Ganda language
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Ganda or Luganda ( ; ) is a
Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
spoken in the
African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes (; ) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tangan ...
region. It is one of the major languages in
Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
and is spoken by more than 5.56 million
Baganda The Baganda (endonym: ''Baganda''; singular ''Muganda''), are a Bantu ethnic group native to Buganda, a subnational kingdom within Uganda. Traditionally composed of 52 clans (although since a 1993 survey, only 46 are officially recognised), th ...
and other people principally in central Uganda, including the country's capital,
Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...
. Typologically, it is an
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes (word parts), each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglu ...
,
tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...
with subject–verb–object word order and nominative–accusative
morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument of ...
. With at least 5.6 million first-language speakers in the
Buganda Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the List of current non-sovereign African monarchs, traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Ug ...
region and 5.4 million second language speakers fluent elsewhere in different regions especially in major urban areas like Mbale,
Tororo Tororo is a town in the Eastern Region, Uganda, Eastern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of Tororo District. History Tororo was garrisoned by the Uganda Army (1971–1980), Uganda Army's Air an ...
, Jinja,
Gulu Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District. The coordinates of the city of Gulu are 2°46'54.0"N 32°17'57.0"E. The city's distance from Kampala, Uganda's capital and large ...
, Mbarara, Hoima,
Kasese Kasese is a town in the Western Region, Uganda, Western Region of Uganda. It is the capital of Kasese District. Kasese is also the largest town in the Rwenzururu region. In 2020 it had an estimated population 115,400. It lies north of Lake Georg ...
etc. Luganda is Uganda's de facto language of national identity as it is the most widely spoken Ugandan language used mostly in trade in urban areas. The language is also the most-spoken unofficial language in
Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...
's capital
Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...
. As a second language, it follows English and precedes Swahili in Uganda. Lusoga, the language spoken in
Busoga Busoga (Soga language, Lusoga: Obwakyabazinga bwa Busoga) is a kingdom and one of four constitutional monarchies in present-day Uganda. The kingdom is a cultural institution which promotes popular participation and unity among the people of the ...
to the east of Buganda, is very closely related to Luganda. The two languages are almost
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
, and have an estimated
lexical similarity In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...
of between 82% and 86%.


History

Luganda, a Bantu language, shares its roots with other Bantu languages spoken in the African Great Lakes region. Its specific origins remain a subject of scholarly debate, but it's generally accepted that it evolved from Proto-Bantu, the ancestral language of all Bantu languages. During the 18th -19th century, due to interaction with foreign communities, Luganda borrowed a number of loan words from the incoming peoples (Arab traders, missionaries and colonialists), mostly for things that were inexistent in the land, such as a number of words from Arabic like chai from Arabic shay (tea), ddiini (religion), ssala (prayer), and from English, for example ssaati (shirt) or emotoka (car).


Phonology

A notable feature of Luganda phonology is its
geminate consonant In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
s and distinctions between
long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
and short vowels. Speakers generally consider consonantal gemination and vowel lengthening to be two manifestations of the same effect, which they call simply "doubling" or "stressing". Luganda is also a
tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...
; the change in the pitch of a syllable can change the meaning of a word. For example, the word means 'king' if all three syllables are given the same pitch. If the first syllable is high then the meaning changes to 'the little one catches' (third person singular present tense Class VI - of - 'to catch'). This feature makes Luganda a difficult language for speakers of non-tonal languages to learn. A non-native speaker has to learn the variations of pitch by prolonged listening. Unlike some other Bantu languages, there is no tendency in Luganda for penultimate vowels to become long; in fact they are very frequently short, as in the city name
Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...
, pronounced , in which the second vowel is short in Luganda.


Vowels

All five vowels have two forms:
long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
and short. The distinction is phonemic but can occur only in certain positions. After two consonants, the latter being a
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y ...
, all vowels are long. The
quality Quality may refer to: Concepts *Quality (business), the ''non-inferiority'' or ''superiority'' of something *Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property *Quality (physics), in response theory *Energy quality, used in various science discipli ...
of a vowel is not affected by its length. Long vowels in Luganda are very long, more than twice the length of a short vowel. A vowel before a prenasalised consonant, as in '
Buganda Buganda is a Bantu peoples, Bantu kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Baganda, Baganda people, Buganda is the largest of the List of current non-sovereign African monarchs, traditional kingdoms in present-day East Africa, consisting of Ug ...
' is also lengthened, although it is not as long as a long vowel; laboratory measurements show that the vowel + nasal takes the same length of time to say as a long vowel. Before a
geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
, all vowels are short. A segment such as , where a short vowel is followed by a geminate consonant, is very slightly shorter than or .


Consonants

The table below gives the consonant set of Luganda, grouping
voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
and
voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...
consonants together in a cell where appropriate, in that order. Apart from , all these consonants can be
geminated In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
, even at the start of a word: 'two', ' 'cold'. The
approximants Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produ ...
and are geminated as and : 'country'; 'cricket'—from the roots - and - respectively, with the singular noun prefix - that doubles the following consonant. Historically, geminated consonants appear to have arisen when a very close between two consonants dropped out; for example - from *- 'run'. Apart from , and , all consonants can also be prenasalised (prefixed with a
nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
). This consonant will be , , or according to the
place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...
of the consonant which follows, and belongs to the same syllable as that consonant. The
liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
becomes when
geminated In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
or prenasalised. For example, 'I see' (from the root - with the subject prefix -); 'leaf' (from the root - with the singular noun prefix -, which doubles the following consonant). A consonant cannot be both geminated and prenasalised. When morphological processes require this, the gemination is dropped and the syllable is inserted, which can then be prenasalised. For example, when the prefix - is added to the adjective - 'black' the result is . The nasals , , and can be syllabic at the start of a word: (or ) 'monkey', 'I give', or 'I explain'. Note that this last example can be analysed in two ways, reflecting the fact that there is no distinction between prenasalisation and gemination when applied to nasal stops.


Tone

Luganda is a
tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...
, with three tones: high (), low () and falling (). There are, however, no syllables in Luganda with rising tone , since these automatically become . There are various types of tones: (a) lexical tones, which are always present in a word, e.g. 'city'; (b) phrasal tones, which are automatically added to a word in certain contexts, but which are absent in other contexts (e.g. or 'book'); (c) plateaux tones, where the pitch remains high between two lexical tones, e.g. 'it is in Uganda'; (d) grammatical tones, which are associated with certain tenses or uses of the verb; (e) boundary tones, which affect the last syllable of a word or phrase and can indicate such things as interrogation. According to one analysis, tones are carried on morae. In Luganda, a short vowel has one mora and a long vowel has two morae. A geminate or prenasalised consonant has one mora. A consonant + semivowel (e.g. or ) also has one mora. A vowel followed by a prenasalised consonant has two morae ''including'' the one belonging to the prenasalised consonant. The initial vowel of words like 'book' is considered to have one mora, even though such vowels are often pronounced long. No syllable can have more than two morae. Falling tones can be heard in syllables which have two morae, e.g. those with a long vowel ( 'to cry'),Dutcher & Paster (2008), p.125. those with a short vowel followed by a geminate consonant ( 'to throb'), those with a vowel followed by a prenasalised consonant ( 'Baganda people'), and those following a consonant plus semivowel ( 'to fall sick'). They can also be heard on final vowels, e.g. 'country'. Words in Luganda commonly belong to one of three patterns (other patterns are less common): (a) without lexical tone, e.g. 'book'; (b) with one high lexical tone, e.g. 'city'; (c) with two high lexical tones, e.g. which link together to make HHH, i.e. or . At the end of a sentence, a final lexical tone becomes a falling tone, i.e. ámpálâ but in other contexts, e.g. when the word is used as the subject of a sentence, it remains high: 'Kampala is a city'. Although words like are theoretically toneless, they are generally subject to a tone-raising rule whereby all but the first mora automatically acquire a high tone. Thus 'book' is usually pronounced and 'school' is pronounced (where the long consonant counts as the first mora). These tones automatically added to toneless words are called 'phrasal tones'. The tone-raising rule also applies to the toneless syllables at the end of words like 'hospital' and 'we are going', provided that there is at least one low-toned mora after the lexical tone. When this happens, the high tones which follow the low tone are slightly lower than the one which precedes it. However, there are certain contexts, such as when a toneless word is used as the subject of a sentence or before a numeral, when this tone-raising rule does not apply: 'Masindi is a city'; 'ten books'. In a sentence, the lexical tones (that is, the high tones of individual words) tend to fall gradually in a series of steps from high to low. For example, in the sentence 'it is the chief city in Uganda', the lexical high tones of the syllables , and stand out and gradually descend in pitch, the toneless syllables in between being lower. This phenomenon is called '
downdrift In phonetics, downdrift (also known as ''automatic downstep'') is the cumulative lowering of pitch in the course of a sentence due to interactions among tones in a tonal language. Downdrift often occurs when the tones in successive syllables are ...
'. However, there are certain types of phrase, notably those in the form 'noun + of + noun', or 'verb + location', where downdrift does not occur, and instead all the syllables in between the two lexical high tones link together into a 'tonal plateau', in which all the vowels have tones of equal height, for example 'in the south of Uganda' or 'it is in Uganda'. Plateauing also occurs within a word, as in (see above). A plateau cannot be formed between a lexical tone and a following phrasal tone; so in the sentence 'it is in Bunyoro' there is downdrift, since the tones of are phrasal. But a phrasal tone can and frequently does form a plateau with a following lexical tone or phrasal tone. So in 'people in Uganda', there is a plateau from the phrasal tone of to the lexical tone of , and in 'we are going into the street', there is a plateau from the phrasal tone of to the phrasal tone of . Again there are certain exceptions; for example, there is no plateau before the words 'this' or 'all': 'this person', 'all the people'. Prefixes sometimes change the tones in a word. For example, 'they are Baganda' has LHHL, but adding the initial vowel gives 'Baganda people' with a falling tone on ''ga'' and phrasal tone on the final syllable. Different verb tenses have different tonal patterns. The tones of verbs are made more complicated by the fact that some verbs have a high lexical tone on the first syllable of the root, while others do not, and also by the fact that the sequence HH generally becomes HL by a rule called
Meeussen's rule Meeussen's rule is a special case of tone reduction. It was first described in Bantu languages, but occurs in analyses of other languages as well, such as Papuan languages. The tonal alternation that it describes is the lowering, in some contexts, ...
. Thus means 'he reads', but when the toneless prefix 'he/she' is replaced by the high-toned prefix 'they', instead of it becomes 'they read'. The tones of verbs in relative clauses and in negative sentences differ from those in ordinary positive sentences and the addition of an object-marker such as 'him' adds further complications. In addition to lexical tones, phrasal tones, and the tonal patterns of tenses, there are also intonational tones in Luganda, for example, tones of questions. One rather unexpected phenomenon for English speakers is that if a yes–no question ends in a toneless word, instead of a rise, there is a sharp drop in pitch, e.g. 'is this a road?'.


Phonotactics

Syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
s can take any of the following forms: * V (only as the first syllable of a word) * CV * GV * NCV * CSV * GSV * NCSV where V =
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
, C = single
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
(including nasals and semivowels but excluding geminates), G =
geminate consonant In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
, N =
nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
, S =
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y ...
These forms are subject to certain phonotactic restrictions: * Two vowels may not appear adjacent to one another. When morphological or
grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to formu ...
rules cause two vowels to meet, the first vowel is elided or reduced to a
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y ...
and the second is lengthened if possible. * A vowel following a consonant–semivowel combination (except ) is always long, except at the end of a word. After a vowel can be either long or short. At the end of a word, all vowels are pronounced short.Luganda Basic Course, p.xi. * A vowel followed by a nasal–plosive combination is always long. * A vowel followed by a geminate is always short. This rule takes precedence over all the above rules. * The velar
plosives In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
and may not appear before the vowel or the semivowel . In this position they become the corresponding
postalveolar Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but n ...
affricates An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...
and respectively. * The consonants , and cannot be
geminated In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
or prenasalised. * A consonant cannot be both geminated and prenasalised. The net effect of this is that all Luganda words follow the general pattern of alternating
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s and
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s, beginning with either but always ending in a vowel: * (V)XVXV...XV where V =
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
, X =
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
, (V) = optional vowel This is reflected in the
syllabification Syllabification () or syllabication (), also known as hyphenation, is the separation of a word into syllables, whether spoken, written or signed. Overview The written separation into syllables is usually marked by a hyphen when using English o ...
rule that in writing, words are always hyphenated after a vowel (when breaking a word over two lines). For example, 'My car has arrived' would be split into syllables as .


Variant pronunciations

The
palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly sepa ...
plosives In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
and may be realised with some
affrication An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...
— either as and or as postalveolars and respectively. In speech, word-final
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s are often elided in these conditioning environments: * Word-final can be silent after , , or * Word-final can be silent after , , or For example, 'black' may be pronounced or . Similarly 'why' may be pronounced , or . Long vowels before prenasalised
fricative A fricative is a consonant 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 ...
s (that is, before , , or ) may be
nasalised In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation in British English) is the production of a sound while the soft palate, velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal ...
, and the nasal is then often elided. Additionally, when not elided (for example phrase-initially), the usually becomes a
labiodental In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth, such as and . In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written . Labiodental consonants in ...
in , . For example: * 'I'm dying' is pronounced * 'seven' may be pronounced , , or * 'don't ask me' may be pronounced , or The
liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
has two
allophones In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosi ...
and , conditioned by the preceding vowel. It is usually realised as a tap or flap after a front
unrounded vowel In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a ''rounded'' vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and ''unrounded'' vowels are pr ...
(''i.e.'' after , , or ), and as a
lateral approximant A lateral is a consonant in which the airstream proceeds along one or both of the sides of the tongue, but it is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth. An example of a lateral consonant is the English ''L'', as in ''L ...
elsewhere. However, there is considerable variation in this, and using one allophone instead of the other causes no ambiguity. So 'why' may also be pronounced , , ''etc''.


Alternative analysis

Treating the
geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
and prenasalised consonants as separate
phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s yields the expanded consonant set below: This simplifies the phonotactic rules so that all syllables are of one of three forms: * V (only as the first syllable of a word) * CV * CSV where V =
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
, C =
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
(including geminate and prenasalised consonants), N =
nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
, S =
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y ...
(''i.e.'' either or ).
Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many ...
is then only distinctive before simple consonants (''i.e.'' simple plosives, simple fricatives, simple nasals, approximants and liquids)—not before geminate or nasalised consonants or at the end of a word.


Orthography

Luganda
spelling Spelling is a set of conventions for written language regarding how graphemes should correspond to the sounds of spoken language. Spelling is one of the elements of orthography, and highly standardized spelling is a prescriptive element. Spelli ...
, which has been standardized since 1947, uses a
Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from â ...
, augmented with one new letter and a digraph , which is treated as a single letter. It has a very high sound-to-letter correspondence: one letter usually represents one sound and vice versa. The distinction between simple and
geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
consonants is always represented explicitly: simple consonants are written single, and geminates are written double. The distinction between long and short vowels is always made clear from the spelling but not always explicitly: short vowels are always written single; long vowels are written double only if their length cannot be inferred from the context. Stress and tones are not represented in the spelling. The following
phonemes A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...
are always represented with the same letter or combination of letters: * Short vowels (always spelt , , , , ) * All consonants apart from , and * The palatals and , when followed by a short vowel (always spelt , ), except when the short vowel is itself followed by a geminate consonant, or when the vowel is The following phonemes can be represented with two letters or combinations of letters, with the alternation predictable from the context: * Long vowels (spelt , , , , where short vowels are impossible; , , , , elsewhere) * The
liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...
(spelt after or ; elsewhere) The following phonemes can be represented with two letters or combinations of letters, with unpredictable alternation between the two: * The palatals and , when followed by a long vowel, or by a short vowel and a geminate consonant, or by an sound ( or ) (spelt with , , with , , or, before , with , ). It is therefore possible to predict the pronunciation of any word (with the exception of stress and tones) from the spelling. It is also usually possible to predict the spelling of a word from the pronunciation. The only words where this is not possible are those that include one of the affricate–vowel combinations discussed above. Note, however, that some proper names are not spelled as they are pronounced. For example, is pronounced as though written and is pronounced .''Luganda Basic Course'', p.20.


Vowels

The five
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
s in Luganda are spelt with the same letters as in many other languages (for example Spanish): * * * * * As mentioned above, the distinction between
long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
and short vowels is
phonemic A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...
and is therefore represented in the alphabet. Long vowels are written as double (when length cannot be inferred from the context) and short vowels are written single. For example: * 'four (''e.g.'' people)' vs 'children' * 'dance' vs 'overcharge' * 'mingle' vs 'walk slowly' * 'do' vs '(to) weed' * 'send' vs '(to) name' In certain contexts, phonotactic constraints mean that a vowel must be long, and in these cases it is not written double: * A vowel followed by a prenasalised consonant * A vowel that comes after a consonant–semivowel combination—apart from which can be thought of as a geminated ''w'', and which can be thought of as a geminated ''y'' (although the latter is less common as this combination is more often spelt ''jj'') For example: * 'metal' * 'I go' But * 'court house' * 'customs office' Vowels at the start or end of the word are not written double, even if they are long. The only exception to this (apart from all-vowel interjections such as and ) is 'yes'.


Consonants

With the exception of , each
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
sound in Luganda corresponds to a single letter. The combination is treated as a single letter and therefore does not have any effect on vowel length (see the previous subsection). The following letters are pronounced approximately as in English: * (sometimes softened to ) * ''d'' * ("'' and '' are pronounced with the lips slightly pouted")Crabtree, William A. (1902) ''Elements of Luganda Grammar'', p.13. * * * * * * * * ("'' differs from the English 'w' being much softer") * * A few letters have unusual values: * * * * The letters and represent the same sound in Luganda——but the orthography requires after or , and elsewhere: * 'she's waiting' * (or ) 'she's waiting for it' There are also two letters whose pronunciation depends on the following letter: * is pronounced (or ) before or , elsewhere * is pronounced (or ) before or , elsewhere Compare this to the pronunciation of and in many
Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
s. As in the Romance languages the 'softening letter' (in
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, in French , in Luganda ) is not itself pronounced, although in Luganda it does have the effect of lengthening the following vowel (see the previous subsection). Finally the sounds and are spelt before another consonant with the same
place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...
(in other words, before other palatals and
velars Velar consonants are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively ...
respectively) rather than and : * The combinations and are spelt * The combination is spelt (the diaeresis shows that the is a separate letter rather than part of the digraph, and the is spelt before as in the above rule; in practice this combination is very rare) * is spelt before or (but not before another ) * is spelt before or , or before a soft or


Alphabet

The standard Luganda alphabet is composed of twenty-four letters: * 18 consonants: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , * 5 vowels: , , , , * 2 semi-vowels: , Since the last consonant does not appear on standard typewriters or computer keyboards, it is often replaced by the combination ' (including the apostrophe). In some non-standard orthographies, the apostrophe is not used, which can lead to confusion with the letter combination , which is different from . In addition, the letter combination is treated as a unique consonant. When the letters and appear next to each other, they are written as , with the diaeresis mark to distinguish this combination from . Other letters (, , ) are not used in the alphabet, but are often used to write
loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
s from other languages. Most such loanwords have standardised spellings consistent with Luganda orthography (and therefore not using these letters), but these spelling are not often used, particularly for English words. The full alphabet, including both standard Luganda letters and those used only for loanwords, is as follows: * Aa, * Bb, * Cc, * Dd, * Ee, * Ff, * Gg, * (Hh, ) * Ii, * Jj, * Kk, * Ll, * Mm, * Nn, * (NY Ny ny, or ) * ÅŠÅ‹, * Oo, * Pp, * (Qq ) * Rr, * Ss, * Tt, * Uu, * Vv, * Ww, * (Xx ) * Yy, * Zz,


Grammar

Like most
Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
, Luganda's grammar can be said to be ''noun-centric'', as most words in a sentence agree with a noun. Agreement is by
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
and is indicated with prefixes attached to the start of word stems. The following parts of speech agree with nouns in class and number: *
adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
*
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
(for subject and object roles) *
pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...
*
possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...


Noun classes

NB: In the study of
Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
s the term ''noun class'' is often used to refer to what is called
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
in comparative linguistics and in the study of certain other languages. Hereafter, both terms may be used. There is some disagreement as to how to count Luganda's
noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...
es. Some authorities count
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...
and
plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
forms as two separate noun classes, but others treat the singular-plural pairs as
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
s. By the former method, there are 17 classes, and by the latter there are 10 since there are two pairs of classes with identical plurals and one class with no singular-plural distinction. The latter method is consistent with the study of non-Bantu languages. Applying the method to Luganda gives ten noun classes, nine of which have separate singular and plural forms. This is the usual way to discuss Luganda but not when discussing Bantu languages, generally. In addition, Luganda has four locative classes, , , , and . The following table shows how the ten traditional classes of Luganda map onto the Proto-Bantu noun classes: As the table shows, Proto-Bantu's polyplural classes (6 and 10) are treated as separate in this article. As is the case with most languages, the distribution of nouns among the classes is essentially arbitrary, but there are some loose patterns: * Class I contains mainly people, although some inanimate nouns can be found in this class: 'man', 'coffee' * Class II contains all sorts of nouns but most of the concrete nouns in Class II are long or cylindrical. Most trees fall into this class: 'tree' * Class III also contains many different types of concepts but most animals fall into this class: 'dog' * Class IV contains inanimate objects and is the class used for the impersonal 'it': 'book' * Class V contains mainly (but not exclusively) large things and liquids, and can also be used to create
augmentative An augmentative (abbreviated ) is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size but also in other attributes. It is the opposite of a diminutive. Overaugmenting something often makes it grotesque and so in so ...
s: 'breast', 'giant' (from 'person') * Class VI contains mainly small things and can be used to create diminutives, adjectival
abstract noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an object or subject within a phrase, clause, or sentence.Example ...
s and (in the plural) negative
verbal noun Historically, grammarians have described a verbal noun or gerundial noun as a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The ''sacking'' of the city was an epochal event" (wherein ...
s and countries: 'puppy' (from 'dog'), 'laziness' (from 'lazy'), 'inaction, not to do' (from 'to do, act'), 'Britain, England' (from 'British, English person') * Class VII contains many different things including the names of most languages: 'Ganda language', 'English language' (from 'European, white person') * Class VIII is rarely used but can be used to create
pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...
forms: 'mutt' (from 'dog') * Class IX is mainly used for
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
s or affirmative
verbal noun Historically, grammarians have described a verbal noun or gerundial noun as a verb form that functions as a noun. An example of a verbal noun in English is 'sacking' as in the sentence "The ''sacking'' of the city was an epochal event" (wherein ...
s: 'action, to do' (from the
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
'do, act') * Class X, which has no singular–plural distinction, is used for mass nouns, usually in the sense of 'a drop' or 'precious little': 'drop of water' (from 'water'), 'sleep' The class that a noun belongs to can usually be determined by its prefix: * Class I: singular , plural * Class II: singular , plural * Class III: singular , plural * Class IV: singular , plural * Class V: singular , , plural * Class VI: singular , plural * Class VII: singular , plural * Class VIII: singular , plural * Class IX: singular , plural * Class X: There are a few cases where prefixes overlap: the singulars of Classes I and II (both beginning with ); the singular of Class III and plurals of Classes III and VII (all beginning with ); and the plurals of Classes V and IX (both ). Genuine ambiguity, however, is rare, since even where the noun prefixes are the same, the other prefixes are often different. For example, there can be no confusion between (Class I) 'person' and (Class II) 'seat' in the sentences 'The person is here' and 'The seat is here' because the verb prefixes (Class I) and (Class II) are different, even if the noun prefixes are the same. The same is true with the singular and plural of Class III: 'The dog is eating' vs 'The dogs are eating' (compare English ''The sheep is eating'' vs ''The sheep are eating'' where the noun is invariant but the verb distinguishes singular from plural). In fact, the plurals of Classes III and VII, and those of Classes V and IX, are identical in all their prefixes (noun, verb, adjective ''etc.''). Class V uses its noun prefixes somewhat differently from the other classes. The singular noun prefix, , is often reduced to with an accompanying doubling of the stem's initial consonant. This happens when the stem begins with a single plosive, or a single nasal stop followed by a long vowel, a nasal stop and then a plosive (called a ''nasalised stem''). For example: * 'egg'; plural (from stem ) * 'country'; plural (from nasalised stem —the becomes when doubled) * 'cricket'; plural (from nasalised stem —the becomes when doubled) Other stems use the full prefix: * 'name'; plural (from stem ) * 'eye'; plural (from stem ) * 'battery'; plural (from stem ) There are also some nouns that have no prefix. Their genders must simply be learnt by rote: * Class I: 'gentleman, sir', 'madam', 'god', 'king', (or ') 'tea', 'coffee' * Class III: 'cat', ' gomesi (traditional East African women's formal dress)'
Adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
s,
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s, certain
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
s, the
possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...
and a few special forms of conjunctions are
inflected In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
to agree with nouns in Luganda.


Nouns

Nouns are inflected for
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
and state. Number is indicated by replacing the singular prefix with the plural prefix. For example, 'man', 'men'; 'comb', 'combs'. All word classes agree with nouns in number and class. State is similar to
case Case or CASE may refer to: Instances * Instantiation (disambiguation), a realization of a concept, theme, or design * Special case, an instance that differs in a certain way from others of the type Containers * Case (goods), a package of relate ...
but applies to verbs and other parts of speech as well as nouns, pronouns and adjectives. There are two states in Luganda, which may be called the base state and the topic state. The base state is unmarked and the topic state is indicated by the presence of the initial vowel. The topic state is used for nouns in the following conditions: * Subject of a sentence * Object of an affirmative verb (other than the verb 'to be') The base state is used for the following conditions: * Object of a negative verb * Object of a preposition * Noun predicate (whether or not there is an explicit copula or verb 'to be')


Pronouns

Luganda has a closed set of pronouns.


Personal Pronouns

Luganda can have self-standing/independent personal pronouns and pronouns that are prefixed to the verb stem.


= Self-Standing Pronouns

= These include , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and . * 'I,me' * 'you' * 'he/she,him/her' * 'we,us' * 'you' * 'they,them' Note that the sex/gender of referents is not distinguished so one has to be very careful how one translates Luganda pronouns into languages like English. For instance ''Ye musawo'' can be translated as "She is a doctor" or as "He is a doctor".


Adjectives

As in other
Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups ...
(as well as most
Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
and
Afro-Asiatic languages The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...
),
adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
s must agree in
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
with the
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
they qualify. For example: * 'beautiful girl' (Class I,
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...
) * 'beautiful girls' (Class I,
plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
) * 'beautiful tree' (Class II, singular) * 'beautiful trees' (Class II, plural) * 'beautiful/good car(s)' (Class V, singular/plural) In these examples the adjective changes its prefix according to the gender (Class I or II) and number (singular or plural) of the noun it is qualifying (compare
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
, , , ). In some cases the prefix causes the initial of the stem to change to or .
Attributive adjective An adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English languag ...
s agree in state with the noun they qualify, but
predicative adjective A predicative expression (or just predicative) is part of a clause predicate, and is an expression that typically follows a copula or linking verb, e.g. ''be'', ''seem'', ''appear'', or that appears as a second complement (object complement) of ...
s never take the initial vowel. Similarly, the subject relative is formed by adding the initial vowel to the verb (because a main verb is a predicate).


Adverbs

True
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
s in the
grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to formu ...
sense are far rarer in Luganda than in, say, English, being mostly translated by other parts of speech—for example
adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
s or
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
. When the adverb is qualifying a
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
, it is usually translated by an adjective, which then agrees with the subject of the verb. For example: * 'She slanders me badly' * 'They slander me badly' Here, 'badly' is translated with the adjective 'bad, ugly', which is declined to agree with the subject. Other concepts can be translated by invariant
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
. for example the intensifying
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
is attached to an adjective or verb to mean 'very', 'a lot'. For example: 'Lukwago drinks a lot'. There are also two groups of true adverb in Luganda, both of which agree with the verbal subject or qualified noun (not just in
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
but also in
person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
), but which are
inflected In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
differently. The first group is conjugated in the same way as
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s and contains only a few words: 'how', 'like this', 'like that': * 'I speak like this' * 'Muslims pray like this' * 'The monkey eats like this' * 'Monkeys eat like this' The adverb 'like this' (the last word in each of the above sentences) is conjugated as a verb to agree with the subject of the sentence in gender, number and person. The second group takes a different set of prefixes, based on the pronouns. Adverbs in this group include 'all' (or, with the singular, 'any'), 'only', , 'both' and 'all three': * 'I work alone' * 'Only I work' * 'Only you work' * 'Only I will buy the car' * 'I will only buy the car' Note how, in the last two examples, the adverb agrees with whichever antecedent it is qualifying — either the implicit 'I' or the explicit 'the car'. Note also, in the first two examples, how the placement of before or after the verb makes the difference between 'only' (when the adverb qualifies and agrees with the subject—the implicit 'I') and 'alone' (when it qualifies the verb 'I work' but agrees with the subject).


Possessive

The
possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...
in Luganda is indicated with a different
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
for each singular and plural
noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...
(according to the possessed noun). An alternative way of thinking about the Luganda possessive is as a single word whose initial
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
is altered to agree with the possessed noun in class and number. Depending on the possessed noun, the possessive takes one of the following forms: * Singular , plural (Class I) * Singular , plural (Class II) * Singular , plural (Class III) * Singular , plural (Class IV) * Singular , plural (Class V) * Singular , plural (Class VI) * Singular , plural (Class VII) * Singular , plural (Class VIII) * Singular , plural (Class IX) * (Class X) If the possessor is a
personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Personal pronouns may also take different f ...
, the separate possessive form is not used. Instead, the following personal possessives are used: * 'my', 'your (singular possessor)', 'his, her'; 'our', 'your (plural possessor)', 'their' (Class I, singular possessed noun) * 'my', 'your (singular possessor)', 'his, her'; 'our', 'your (plural possessor)', 'their' (Class I, plural possessed noun) * 'my', 'your (singular possessor)', 'his, her'; 'our', 'your (plural possessor)', 'their' (Class II, singular possessed noun) * 'my', 'your (singular possessor)', 'his, her'; 'our', 'your (plural possessor)' 'their' (Class II, plural possessed noun) * 'my', 'your', ''etc.'' (Class III, singular possessed noun) * ''Etc.'' There are also a few
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
s that take special forms when used with a possessive: * 'my father', 'your (singular) father', 'his/her father'


Verbs


Subjects

As in other
Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
s, every
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
must also agree with its subject in gender and number (as opposed to number only as in Indo-European languages). For example: * 'the man is drinking' (Class I, singular) * 'the men are drinking' (Class I, plural) * 'the goat is drinking' (Class III, singular) * 'the goats are drinking' (Class III, plural) * 'the baby/infant is drinking' (Class VI, singular) * 'the babies/infants are drinking' (Class VI, plural) Here, the verb changes its prefix according to the gender and number of its subject. Note, in the third and fourth examples, how the verb agrees with the
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
of the noun even when the noun does not explicitly reflect the number distinction. The subject prefixes for the
personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it''). Personal pronouns may also take different f ...
s are: * First person: singular 'I', plural 'we' * Second person: singular 'you (singular)', 'you (plural)' * Third person: singular 'he, she', 'they (Class I)' For
impersonal pronoun ''One'' is an English language, gender-neutral, indefinite pronoun that means, roughly, "a person". For purposes of verb agreement it is a third-person singular pronoun, though it sometimes appears with first- or second-person reference. It ...
s the subject prefixes are: * Class I: singular , plural (''i.e.'' the third person prefixes shown directly above) * Class II: singular , plural * Class III: singular , plural * Class IV: singular , plural * Class V: singular , plural * Class VI: singular , plural * Class VII: singular , plural * Class VIII: singular , plural * Class IX: singular , plural * Class X:


Objects

When the verb governs one or more objects, there is also an agreement between the object prefixes and the gender and number of their antecedents: * 'I drink it (''e.g.'' coffee)' ( 'coffee', Class I singular) * 'I drink it (''e.g.'' water)' ( 'water', Class IX plural) As with the subject prefix, the third person prefixes also agree with their antecedents in
person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
. The personal object prefixes are: * First person: singular 'me', plural 'us' * Second person: singular 'you (singular)', 'you (plural)' * Third person: singular 'him, her', 'them (Class I)' For the impersonal third person the object prefixes are: * Class I: singular , plural (''i.e.'' the third person prefixes shown directly above) * Class II: singular , plural * Class III: singular , plural * Class IV: singular , plural * Class V: singular , plural * Class VI: singular , plural * Class VII: singular , plural * Class VIII: singular , plural * Class IX: singular , plural * Class X: Note the similarity between each subject prefix and the corresponding object prefix: they are the same in all cases except Class I and the singular of Class III. Note also the correspondence between the object prefixes and the noun prefixes (see Nouns above): when every in the noun prefix is replaced by a in the object prefix, the only differences are in Classes I and III. The
direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
prefix is usually inserted directly after the subject prefix: * 'I have eaten it' ( subject 'I' + object 'it' + verb 'ate') The
indirect object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
prefix comes after the direct object: * 'I have given it to him' ( subject 'I' + object 'it' + object '(to) him' + verb 'gave')


Negative

The negative is usually formed by prefixing or to the subject prefix, or, in the case of the first person singular, replacing the prefix with . This results in the following set of personal subject prefixes: * First person: singular 'I', plural 'we' * Second person: singular 'you (singular)', 'you (plural)' * Third person: singular 'he, she', 'they (Class I)' The negative impersonal subject prefixes are: * Class I: singular , plural (''i.e.'' the third person prefixes shown directly above) * Class II: singular , plural * Class III: singular , plural * Class IV: singular , plural * Class V: singular , plural * Class VI: singular , plural * Class VII: singular , plural * Class VIII: singular , plural * Class IX: singular , plural * Class X: When used with object relatives or the narrative tense (see below), the negative is formed with the prefix , which is inserted after the subject and object affixes: * 'The person whom I saw' * 'The person whom I didn't see'


Modified stems

To form some tenses, a special form of the verb stem, called the 'modified form', is used. This is formed by making various changes to the final syllable of the stem, usually involving either changing the final syllable to one of the following
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
es: * * * * * * * * * * * The modified form of verb stems is the only real source of irregularity in Luganda's verbal system. Monosyllabic verbs, in particular, have unpredictable modified forms: * 'to be' * 'to die' * 'to deny, forbid' * 'to end' (intransitive) * 'to remove' or * 'to cook' (intransitive) * 'to fall' * 'to come' * 'to go down, come down' * 'to catch' * 'to delay' * 'to eat' * 'to find out, realise' * 'to drink' * 'to release' * 'to put' * 'to kill' * 'to take' * 'to be afraid' * 'to come from' * 'to give' * 'to call' * 'to pass'


Tense and mood

Tense–aspect–mood Tense–aspect–mood (commonly abbreviated in linguistics) or tense–modality–aspect (abbreviated as ) is an important group of grammatical categories, which are marked in different ways by different languages. TAM covers the expression of ...
in Luganda is explicitly marked on the verb, as it is in most other
Bantu language The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu language, Proto-Bantu: *bantÊŠÌ€), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern, East Africa, Eastern and Southeast Africa, South ...
s.


=Present tense

= The present tense is formed by simply adding the subject prefixes to the stem. The negative is formed in the same way but with the negative subject prefixes (this is the usual way of forming the negative in Luganda). The present perfect is just the subject prefix plus the modified stem: * 'I have done' * 'you have done' * 'he, she has done' * 'we have done' * 'you (plural) have done' * 'they (class I) have done' The present perfect in Luganda is sometimes slightly weaker in its past meaning than in English. It is often used with
intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...
s with the sense of being in the state of having done something. For example, means 'my husband has arrived' (using the present perfect form of the verb 'to come'); usually means 'I'm off' rather than 'I have gone'. But to say ''I have done'' in Muganda would usually use one of the past tenses or 'I did' because is a transitive verb. The present perfect is also used to show physical attitude. For example, using the verb 'to sit down': (present tense) means 'I am in the process of sitting myself down'; to say 'I'm sitting down' in the usual sense of 'I'm seated' in standard English, a Muganda would use the present perfect: (as in certain non-standard varieties of British English).


=Past tenses

= The near past is formed by inserting the prefix before the modified form of the stem. This prefix, being a vowel, has the effect of changing the form of the subject prefixes: * 'I did' * 'you did' * 'he, she did' * 'we did' * 'you (plural) did' * 'they (class I) did' * ... The near past tense is used for events that have happened in the past 18 hours. The negative is formed in the usual way. The far past is formed with the same prefix as the near past, but using the simple form of the stem: * 'I did' * 'you did' * 'he, she did' * 'we did' * 'you (plural) did' * 'they (class I) did' * ... The far past tense is used for events that happened more than 18 hours ago, and can also be used as a weak
pluperfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, characterizes certain verb forms and grammatical tenses involving an action from an antecedent point in time. Examples in English are: "we ''had arrived''" ...
. This is the tense that is used in
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
s and
storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing narrative, stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatre, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cul ...
.


=Future tenses

= The near future is used when describing things that are going to happen within the next 18 hours. It is formed with the prefix on the simple form of the stem: * 'I shall do' * 'you will do' * 'he, she will do' * 'we shall do' * 'you (plural) will do' * 'they (class I) will do' * 'they (class III) will do' * 'they (class III) will do' * ... In the second person
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...
and the singular of Class III, the prefix becomes and in harmony with the subject prefix. The negative form of this tense is formed by changing the final of the stem to an and using vowel-lengthened negative subject prefixes; no tense prefix is used: * 'I shan't do' * 'you won't do' * 'he, she won't do' * 'we shan't do' * 'you (plural) won't do' * 'they (class I) won't do' * 'it (class II) won't do' * 'they (class II) won't do' * 'he, she, it (class III) won't do' * 'they (class III) won't do' * ... The far future is used for events that will take place more than 18 hours in the future. It is formed with the prefix on the simple form of the stem: * 'I shall do' * 'you will do' * 'he, she will do' * 'we shall do' * 'you (plural) will do' * 'they (class I) will do' * ... Note how the of the tense prefix becomes a after the of the first person
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names * Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo *'' Singula ...
subject prefix.


=Other

= The
conditional mood The conditional mood (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual. It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
is formed with the prefix and the modified form of the stem: * 'I would do' * 'you would do' * 'he, she would do' * 'we would do' * 'you (plural) would do' * 'they (class I) would do' The
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
is formed by changing the final of the stem to an : * 'I may do' * 'you may do' * 'he, she may do' * 'we may do' * 'you may do' * 'they may do' The negative is formed either with the
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
('to fail') plus the
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
: * 'I may not do' * 'you may not do' * 'he, she may not do' * 'we may not do' * 'you may not do' * 'they may not do' or using the same forms as the negative of the near future: * 'I may not do' * 'you may not do' * 'he, she may not do' * 'we may not do' * 'you may not do' * 'they may not do' Luganda has some special tenses not found in many other languages. The 'still' tense is used to say that something is still happening. It is formed with the prefix : * 'I'm still doing' * 'you're still doing' * 'he, she is still doing' * 'we're still doing' * 'you're still doing' * 'they're still doing' In the negative it means 'no longer': * 'I'm no longer doing' * 'you're no longer doing' * 'he, she is no longer doing' * 'we're no longer doing' * 'you're no longer doing' * 'they're no longer doing' With
intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...
s, especially verbs of physical attitude (see Present Perfect above), the prefix can also be used with the modified verb stem to give a sense of 'still being in a state'. For example, means 'I'm still seated'. The 'so far' tense is used when talking about what has happened so far, with the implication that more is to come. It is formed with the prefix : * 'I have so far done' * 'you have so far done' * 'he, she has so far done' * 'we have so far done' * 'you have so far done' * 'they have so far done' This tense is found only in the affirmative. The 'not yet' tense, on the other hand, is found only in the negative. It is used to talk about things that have not happened yet (but which may well happen in the future), and is formed with the prefix : * 'I haven't yet done' * 'you haven't yet done' * 'he, she hasn't yet done' * 'we haven't yet done' * 'you haven't yet done' * 'they haven't yet done' When describing a series of events that happen (or will or did happen) sequentially, the
narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller ...
form is used for all but the first verb in the sentence. It is formed by the
particle In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscle in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
(or before a
vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
) followed by the present tense: * 'I went and made a phone call' * 'I'll go and make a phone call' The narrative can be used with any tense, as long as the events it describes are in immediate sequence. The negative is formed with the prefix placed immediately after the object prefixes (or after the subject prefix if no object prefixes are used): * 'I didn't go and did not make a phone call' * 'I won't go and will not make a phone call' * 'I haven't gone to make it yet' Compare this with the negative construction used with the object relatives.


Auxiliary verbs

Other tenses can be formed periphrastically, with the use of
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
s. Some of Luganda's auxiliary verbs can also be used as main verbs; some are always auxiliaries: * 'to be': used with an optional with another
finite verb A finite verb is a verb that contextually complements a subject, which can be either explicit (like in the English indicative) or implicit (like in null subject languages or the English imperative). A finite transitive verb or a finite intra ...
to form compound tenses * 'to come': forms a future tense when used with the infinitive of the main verb * or (only used as an auxiliary): appears with another finite verb, usually translated 'and then' or (in the subjunctive) 'so that' * 'to finish': used with the infinitive to denote completed action, or with the stem of the main verb prefixed with to mean 'whether one wants to or not' * (only used as an auxiliary): used with the infinitive of the main verb to mean (in the present tense) 'to tend to' or (in the near future) 'about to' * 'to come from': followed by the main verb in the infinitive, means 'just been' * 'to fail': used with the infinitive to form negatives


Derivational affixes

The meaning of a verb can be altered in an almost unlimited number of ways by means of modifications to the verb stem. There are only a handful of core derivational modifications, but these can be added to the verb stem in virtually any combination, resulting in hundreds of possible compound modifications. The
passive Passive may refer to: * Passive voice, a grammatical voice common in many languages, see also Pseudopassive * Passive language, a language from which an interpreter works * Passivity (behavior), the condition of submitting to the influence of ...
is produced by replacing the final with or /: * 'to see' → 'to be seen' The reflexive is created by adding the prefix to the verb stem (equivalent to replacing the prefix of the
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
with ): * 'to kill' → 'to kill oneself' Many verbs are used only in their reflexive form: * 'to sleep' (simple form * is not used) * 'to need' (simple form * is not used) Reduplication is formed by doubling the stem, and generally adds the sense of repetition or intensity: * 'to strike' → 'to batter' The applied, or prepositional, modification, allows the verb to take an extra
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...
and gives it the meaning 'to do for or with (someone or something)'. It is formed with the suffix inserted before the final of the verb: * 'to work' → 'to work for (an employer)' * 'to sleep' → 'to sleep on (''e.g.'' a piece of furniture)' Adding the applied suffix twice gives the 'augmentative applied' modification, which has an alternative applied sense, usually further removed from the original sense than the simple applied modification: * 'to work' → 'to utilise, employ' The
causative In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...
is formed with various changes applied to the end of the verb, usually involving the final changing to , or . It gives a verb the sense of 'to cause to do', and can also make an
intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...
transitive: * 'to see' → 'to show' (more commonly "okulaga", a different verb, is used). * 'to become' → 'to turn (something or someone) into (something else)' Applying two causative modifications results in the 'second causative': * 'to see' → 'to show' → 'to cause to show' The neuter modification, also known as the stative, is similar to the '-able' suffix in English, except that the result is a verb meaning 'to be ''x''-able' rather than an adjective meaning ''x''-able'. It is formed by inserting the suffix / before the verb's final : * 'to do' → 'to be possible' * 'to eat' → 'to be edible' The intransitive conversive modification reverses the meaning of an
intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...
and leaves it intransitive, or reverses the meaning of a
transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that entails one or more transitive objects, for example, 'enjoys' in ''Amadeus enjoys music''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not entail transitive objects, for example, 'arose' in ''Beatrice arose ...
and makes it intransitive, similar to English's 'un-' prefix. It is formed with the prefix inserted before the verb's final : * 'to pay a visit' → 'to end one's visit, to depart' The transitive conversive is similar to the intransitive conversive except that it results in a transitive verb. In other words, it reverses the meaning of an
intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb, aside from an auxiliary verb, whose context does not entail a transitive object. That lack of an object distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Add ...
and makes it transitive, or reverses the meaning of a transitive verb and leaves it transitive. It is formed with the suffix : * 'to do' → 'to undo' * 'to plant' → 'to uproot' * 'to pay a visit' → 'to send off' Two conversive suffixes create the augmentative conversive modification: * 'to deceive' → 'to disabuse, set straight' The reciprocal modification is formed with the suffix or (or less commonly ): * 'to see' → 'to see one another' * 'to kill' → 'to kill each other' The progressive is formed with the suffix . It is used with
finite verb A finite verb is a verb that contextually complements a subject, which can be either explicit (like in the English indicative) or implicit (like in null subject languages or the English imperative). A finite transitive verb or a finite intra ...
s to give the sense of continuousness: * 'I'll look after him' → 'I'll always look after him' * 'don't whinge' → 'never whinge' * 'don't steal' → 'thou shalt not steal' This is not really a modification but a
clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic ( , backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a ...
, so it is always applied 'after' any grammatical inflexions.


Combinations of modifications

More than one modification can be made to a single stem: * 'to be undo-able (''i.e.'' reversible)' — conversive neuter: → → * 'to transplant' — conversive applied causative: → → → * 'to look around oneself, be distracted' — reduplicative reciprocal: → → * 'to distract' — reduplicative reciprocal causative: → → → * 'to pretend to sleep' — reflexive augmentative applied causative → → (applied) → (augmentative applied) → There are some restrictions that apply to the combinations in which these modifications can be made. For example, the 'applied' modification cannot be made to a causative stem; any causative modifications must first be removed, the applied modification made and the causative modifications then reapplied. And since the reflexive is formed with a prefix rather than a suffix, it is impossible to distinguish between, for example, reflexive causative and causative reflexive.


Numbers

The Luganda system of
cardinal number In mathematics, a cardinal number, or cardinal for short, is what is commonly called the number of elements of a set. In the case of a finite set, its cardinal number, or cardinality is therefore a natural number. For dealing with the cas ...
s is quite complicated. The numbers 'one' to 'five' are specialised numerical
adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
s that agree with the
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
they qualify. The words for 'six' to 'ten' are numerical nouns that do not agree with the qualified noun. 'Twenty' to 'fifty' are expressed as multiples of ten using the cardinal numbers for 'two' to 'five' with the plural of 'ten'. 'Sixty' to 'one hundred' are numerical nouns in their own right, derived from the same roots as the nouns for 'six' to 'ten' but with different class prefixes. In a similar pattern, 'two hundred' to 'five hundred' are expressed as multiples of a hundred using the cardinal numbers with the plural of 'hundred'. Then 'six hundred' to 'one thousand' are nouns, again derived from the same roots as 'six' to 'ten'. The pattern repeats up to 'ten thousand', then standard nouns are used for 'ten thousand', 'one hundred thousand' and 'one million'. The words used for this system are: Numerical adjectives (declined to agree with the qualified noun): * (, , , , ...) 'one' * (, , ...) 'two' * (, , ...) 'three' * (, , ...) 'four' * (, , ...) 'five' Numerical nouns: * 'Six' to 'ten' (Classes II and V) ** 'six' (Class II) ** 'seven' ** 'eight' ** 'nine' ** 'ten'; plural (Class V) * 'Sixty' to 'one hundred' (Classes III and IV) ** 'sixty' (Class III) ** 'seventy' ** 'eighty' (Class IV) ** 'ninety' ** 'one hundred'; plural * 'Six hundred' to 'one thousand' (Class VII) ** 'six hundred' ** 'seven hundred' ** 'eight hundred' ** 'nine hundred' ** 'one thousand'; plural * 'Six thousand' to 'ten thousand' (Class VI) ** 'six thousand' ** 'seven thousand' ** 'eight thousand' ** 'nine thousand' ** (archaic) 'ten thousand'; plural Standard nouns: * 'ten thousand'; plural (Class II) * 'one hundred thousand'; plural (Class VI) * 'one million'; plural (Class VI) * 'one billion' (1,000,000,000); plural (Class VI) * 'one trillion' (1,000,000,000,000); plural * 'one quintillion' (1,000,000,000,000,000,000); plural (Class VI) * 'one septillion' (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000); plural (Class VI) Digits are specified from left to right, combined with (following ) and (following any other word). For example: * 12 (10 + 2) * 22 (10 × 2 + 2) * 65 (60 + 5) * 122 (100 + 10 × 2 + 2) * 222 (100 × 2 + 10 × 2 + 2) * 1,222 (1,000 + 100 × 2 + 10 × 2 + 2) * 1,024 (1,000 + 10 × 2 + 4) * 2,222 (1,000 × 2 + 100 × 2 + 10 × 2 + 2) * 2,500 (1,000 × 2 + 100 × 5) * 7,500 (7,000 + 100 × 5) * 7,600 (7,000 + 600) * 9,999 (9,000 + 900 + 90 + 9) * 999,000 * 1,000,000 (1,000,000) * 3,000,000 (1,000,000 × 3) * 10,000,000 (1,000,000 × 10) * 122,000,122 (1,000,000 * (100 + 10 × 2 + 2) + 100 + 10 × 2 + 2) The numerical adjectives agree with the qualified noun: * 'one car' (Class III) * 'one woman' (Class I) * 'five cars' * 'five women' but * 'a hundred cars' * 'a hundred women' and * 'eleven men' (Class I) * 'eleven cattle' (Class III) The forms , , , and are used when counting (as well as when qualifying nouns of classes III and VII). However, a complication arises from the agreement of numerical adjectives with the powers of ten. Since the words for 'ten', 'hundred', 'thousand' and so on belong to different classes, each power of ten can be inferred from the form of the adjective qualifying it, so the plural forms of the powers of ten ( 'tens', 'hundreds', 'tens of thousands' — but not 'thousands') are usually omitted, as long as this does not result in ambiguity. For example: * 40 → * 22 → * 222 → * 1,024 → * 2,222 → * 2,500 → * 7,500 → * 122,000,122 → Note that: * '40 batteries' cannot be shortened to because this means "four batteries", and '40 dogs' cannot be shortened to because is the form of used with , so this actually means 'four dogs'. * 'thousands' is also not usually omitted because the form the numerical adjectives take when qualifying it is the same as the counting form, so 3,000 will always be rendered .


Sample text


Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ''(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)''


References


Bibliography

* Ashton, Ethel O., and others (1954) ''A Luganda Grammar'', London: Longmans, Green. * Barlon, W. Kimuli (2009) ''Luganda Language: A connection with Nyanja of Zambia''. pp. 04 * Chesswas, J. D. (1963) ''Essentials of Luganda''. Oxford University Press * Crabtree, W. A. (1902, 1923
''Elements of Luganda Grammar''
The Uganda Bookshop/Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge * Dutcher, Katharine & Mary Paster (2008)
"Contour Tone Distribution in Luganda"
''Proceedings of the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics'', ed. Natasha Abner and Jason Bishop, 123–131. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. * Hubbard, Kathleen (1995) "Toward a theory of phonological and phonetic timing: evidence from Bantu". In Connell, Bruce & Amalia Arvanti (eds), ''Phonology and Phonetic Evidence: Papers in Laboratory Phonology IV'' pp. 168–187. * Hyman, Larry & Francis Katamba (1993) "A new approach to tone in Luganda", in ''Language''. 69. 1. pp. 33–67 * Hyman, Larry & Francis Katamba (2001
"The Word in Luganda"
* Kamoga, F.K. & Stevick, E.W. (1968)
''Luganda Basic Course''
. Foreign Service Institute, Washington. Sound files of this course are available free on the Internet. * Kamoga, F.K & Stevick, E.W. (1968). ''Luganda Pretraining Program''. Foreign Service Institute, Washington. * Murphy, John D. (1972) ''Luganda-English Dictionary''. Catholic University of America Press. * Pilkington, G.L. (1911
''The Hand-Book Of Luganda''
SPCK. * Snoxall, R.A. (1967) ''Luganda-English Dictionary''. Clarendon Press, Oxford *


External links

* An excellent online summary of the Luganda language can be found at http://www.buganda.com/luganda.htm. * Free online Luganda Dictionary on the Ganda Ancestry website https://web.archive.org/web/20080122111606/http://www.gandaancestry.com/dictionary/dictionary.php * Free online talking Luganda Dictionary and Crossword Puzzle on the Ganda portal http://www.GandaSpace.com
English–Luganda Dictionary for printing (24 pages, A5)

Luganda–English Dictionary
* The website of a team developing Luganda language capability for computers is at https://archive.today/20011115110455/http://www.kizito.uklinux.net/ * Paradisec open acces
collection of recordings
in Luganda {{DEFAULTSORT:Luganda language Buganda Languages of Uganda Nyoro-Ganda languages Subject–verb–object languages