Dholuo language
| 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/DIS 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) is a Western Nilotic language spoken by the Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania, numbering about 3 million. Dholuo is spoken on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria. It is broadcast on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the Voice of Kenya)and Radio Ramogi. Dholuo is closely related to Lango, Acholi and Dhopadhola of Uganda.
Sounds
Vowels
Dholuo has vowel harmony: all vowels in a word have to belong to a single class. Dholuo has two sets of five vowels, distinguished by the feature [+/-ATR].
| . | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | ɒ |
| . | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
Consonants
In the table below, orthographic symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the IPA symbols. Note especially the use of ‘y’ for IPA [j], common in African orthographies. When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
| . | bilabial | labio- dental |
alveolar | palatal | velar | glottal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stops | p b | t d | c (c) ɟ (j) | k g | ||
| fricatives | f | s | h | |||
| nasals | m | n | ɲ (ny) | ŋ | ||
| prenasalized stops |
mb | nd | ɲɟ (nj) | ŋg (ng) | ||
| trills | r | |||||
| approximants | w | l | j (y) |
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). 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.
External links
- Luo phrases and basics
- Ethnologue on Luo
- Luo/Acholi/Lango Language page
- Luo and the Nilo-Saharan family
- Rice University Owlnet Luo Homepage
I want water,
adwaro pii
I am thirsty, riyo nega
Thank you, ero kamano
Child, nyathi
Student, nyathi skul
Sit, bed
Stand,Stop, chung
Hunger, kech
I am starved, kech nega
Father, baba
Mother, mama
God, nyasaye
To help, kony
Man, dichuo
Woman, dhako
Boy, wuowi
Girl, nyako
Book, buk
Youth, rawera
Pen, kalam
Short, curuari
Trousers, curuach 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, kwaru,kwara
Grandma, dani,dana
White man, ja rachar
black man, ja rateng