Dholuo language
Encyclopedia
The Luo language, Dholuo or Luo proper, is the eponymous language of the Luo group
of Nilotic languages
, spoken by about 4.4 million Luo people of Kenya
and Tanzania
, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria
and areas to the south. 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 Adhola of Uganda
. It is somewhat more distantly related to Luwo
, also a Western Nilotic language, spoken in Sudan.
[+/-ATR] .
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). When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
. There is both lexical tone and grammatical tone, e.g. in the formation of passive verbs. 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/. Vowel length is contrastive.
from alienable, e.g. The first example is a case of alienable possession, as the bone is not part of the dog.
The following is however an example of inalienable possession, the bone being part of the cow:
Luo languages
The Nilotic Luo languages, or Lwoian, are a dozen languages spoken by the Luo peoples in an area ranging from southern Sudan via Uganda to southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They form one of the two branches of Western...
of Nilotic languages
Nilotic languages
The Nilotic languages are a group of Eastern Sudanic languages spoken across a wide area between southern Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples, particularly associated with cattle-herding...
, spoken by about 4.4 million Luo people of Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
, who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to discover this lake....
and areas to the south. It is used for broadcasts on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation is the state-run media organization of Kenya. It broadcasts in both English and Swahili, as well as in most local languages of Kenya. The corporation started its life in 1928 when Kenya was a British colony. In 1964, when Kenya became an independent country, the...
, formerly the Voice of Kenya) and Radio Ramogi.
Dholuo is closely related to Lango
Lango language (Uganda)
Lango is a Western Nilotic language of the Luo branch, spoken by the Langi people in Uganda. It is mostly spoken in Lango sub-region, in the Northern Region. Spoken by approximately 1.8 million speakers, it makes up for about five percent of the population of Uganda...
, Acholi
Acholi language
Acholi is a language primarily spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, a region known as Acholiland in northern Uganda. Acholi is also spoken in the southern part of the Opari District of South Sudan...
, and Adhola of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
. It is somewhat more distantly related to Luwo
Luwo language
Dheluo is a language spoken by Jo Luo people of Bahr el Ghazal region in South Sudan. The language is most prominently spoken in western and northern parts of Bahr El Ghazal. These people are one of the Luo peoples of East Africa.- Sample phrases :...
, also a Western Nilotic language, spoken in Sudan.
Vowels
Dholuo has two sets of five vowels, distinguished by the feature| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close Near-close vowel A near-close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a near-close vowel is that the tongue is positioned similarly to a close vowel, but slightly less constricted. Near-close vowels are sometimes described as lax variants of the fully close vowels... |
ɪ | ʊ | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
ɐ |
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | u | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e | o | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a |
Consonants
In the table of consonants below, orthographicOrthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
symbols are included between parentheses if they differ from the IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
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). When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ɲ (ny) | ŋ (ng') | |||
| Plosive Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
prenasalized Prenasalized consonant Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent that behave phonologically like single consonants. The reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants is in their behavior, not in their actual composition... |
mb (mb) | nd (nd) | ɲɟ (nj) | ŋg (ng) | ||
| voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
p | t̪ (th) | t | c (ch) | k | ||
| voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
b | d̪ (dh) |
d | ɟ (j) | g | ||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
f | s | h | ||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | ||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | l | j (y) | ||||
Phonological characteristics
Dholuo is a tonal languageTone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
. There is both lexical tone and grammatical tone, e.g. in the formation of passive verbs. It has vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
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/. Vowel length is contrastive.
Grammar
Dholuo is notable for its complicated phonological alternations, which are used, among other things, in distinguishing inalienable possessionInalienable possession
In linguistics, inalienable possession refers to the linguistic properties of certain nouns or nominal morphemes based on the fact that they are always possessed. The semantic underpinning is that entities like body parts and relatives do not exist apart from a possessor. For example, a hand...
from alienable, e.g. The first example is a case of alienable possession, as the bone is not part of the dog.
- chogo guok
- bone dog
- 'the dog's bone' (which it is eating)
The following is however an example of inalienable possession, the bone being part of the cow:
- chok dhiang'
- bone (construct state) cow
- 'a cow bone'
Sample phrases
| English | Luo |
|---|---|
| Hello (how are you?) | Msawa (idhi nade?) |
| 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 | Tich maber |
| Goodbye | Oriti |
| I want water | adwaro pi |
| I am thirsty | riyo deya / riyo maka |
| Thank you | erokamano |
| Child | nyathi |
| Student(university student) | nyathi skul, japwonjre (ja mbalariany) |
| Sit | bed |
| Stand/stop | chung' |
| Hunger | kech |
| I am starved | kech kaya |
| Father | wuor [Dinka] wur |
| Mother | min [Dinka] mor |
| God | Nyasaye |
| Lord (God) | Ruoth (Nyasaye) |
| God is good | Nyasaye Ber |
| help | kony [Dinka] ba kony |
| Man | dichuo |
| Woman | dhako |
| Boy | wuoyi |
| Girl | nyako [Dinka] nya |
| Book | buk, [Alego/Seme] buge |
| Youth | rawera |
| Pen | kalam |
| Shorts | siruari |
| Trousers | long' siruach long' |
| Table | mesa |
| Plate | san |
| Lock | rarind OR ralor |
| Leader | jatelo, |
| Bring | kel |
| Go | dhi |
| Go back | dog |
| Come back | dwog |
| Run | ring [Dinka] |
| Walk | wuoth |
| Jump | dum, [Alego/Seme] chikre |
| Rain | koth |
| Sun | chieng' |
| Moon | duwe |
| Fish | rech [Dinka] |
| I want to eat | adwaro chiemo |
| Grandpa | kwaru [Dinka] kwar |
| Grandma | dayo [Dinka] day |
| White man | ja rachar/ odiero |
| Black man | ja rateng' |
| Car | nyamburko |
| Cow | dhiang' |
| Sing | wer [Dinka] |
| Marriage | keny [Dinka], "keny" is the process, "thiek" is the marriage |
| Tomorrow | kiny |
| Today | kawuono |
| Child | nyathi |
| Money | omenda, chung', oboke, sendi, pesa |
| Gun | bunde |
| Gun fire | muoch bunde |
| I want ugali | Adwaro Kwon |
| Maize/corn | oduma, bando |
| Maize and beans | nyoyo |
| Taxi | matatu (Swahili) |
| Farm | Puodho (Alego-Ndalo) |
| Dig | Puro/Kunyo |
| Fly (in the air) | fuyo |
| Fly(Insect) | Lwang'ni |
| Stream/River | Aora |
| Lake | Nam |
| Ocean | Ataro |
External links
- Luo phrases and basics
- Practical guide for learning Luo
- A Handbook of the Kavirondo Language (1920) - one of the earliest books on Dholuo
- Ethnologue on Luo
- PanAfrican L10n page on Luo
- Umass Amherst Undergraduate Linguistic Field Methods Class Wiki on Dholuo
- Umass Amherst Graduate Linguistic Field Methods Class Wiki on Dholuo