Annotating Runyankore-Rukiga
Runyankore-Rukiga refers to two of the four closely related languages of Uganda which form part of a new standardized language of Uganda together with Runyoro and Rutooro. Sometimes Runyakitara is used to refer to the standardized form of these four languages; see for example the following still incomplete wikipedia article .
Here we discuss questions related to the annotation of Runyankore-Rukiga texts and sentence collections in TypeCraft. The material is annotated by Allen Asiimwe who is a lecturer at Makerere University. She is a speaker of Rukiga. In addition Justus Turamyomwe and Misah Natumanya both graduate students at the Linguistic Department at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU annotate.
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Annotating in TypeCraft
The following example shows a standard TypeCraft annotation. TypeCraft uses three tiers for linguistic annotation: a translational tier, a gloss tier and a part-of-speech tier. When interlinear glosses (IG) are exported from TypeCraft the translational and the gloss tier are collapsed for presentational reasons. You need to have a login to TypeCraft in order to annotate. Simply write and e-mail using the mail address given on the [Main Page]
(1)
The free morphemes aha and omu
The free forms aha and omu are derived from the locative classes ha- and mu- via the affixation of an initial vowel. Both forms may occur as part of a locative expression, as determiners or as pronouns. In the example below aha is categorised as a preposition. On of the projects the Runyankore-Rukiga group is working on is to develop a better understanding of the role that both elements play in the grammar of Runyankore-Rukiga.
The following two phrases taken from the TC-database represent one of the interesting phenomena that we came across while annotating Runyankore-Rukiga: (1)
In (1) the verb kugamb meaning speak carries the applicative suffix -ir. Interestingly it seems to be the applicative marker that forces a spatial interpretation of aha, since (2) below is ambiguous between a 'spatial interpretation' and a 'topic interpretation' of the prepositional phrase headed by aha: (3)
Is there a preposition 'of' in Runyankore-Rukiga?
The following sentences taken from the TC database have in common that they contain a phrase that is translated using the English preposition of. The corresponding element in RR is sometimes a free, sometimes a bound morpheme.
Its forms are: we,gwe, bw, rwa, ka, za, bwa, ya.
Following Taylor (1985) -a is the possessive marker while the variation derives from agreement. Should we call this formative a preposition?
Diverging noun class systems for Runyankore-Rukiga
Morris.H.F. and B.F.R. Kirwan(1972) and Taylor, C. (1985) see Bantu Bibliography feature two different noun class systems.
| noun class | Morris & Kirwan | Taylor |
| 1 | mu-(omuntu) | Omu (omukazi) |
| 2 | ba- (abantu) | aba (abakazi) |
| 3 | ki-(ekintu) | omu (omuti) |
| 4 | bi-(ebintu) | emi (emiti) |
| 5 | n- (ente) | eri (eriino) |
| 6 | n- (ente) | ama (amaino) |
| 7 | ku- (okutu) | eki (ekitabo) |
| 8 | ma-(amatu) | ebi (ebitabo) |
| 9 | bu- (obuta) | en (eka) |
| 10 | ma- (amata) | ama (amaka) |
| 11 | ri- (eriino) | oru (orura) |
| 12 | ma- (amaino) | ama (amara) |
| 13 | ru- (orushozi) | oru (orushozi) orukuuto |
| 14 | n- (enshozi) | en (enshozi)/enkuuto |
| 15 | ka- (akantu) | oru (orushaza) |
| 16 | bu- (obuntu) | obu(obushaza) |
| 17 | tu- (oturo) | aka (akagiiko) |
| 18 | ha- (ahantu) | obu (obugiiko) |
| 19 | mu- | aka (akaato) |
| 20 | ku- | otu (otwato) |
| 21 | gu- (ogushaija) | otu (oturo) |
| 22 | ga- (agashaija) | obu (obuta) |
| 23 | ama (amata) |
The following are ditransitive constructions in Runyankore-Rukiga.
| Birungi |
| birungi |
| Np |
| yaaha | |||
| y | aa | h | a |
| 1SBJ | PRES | give | IND |
| V | |||
| Karungi |
| karungi |
| Np |
| ebitabo | ||
| e | bi | tabo |
| IV | 8 | book |
| N | ||
| Birungi |
| birungi |
| Np |
| ebitabo | ||
| e | bi | tabo |
| IV | 8 | book |
| N | ||
| yaabiha | ||||
| ya | a | bi | h | a |
| 1SBJ | PRES | 8 | give | IND |
| V | ||||
| Karungi |
| karungi |
| Np |
| Kato |
| kato |
| Np |
| akagurira | ||||
| a | ka | gur | ir | a |
| 1SBJ | IV | buy | APPL | IND |
| V | ||||
| nyina |
| nyina |
| N |
| orugoye | ||
| o | ru | goye |
| IV | 11 | cloth |
| N | ||