Luo Language

Luo (also known als Dholuo) is a Western Nilotic language spoken by the Luo people, numbering about 3 million. Luo is spoken on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. It is broadcast on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the Voice of Kenya). Luo is closely related to Lango and Acholi of Uganda.

Sounds

Vowels

Luo has vowel harmony: all vowels in a word have to belong to a single class. Luo has two sets of five vowels, distinguisted by the feature +/-ATR. -ATR vowels in Luo>
small>.!!Front!!Central!!Back
tyle="text-align: right;"|Near-close ɪ ʊ
tyle="text-align: right;"|Open-mid ɛ ɔ
tyle="text-align: right;"|Open ɒ
+ATR vowels in Luo>
small>.!!Front!!Central!!Back
tyle="text-align: right;"|Close i u
tyle="text-align: right;"|Close-mid e o
tyle="text-align: right;"|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.
   
Phonetic inventory of consonants in Luo, IPA notation.
. 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). Kln: Rdiger Kppe Verlag.
  • Okoth Okombo, Duncan (1997) A Functional Grammar of Dholuo. Kln: Rdiger Kppe 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

 

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