Difference between revisions of "Diminutives in Luganda"

Revision as of 17:43, 28 January 2011

by Medadi Erisa Ssentanda

DIMINUTIVES IN LUGANDA

Introduction

A diminutive (DIM) form refers to a slight degree of something, smallness of an object or quality, but it can also express intimacy or endearment. Luganda (Bantu E15) like many other Bantu languages uses noun class prefixes and adjectives to mark diminutives. When a noun appears in its diminutive form agreement is required. This means that various words that modify the noun must carry agreement prefixes.

All nouns and all proper names in Luganda can appear in a diminutive form by adding an affix. Diminutives in Luganda are widely formed by assigning any noun or proper name to classes 12/13 (12 = aka/ 13= otu) for singular and plural respectively. Class 14 (obu) is also diminutive, but class 14 contains more inherent nouns than 12 and 13. Classes 12/13 have very few nouns that inherently belong to these classes, and these inherently assigned nouns are not semantically diminutives. Examples of inherently assigned nouns to class 12/13 are:

The plural of nouns in class 12 is class 14 obu. For instance akamooli ventilator in class 14 is obumooli ventilators.

Nouns in class 12 and others can be pluralised in class 13 but with a diminutive connotation of smallness, beauty and endearment. So, the only inherent noun in cl13 is otulo sleep

Class 14 = Obu has inherently mass nouns that cannot be pluralised. The inherently assigned nouns include but not only:See table below:

Nouns in cl12 when pluralised but with no Diminutive connotation go to cl14; when a diminutive connotation is intended then cl 13 is ude.

See this table (no diminutive connotation):

But when a diminutive connotation of those nouns is intended, then cl13 otu is used as given here:

Lets now look at the derivation of diminutives.

Examples are given in the table below:

Example sentences

In this phrase, the man referred to is negatively evaluated. Inherently, use of this class 12 in a diminutive sense implies that something is small or tiny. However, the context determines whether such a thing or person referred to is negatively evaluated or not. For instance in the social-cultural use of this nou (as explained below), when this class is appended to a noun, no negative connotation is intended. For instance, the sentence Akagoye ko kalungi means that the cloth/dress/shirt is positively evaluated and the speaker in so saying would want to posses such a cloth.

The other additional element of meaning that is often associated with diminutive forms in Luganda is the emotive element involving expression of affection, endearment or sympathy towards the referent. For instance, in sentence (1) above, the speaker treasures the little salt referred to. Possibly it is the only salt left, and he/she cannot stand to waste it.

Like Booij (2005:14) puts it, diminutives are not only used to denote small size but also for giving a positive negative evaluation. For instance in sentence (3) the jobs referred to are disapproved, they are not proper. I thought he/she does any kind of job he/she finds; he/she does not discriminate, and the jobs are short lived, but not disapproved In Luganda, diminution can also be formed by adding affixes to proper names: when this is done, the noun becomes derogatory and negatively evaluates the referent. This addition of a diminutive prefix onto a proper name can also mean little or endearment. However, the meaning here can also be colloquial. For instance:

In this case the meaning of the diminutive varies from the context to context, see example ii above. The John in question can be endeared to the speaker or that the John talked of is negatively evaluated (derogatory). In his paper, A short survey of Diminutives in Slovak and English Alena Kačmárová mentions something interesting about diminutives: A means by which a language can be considered ‘cute’ is the usage of diminutive forms of nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs. In Luganda this phenomenon is true, diminution can at times be untranslatable. It is not uncommon in Ugandan English to hear Luganda speakers appending Luganda diminutives to English words in an attempt to express their intended meaning. This probably comes because the intended shade of meaning has no match to the English equivalents. What is interesting is that, the diminutives are sometimes appended to the English diminutives, see example iii and iv below. The same case happens with augmentation.

In example (6) the speaker endears the dress. The dress is not necessarily small but it is endeared or taken to be precious to the speaker. This kind of language is so common among the youth.

In example (7) notice that ka (class12 prefix) denotes smallness, and the English adjective small also means small; but because of the untranslatable nature of some meanings, some speakers feel unsatisfied with using only the English adjective.

Adjectives denoting diminution

-tono small

–tini tiny

This adjective, -tini is very common in young children’s language. They use it to refer to smallness and also to tininess of something. Adults do not usually use this adjective.

Cultural usage of diminutives

In Kiganda culture, when someone gives birth, people begin to ask of the sex of the baby one gave birth to. The question posed in this situation is diminutive denoting littlness, endearment and affection:

Also, when one is congratulating a mother they say:

References

Booij, G.(2005) The Grammar of Words: An Introduction (2nd edn). Oxford University Press: UK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminutive

Kačmárová, Alena. A short survey of Diminutives in Slovak and English