |
| Region: | East of Lake Victoria in Western Kenya and Northern Tanzania | |
| Total speakers: | 3 million | |
| Language family: | Nilo-Saharan Eastern Sudanic Western Nilotic Luo Southern Luo Luo-Acholi Luo |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | luo | |
| ISO 639-3: | luo | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Dholuo (also known as Luo; IPA with tone marks [d̪ólúô][1]) belongs to the Luo grouping within the Western Nilotic grouping of the Nilo-Saharan language family. It is spoken by the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, numbering about 3 million, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria and areas south of there. It is used for broadcasts on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the Voice of Kenya) and Radio Ramogi. Dholuo is closely related to Lango, Acholi and Dhopadhola of Uganda. It is not to be confused with the fellow Western Nilotic language Luwo (spoken in Sudan); in addition, both of the aforementioned languages Lango and Acholi have the alternative names Lwo or Lwoo[2].
Contents |
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Phonemes
Dholuo has two sets of five vowels, distinguished by the feature [+/-ATR].
| . | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | ɐ |
| . | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
In the table of consonants below, orthographic symbols are included between parentheses if they differ from the IPA symbols. Note especially the following: the use of ‘y’ for IPA [j], common in African orthographies; 'th, dh' are plosives, not fricatives as in Swahili spelling (but phoneme /d̪/ can fricativize intervocalically)[3]. When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
| . | labial | dental | alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stops | p b | t̪ (th) d̪ (dh) | t d | c (ch) ɟ (j) | k g | |
| fricatives | f | s | h | |||
| nasals | m | n | ɲ (ny) | ŋ (ng') | ||
| prenasalized stops |
mb | nd | ɲɟ (nj) | ŋg (ng) | ||
| trills | r | |||||
| approximants | w | l | j (y) |
[edit] Some phonological characteristics
Dholuo is a tone language. There is both lexical tone and grammatical tone, e.g., in the formation of passive verbs[4]. It has vowel harmony by ATR status: the vowels in a noncompound word must be either all [+ATR] or all [-ATR]. The ATR harmony requirement extends to the semivowels /w, y/[5]. Vowel length is contrastive.
[edit] Sample Phrases
- Hello, (how are you?)
- Nang'o
- I'm fine,
- Adhi Maber
- What is your name?,
- Nyingi Ng'a
- My name is ___ ,
- Nying'a en ____
- I am happy to see you,
- Amor Kaneni
- Good morning,
- oyawore
- Good afternoon,
- Oimore
- God Bless you,
- Nyasaye ogwedhi
- Good Job/work,
- Teach maber
- Goodbye,
- Oriti
- I want water,
- adwaro pii
- I am thirsty,
- riyo nega
- Thank you,
- erokamano
- Child,
- nyathi
- Student,
- nyathi skul
- Sit,
- bed
- Stand,Stop,
- chung'
- Hunger,
- kech
- I am starved,
- kech kaya
- Father,
- wuoro
- Mother,
- miyo
- God,
- Nyasaye
- God is Good,
- Nyasaye Ber
- To help,
- kony
- Man,
- dichuo
- Woman,
- dhako
- Boy,
- wuowi
- Girl,
- nyako
- Book,
- buk
- Youth,
- rawera
- Pen,
- kalam
- Short,
- siruaru
- Trousers,
- long'; siruach long'
- Table,
- mesa
- Plate,
- san
- lock,
- rarind
- Leader,
- jatelo,ruoth
- Bring,
- kel
- Go,
- dhi
- Go back,
- dog
- Come back,
- dwog
- Run,
- ring
- Walk,
- wuoth
- Jump,
- dum
- Rain,
- koth
- Sun,
- chieng'
- Moon,
- duwe
- Fish,
- rech
- I want to eat,
- adwaro chiemo
- Grandpa,
- kwaro
- Grandma,
- dayo
- White man,
- ja rachar; odiero
- black man,
- ja rateng'
- Car,
- nyamburko
- Cow,
- dhiang'
- sing,
- wer
- marriage,
- keny
- tomorrow,
- kiny
- today,
- kawuono
- child,
- nyathi
- money,
- omenda, chung', oboke, sendi, pesa
- gun,
- bunde
- I want Ugali
- Adwaro Kwon
- Maize/Corn
- Oduma; bando
- Maize and Beans
- Nyoyo
[edit] Bibliography
- Gregersen, Edgar (1961) Luo: A grammar. Dissertation: Yale University.
- Stafford, Roy L. (1965) An elementary Luo grammar with vocabularies. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
- Omondi, Lucia Ndong'a (1982) The major syntactic structures of Dholuo. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- Tucker, Archibald N. (ed. by Chet A. Creider) (1994) A grammar of Kenya Luo (Dholuo). 2 vols. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
- Okoth Okombo, Duncan (1997) A Functional Grammar of Dholuo. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
- Odaga, Asenath Bole (1997) English-Dholuo dictionary. / Asenath Bole Odaga. Lake Publishers & Enterprises, Kisumu.
- Odhiambo, Reenish Acieng' and Aagard-Hansen, Jens (1998) Dholuo course book. Nairobi.
