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Typological Features Template for Runyankore Rukiga

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by Allen Asiimwe and Justus Turamyomwe

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Feature Description
Phonological Features
Vowel inventory Runyankore-Rukiga has a typical five-vowel system. That is (i,u,e,a,o,u). It has two high vowels /i/ and /u/, /e/ and /o/ as middle vowels, /a/ is the low vowel, /i/ and /e/ are front vowels while /u/ and /o/ are the back vowels.

While the high vowel /i/ rarely appears in word initial position, /u/ does not, and the low vowel /a/ is always the word final vowel in verbs which is a derivational catalyst. Runyankore-Rukiga also has a number of diphthongs, and these include; ai ei, oi,ia like in the following examples: ei- eizooba (son), eishomero (school), eirwariro (hospital) ai- omushaija (man), kuhaisa(to have food ready), owaitu (at our home) oi- okuboigora (to bark), kutoija ( to give offerings in church), ia- okunia (to deficate), kuniagiira ( to make funny noise).

Note that it is possible for instance in this verbal word 'oine' (you have) for one to think that oi- is a diphthong. It is not: o- is the second person singular pronoun. Morphologically oine = o-in-e

Vowel harmony Runyankor-Rukiga does not make use of ATR feature. Runyankore-Rukiga employs height and back-front and rounding harmony, though the rounding feature cannot occur exclusively.

Runyankore-Rukiga, with its five-vowel system, what is normally found in verb roots is that: /a/ comes after any vowel, therefore, CiCa, CeCa, CoCa, CuCa, CaCa are allowed. However, after /a/ only non-mid vowels are allowed. /e/ can come after /e/ and /o/, the asymmetry is found in /o/ and /u/. The mid back round vowel /o/ comes only after /o/, and /u/ comes after mid vowel /e/ as well as non-mid vowels /i/, /a/, /u/. There are no restrictions of co occurrence among non-mid vowels.

In Runyankore-Rukiga verbs, CeCe,CoCo, CoCe are found, but CeCo is not, instead, CeCo, CeCu are abundant. One would wonder how CeCu is possible since the two vowels /e/ and /u/ do not share any feature in common, thus the high vowel /u/ to come after a mid vowel /e/ looks peculiar but common. For example: Ku-cencur-a (to sieve), ku-tebuk-a (to lose hope), ku-sherur-a ( to search). Important also to share is that; a vowel occupying the initial syllable position of a verb root can spread thought the root e.g. o-ku-esherek-a (to hide oneself), o-ku-ebember-a (to lead), Ku-shobooror-a(to explain) etc. note however, that this spreading can be blocked by a low voice /a/. the final vowel does not affect the vowel harmony process in any way. It is used to form open syllables, a morphological characteristic of Bantu languages. In verbal affixes, the first vowel is either /i/ or /e/. and this is dependent on the shape of the penultimate vowel in the verb root: if it is /a/, /i/, or /u,/ the suffix will begin with /i/. /e/ and /o/ will lead vowel to be /e/; since they are both mid vowels they will require a mid vowel to follow. The harmonizing feature in verb suffixation is height. Examples; o-ku-tera =o-ku-teresa (to beat/draw with) o-ku-shara =o-ku-sharisa (to cut with) o-kutemba =o-ku-tembesa (to cause to climb) Not all verb suffixes are subject to vowel harmony. The perfective suffix -ire fails to undergo any type of vowel harmony. It is an idiosyncratic fact that this morpheme fails to undergo vowel harmony: agyenzire (s’/he went), ateebire(s’/he scored), ashomire (s’/he read).

In nouns, vowel harmony is regressive since the vowel in the noun class prefix determines the shape of the preceding initial vowel while in the case of suffixation in verbs it is progressive because the harmonizing feature spreads from the verb root to the verb suffix.

Consonant inventory The consonantal sounds of Runyankore-Rukiga are p,b,t,d,k,g,f,v,s,ts, ky, gy, ny, sh,z,c,j,h,m,n,w,y r,rr and l. /ts/ and /rr/ sounds are only found in Runyankore. The rolled r though pronounced in Runyankore dialect, is not presented orthographically. /ts/ is also found in Runyankore dialect specifically among the Bahima, a section of Banyankore. /L/ on the other hand is only heard in some few words in the dialect of Rukiga e.g amakala (charcoal). Note however, that in writing, /r/ is written not /l/.
Tone Runyankore-Rukiga is a tonal language, with three kinds of tone: Rising, falling, and rising and falling. Tone in Runyankore-Rukiga has semantic value. It is possible to have two or more words with the same phonetic structure but having different meanings: examples

enda - stomach/belly, éndà - lice

enkômbe -a dove, enkómbe- thick millet porriedge, enkombe -a protruding forehead

amaju -houses, amáju -knees

Note that a single word may be assigned different tones in different environments: a word in isolation or in the final position, same word appearing in the initial position of a sentence or when other words are expected to follow it e.g in interrogatives.

Syllable Structure The syllable of Runyankore-Rukiga takes different structures: V, CV, CVV, CCV,CCCCV and CCCCVV.
Morpho-syntactic Features
general morphological classification Runyankore-Rukiga is an agglutinating language, characterized by a complex verbal system, with prefixes an suffixes.
Nominal Phrases In general the nominal head precedes the nominal modifiers and determiners. However, in some circumstances, the determiner as well as a quantifier may precede the noun it modifies, as exemplified below:


structural template
(determiner|quantifier) NOUN demonstrative adjective+ quantifier deverbal adjective relative clause emphatic particle
nominal modification appositives.

nominal specification deixis is marked by proximal, medial and distal.Deixis or reference is represented by affixes which vary depending on the noun class. The language also has demonstratives, numerals, quantifiers and determiners. The definite determiners are expressed by the initial vowel while the indefinite determiners are not marked.

possession It is expressed by affixes which vary according to the noun class prefix. therefore the possessives are comprised of the class prefix and the possessive marker.
pronominal system The language has free pronoun forms e.g emphatics, relative pronouns and self standing pronouns such as nyowe, itwe, iwe, imwe, we, bo and many more, which vary according to the noun class. The language also has bound pronouns which are expressed as object prefixes as well as subject prefixes. All these are marked for number
Verbal Phrases In the following fields serve for the description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents
word order Runyankore-Rukiga, like all other Bantu languages, the basic word order is SVO, however, it exhibits flexibility. Grammatical subjects can be extraposed, demoted or dropped, while the object can be left dislocated or promoted.
TAM Tense and aspect are morphologically marked. All tenses are marked apart from the habitual tense. Tense/aspect markers can either precede or follow the verb root, and they are not necessarily distinct. For Instance -ire marks the yesterday tense and the perfective aspect e.g. n-zin-ire (I danced (yesterday)). -ire also marks the stative aspect e.g. n-dwa-ire (I am sick).
infinitival forms The infinitive marker is -ku-. Follow this link for examples: http://www.typecraft.org/TCEditor/1069/. Also note that certain verbs in their infinitive form render themselves as nouns. Examples: okuramusya= Greetings, Okukunda= love. It is also important to observe that though sometimes verbs in their infinitive forms begin with an initial vowel o-, it is not part of the form, since its presence or absence does not affect the infinitival form of the verb.
verbal constructions Runyankore-Rukiga has ditransitive constructions, whereby the recipient and theme arguments can be rendered both as direct objects, without one being prepositional.
Birungi yaaha Karungi ebitabo
“Birungi has given Karungi books”
Birungi
birungi
 
Np
yaaha
yaaha
1SBJPRESgiveIND
V
Karungi
karungi
 
Np
ebitabo
ebitabo
IV8book
N
Birungi ebitabo yaabiha Karungi
“Birungi has given the books to Karungi”
Birungi
birungi
 
Np
ebitabo
ebitabo
IV8book
N
yaabiha
yaabiha
1SBJPRES8giveIND
V
Karungi
karungi
 
Np


There are also some verbs which can morphologically be rendered ditransitives, e.g. when an applicative suffix is added, exemplified using the verb okugura 'to buy' below:

Kato akagura orugoye
“Kato bought a cloth”
Kato
kato
 
Np
akagura
akagura
1SBJIVbuyIND
V
orugoye
orugoye
IV11cloth
N
Kato akagurira nyina orugoye
“Kato bought a cloth for his mother”
Kato
kato
 
Np
akagurira
akagurira
1SBJIVbuyAPPLIND
V
nyina
nyina
 
N
orugoye
orugoye
IV11cloth
N
Adpositions Runyankore-Rukiga has several prepositions, among them are omu and aha, derived from the locative noun classes of -ha- 16, and -mu- 17 respectively. Omu and aha though categorized as prepostions, exhibit distinct features, from other prepositions e.g. wa, ya, etc which are rendered as 'of' in English. Omu and aha would be classified as spatial nouns as exemplifed in the following examples:



for more on prepositions, follow this link http://typecraft.org/tc2wiki/Annotating_Runyankore-Rukiga#Is_there_a_preposition__.27of.27_in_Runyankore-Rukiga.3F
Complementation Complementizers in Runyankore-Rukiga are ku, and ngu which can be used interchangeably. In the sentence below, 'ngu' can replace 'ku' and the semantics of the sentence is not altered. However, in other constructions, 'ngu' is used as a subordinating conjunction, also exemplified below.
Akangambira ku naija nyenkyakare
“He/she told me that he/she will come tomorrow”
Akangambira
akangambira
3SGIV1SGtellAPPLIND
V
ku
ku
that
COMP
naija
naija
3SGcomeIND
V
nyenkyakare
nyenkyakare
tomorrow
ADVm
Ogu mukazi yangira ngu ngyende nawe
“This woman has told me that I go with her”
Ogu
ogu
IVPROX
DEM
mukazi
mukazi
1woman
N
yangira
yangira
11SGsayIND
V2
ngu
ngu
that
CONJ
ngyende
ngyende
1SGgoIMP
V1
nawe
nawe
withher
PN

There are other ways of complemantation in Runyankore-Rukiga.

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