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Difference between revisions of "Typological Features Template for Luganda"

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|Luganda is principally/basically agglutinative, which in many cases exhibit modifications in the roots of verbs when particular affixes are added. Among the affixes present in Luganda are: prefixes, suffixes and infixes.
 
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|A Luganda noun is glutinable for number and gender. The linear ordering in a noun phrase is: Determiner-Noun-Possessor-Numeral-Quantifier-Modifier-Verb.
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|Luganda is one of the Bantu languages with a noun class system (sometimes referred to as gender). There are 23 noun classes in Luganda. Luganda noun classes:
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IMU
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2BA
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3MU
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4MI
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5LI
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6MA
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7KI
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8BI
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9N
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10
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11LU
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12KA
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13TU
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14BU
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15KU
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16WA
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17KU
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18MU
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20GU
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22GA
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23E
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The 19th and 21st classes are absent in Luganda. A Luganda noun is glutinable for number and gender. The linear ordering in a noun phrase is: Determiner-Noun-Possessor-Numeral-Quantifier-Modifier-Verb. Just like the grammars of most Bantu languages, the grammar of Luganda can be said to be noun-centred: most words in a sentence agree with a noun. Agreement is based on the noun class (this is comparatively referred to as gender) and number. This agreement is realised by prefixes attached to the start of word stems. The parts of speech that manifest agreement are: verb (for subject and object); adjective; pronoun and possessive
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Revision as of 09:16, 26 October 2010

By Medadi Erisa Ssentanda

Feature Description
Phonological Features
Vowel inventory Luganda has only 5 vowels: [ a, e, i, o, u ]. Any of them can be long or short.

i: high, front u: high, back e: mid, front o: mid, back a:front, low

Vowel harmony

Nominal Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony in Luganda relates to the Luganda Vowel Chart, which contains only five vowels. The vowel on the noun class dictates the initial vowel that the noun takes on. The Luganda noun classes allow only three vowels, namely: [u, i, a]. The occurence of any of those vowels on a noun class dictates the initial vowel in this manner: [u] harmonizes with [o], [i] harmonizes with [e] and [a] harmonizes with [a]. Examples, omuti, emiti, amata.
Verbal Vowel harmony This harmony occurs on suffixes only. This harmony follows this manner: verbs whose penultimate syllable has [a, u, i] harmonizes with [i] in suffixing the root. Verbs whose penultimate syllable has [e, o] harmonizes with [e] in suffing the root.

Examples: sab-a = sabira, fun-a = funira, sib-a = sibira, som-a, sek-a = sekera, simool-a = simoolera

Consonant inventory There are mainly 20 consonants in Luganda: [p, b, m, w, f, v, t, d, n, l, s, z, c, j, y, ny, k, g, ŋ, nÿ ]. Bilabials [p, b, m], labiodentals [f, v], alveolars [t, d, n, l, s, z], alveopatal [nÿ], palatals [c, J,nnya], velars [k, g, ŋ], semivowels [w,y].Each of those consonants can combine with any vowel to form a syllable. All consonants can be long with the exception of [w,y,l]. A long consonant is one that is pronounced with force as compared to one that is single.
Consonantal Combinations [m] is followed by bilabials. [n] is followed by all other consonants except [l]. [n] is followed by all alveolars except [l]. [ŋ] is followed by all velars.
Semi vowel combinations All consonants can be followed by a semivowel except labiodentals, [f, v]. [f, v] cannot be followed by [w]. [s,z,c,J,nÿ] are not followed by [y]. [ŋ] does not allow combining with [y].

Allophonetic sounds include: [β, ɱ, ɽ, l]

Tone Luganda is a pitch-accent or a two tone language. Tone in the roots of uttarances can be arranged as HL or HH. Sometimes a resultant HF tone may occur. The two basic tones are modified by downstepping and downdrifting.
Syllable Structure Basic syllable structures: V, CV, CV:, C:V, C:V:, NCV, NCV:, Cw/yV, C:w/yV, C:w/yV:, NCw/yV, N
Morpho-syntactic Features
morphological classification (1) Luganda is principally/basically agglutinative, which in many cases exhibit modifications in the roots of verbs when particular affixes are added. Among the affixes present in Luganda are: prefixes, suffixes and infixes.
morphological classification (2) Luganda is generally a head-marking language at both phrase and sentence level. For instance, Omwana (N) omuto (Adj) akuba (V) embwa (Obj) [A little child is beating a dog]. In pronominalisation forms, it is possible to have a dependent marking in the verb phrase. For instance, Omwana omuto agikuba. [A little child is beating it]. A- [Subj], -gi- [Obj], kub-a [V].
Nominal Phrases In the following fields we aim for a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents
syntactic structure In the following fields a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents are given.
nominal modification Luganda is one of the Bantu languages with a noun class system (sometimes referred to as gender). There are 23 noun classes in Luganda. Luganda noun classes:

IMU 2BA 3MU 4MI 5LI 6MA 7KI 8BI 9N 10 11LU 12KA 13TU 14BU 15KU 16WA 17KU 18MU 20GU 22GA 23E The 19th and 21st classes are absent in Luganda. A Luganda noun is glutinable for number and gender. The linear ordering in a noun phrase is: Determiner-Noun-Possessor-Numeral-Quantifier-Modifier-Verb. Just like the grammars of most Bantu languages, the grammar of Luganda can be said to be noun-centred: most words in a sentence agree with a noun. Agreement is based on the noun class (this is comparatively referred to as gender) and number. This agreement is realised by prefixes attached to the start of word stems. The parts of speech that manifest agreement are: verb (for subject and object); adjective; pronoun and possessive

[edit]

nominal specification To specify a noun, Luganda uses determiners, demonstratives, numerals, quantifiers and nominal specifiers.
Possession Luganda uses pronouns to indicate possession in different grammatical persons.
Person Singular Plural
1st -ange -affe
2nd -o -ammwe
3rd -e -abwe
Possession in other noun classes (impersonal pronouns) 1 OMU wa e.g Omwana wa Mukasa 'Maria's child'

2 ABA ba e.g Abaana ba Mukasa 'Mukasa' children' 3 OMU ga e.g Omuti gwa Mukasa 'Mukasa's tree' 4 EMI gya e.g Emisooli gya Mukasa 'Mukasa trees' 5 ELI lya e.g Eliiso lya Mukasa 'Mukasa's eye' 6 AMA ga e.g Amaaso ga Mukasa 'Mukasa's eyes' 7 EKI kya e.g Ekikopo kya Mukasa 'Mukasa's cup' 8 EBI bya e.g Ebikopo bya Mukasa 'Mukasa's cups' 9 EN ya e.g Embuzi ya Mukasa 'Mukasa's goat' 10 EN za e.g Embuzi za Mukasa 'Mukasa's goats' 11 OLU lwa e.g Olugoye lwa Mukasa 'Mukasa's cloth' 12 AKA ka e.g Engoye za Mukasa 'Mukasa's clothes' 13 OTU twa e.g Otulo twa Mukasa 'Mukasa's sleep' 14 OBU bwa e.g Obutungulu bwa Mukasa 'Mukasa's onions' 15 OKU kwa e.g Okugulu kwa Mukasa 'Mukasa's leg' 20 OGU gwa 'all nouns here are derogatory' 22 AGA ga 'all nouns here are derogatory'

Pronominal system Luganda has both free and bound pronoun forms.

The free pronoun forms are: Singular Plural 1sr Person Nze ‘I’ Ffe ‘We’ 2nd Person Ggwe ‘You’ Mmwe ‘You’ 3rd Person Ye ‘He/She’ Bo ‘They’ All pronouns are marked for their grammatical functions: there are subject and object pronouns. All pronouns in Luganda appear as prefixes. Luganda also has double object constructions.

Subject and Object Personal pronouns Subject Pronouns 
            Singular	   Plural

1st Person n- tu- 2nd Person o- mu- 3rd Person a- ba-

Object Pronouns 1st Person Singular -n-, Plural -tu-; 2nd Person Singular -ku-, Plural; -ba-; 3rd Person singula -mu- , Plural -ba-
Example sentences

Nsoma ekitabo ‘I am reading a book’ Osoma ekitabo ‘You are reading a book’ Asoma kitabo ‘He/She is reading a book’ Tusoma ekitabo ‘We are reading a book’ Musoma ekitabo ‘We are reading a book’ Basoma ekitabo ‘They are reading a book’

Example sentences: object pronouns

Ansomesa ‘S/he is teaching me’ Atusomesa ‘S/he is teaching us’ Akusomesa ‘S/he is teaching you’ [singular] Abasomesa ‘S/he is teaching you’ [2nd person plural] Abasomesa ‘S/he is teaching them’ [3rd person plural] Yeesomesa ‘S/he is teaching him/herself’(reflexive)

Verbal Phrases In the following fields a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents is given.
word order the word order in Luganda is SVO
TAM A Luganda verb is agglutinable for 3 tenses: the present tense, the past and the future.

The present tense is zero marked. E.g Nfumba emmere ‘I cook food’or ‘I am cooking food.’ Past tense is marked by three aspect constructions which appear either as prefixes and suffixes. i.e. Nfumbye emmere ‘I have cooked food.’ Nafumbye emmere ‘I cooked food.’ Nafumba emmere ‘I cooked food’ [far past] Future tense is marked by two aspect constructions. Banaafumba emmere ‘They will cook food’ Balifumba emmere ‘They will cook food’ [far future’ In some constructions, Luganda displays periphrastic tenses. E.g Nfumba emmere bulijjo ‘I always cook food’ Nja kufumba emmere ‘I will cook food’

Mood

Luganda makes use of the following moods: imperative mood, conditional mood, subjunctive mood, indicative mood and infinitive mood.

infinitival forms Luganda has one infinitive form marked by (o)ku-. It should be noted that all Luganda verbs are bound morphs, sometimes called deverbal nouns, except about two only that appear as free morphs. The infinitive (o)ku- relates to the 15 OKU noun class.
Verbal constructions Luganda has traditional ditransitive Verbs as well as those derived by verb extensions that can take two or more objects. Luganda has serial verb constructions or complex verb forms composed of several verbs. Luganda also has light verbs used to mark aspect.
Adpositions Luganda has prepositions at both word and phrase level. E.g mu ‘in’, ‘among’, ‘within’, ‘to’, ‘from’; ku ‘at’, ‘on’, ‘to’; e ‘to’ etc. At phrase level, they appear as, waggulu ku… ‘on top of…’, waggulu wa… ‘above’ etc.

In indicating the grammatical relation between the verb and the noun, Luganda concordial agreements based on the noun class system.

Complementation In this field you describe complementation strategies. Does [your language] make use of complementizers?
Special Properties of Luganda Negative sentences in Luganda are usually formed by prefixing si- for 1st person singular (this replaces the 1st person personal pronoun, n-). For all other persons, the prefix te- is used coming before the subject pronoun. Depending on the morpho-phonological environment, the negators, si- and te- change. In environments where the negator comes but not next to a verb, it is an independent entity.
Short Bibliography # Ashton, Ethel O., and others (1954) A Luganda Grammar, London: Longmans, Green.
  1. Murphy, John D. (1972) Luganda-English Dictionary. Catholic University of America Press
  2. Chesswas, J. D. (1963) Essentials of Luganda. Oxford University Press
  3. Kiingi, K.B. (2009) Enkuluze ya Oluganda eya e Makerere, olusunsula 2a, Kampala: Fountain Publishers.
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