Typological Features Template for Luganda

By Medadi Erisa Ssentanda

Feature	Description
Phonological Features
Vowel inventory	Luganda has only 5 vowels: [ a, e, i, o, u ]. Any of them can be long or short. i: high, front u: high, back e: mid, front o: mid, back a:front, low
Vowel harmony Nominal Vowel harmony	Vowel harmony in Luganda relates to the Luganda Vowel Chart, which contains only five vowels. The vowel on the noun class dictates the initial vowel that the noun takes on. The Luganda noun classes allow only three vowels, namely: [u, i, a]. The occurence of any of those vowels on a noun class dictates the initial vowel in this manner: [u] harmonizes with [o], [i] harmonizes with [e] and [a] harmonizes with [a]. Examples, omuti, emiti, amata.
Verbal Vowel harmony	This harmony occurs on suffixes only. This harmony follows this manner: verbs whose penultimate syllable has [a, u, i] harmonizes with [i] in suffixing the root. Verbs whose penultimate syllable has [e, o] harmonizes with [e] in suffing the root. Examples: sab-a = sabira, fun-a = funira, sib-a = sibira, som-a, sek-a = sekera, simool-a = simoolera
Consonant inventory	There are mainly 20 consonants in Luganda: [p, b, m, w, f, v, t, d, n, l, s, z, c, j, y, ny, k, g, ŋ, nÿ ]. Bilabials [p, b, m], labiodentals [f, v], alveolars [t, d, n, l, s, z], alveopatal [nÿ], palatals [c, J,nnya], velars [k, g, ŋ], semivowels [w,y].Each of those consonants can combine with any vowel to form a syllable. All consonants can be long with the exception of [w,y,l]. A long consonant is one that is pronounced with force as compared to one that is single.
Consonantal Combinations	[m] is followed by bilabials. [n] is followed by all other consonants except [l]. [n] is followed by all alveolars except [l]. [ŋ] is followed by all velars.
Semi vowel combinations	All consonants can be followed by a semivowel except labiodentals, [f, v]. [f, v] cannot be followed by [w]. [s,z,c,J,nÿ] are not followed by [y]. [ŋ] does not allow combining with [y]. Allophonetic sounds include: [β, ɱ, ɽ, l]
Tone	Luganda is a pitch-accent or a two tone language. Tone in the roots of uttarances can be arranged as HL or HH. Sometimes a resultant HF tone may occur. The two basic tones are modified by downstepping and downdrifting. Changes in the pitch of a syllable trigers a change meaning of a word. For instance, the word okubala can be marked in two different ways: when all the syllables are marked with high tones, the word will mean "to count"; when only the penultimate syllable is marked high, the word will mean "to yield or to bear fruit".It thus follows that, for a non-native speaker to learn this language, they must master the tones; they must listhen very carefully.
Syllable Structure	Basic syllable structures: V, CV, CV:, C:V, C:V:, NCV, NCV:, Cw/yV, C:w/yV, C:w/yV:, NCw/yV, N
Morpho-syntactic Features
morphological classification (1)	Luganda is principally/basically agglutinative, which in many cases exhibit modifications in the roots of verbs when particular affixes are added. Among the affixes present in Luganda are: prefixes, suffixes and infixes.
morphological classification (2)	Luganda is generally a head-marking language at both phrase and sentence level. For instance, Omwana (N) omuto (Adj) akuba (V) embwa (Obj) [A little child is beating a dog]. In pronominalisation forms, it is possible to have a dependent marking in the verb phrase. For instance, Omwana omuto agikuba. [A little child is beating it]. A- [Subj], -gi- [Obj], kub-a [V].
Nominal Phrases	In the following fields we aim for a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents
syntactic structure	In the following fields a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of nominal constituents are given.
Nominal modification	Luganda is one of the Bantu languages with a noun class system (sometimes referred to as gender). Of the 23 Bantu noun classes, Luganda has 21: IOMU singular, 2ABA plural, 3OMU singular, 4EMI plural, 5ELI singular, 6AMA plural, 7EKI singular, 8EBI plural, 9EN singular, 10EN plural, 11OLU singular, 12AKA singular, 13OTU plural 14OBU singular, 15OKU singular, 16WA 17KU,18MU, 20OGU singular, 22AGA plural. 23E. The class underwhich a noun falls may be determined by the prefix. A Luganda noun is glutinable for number and gender. The linear ordering in a noun phrase is: Determiner-Noun-Possessor-Numeral-Quantifier-Modifier-Verb. Just like the grammars of most Bantu languages, the grammar of Luganda can be said to be noun-centred: most words in a sentence agree with a noun. Agreement is based on the noun class (this is comparatively referred to as gender) and number. This agreement is realised by prefixes attached to the start of word stems. The parts of speech that manifest agreement are: verb (for subject and object); adjective; pronoun and possessive.
Nominal specification	To specify a noun, Luganda uses determiners, demonstratives, numerals, quantifiers and nominal specifiers.
Possession	Luganda uses specific Possessor roots in different grammatical persons. Person Singular Plural 1st 2nd 3rd
Pronominal system	Luganda has both free and bound pronoun forms. All pronouns are marked for their grammatical functions: there are subject and object pronouns. All pronouns in Luganda appear as prefixes. Luganda is also rich in double object constructions.
	The free pronoun forms are: Person Singular Plural 1st Nze Ffe 2nd Ggwe Mmwe 3rd Ye Bo
Subject and Object Personal pronouns	Subject Pronouns Person Singular Plural 1st n- tu- 2nd o- mu- 3rd a- ba-
Object Pronouns	Person Singular Plural 1st -n- -tu- 2nd -ku- -ba- 3rd -mu- -ba-
Subject pronouns: example sentences	Nsoma ekitabo ‘I am reading a book’ Osoma ekitabo ‘You are reading a book’ Asoma kitabo ‘He/She is reading a book’ Tusoma ekitabo ‘We are reading a book’ Musoma ekitabo ‘We are reading a book’ Basoma ekitabo ‘They are reading a book’
Object pronouns: examples	Ansomesa ‘S/he is teaching me’ Atusomesa ‘S/he is teaching us’ Akusomesa ‘S/he is teaching you’ [singular] Abasomesa ‘S/he is teaching you’ [2nd person plural] Abasomesa ‘S/he is teaching them’ [3rd person plural] Yeesomesa ‘S/he is teaching him/herself’(reflexive)
Verbal Phrases	In the following fields a description of some of the basic morpho-syntactic properties of verbal constituents is given.
Word order	The word order in Luganda is SVO
TAM	A Luganda verb is agglutinable for 3 tenses: the present tense, the past and the future. The present tense is zero marked. E.g Nfumba emmere ‘I cook food’or ‘I am cooking food.’ Past tense is marked by three aspect constructions which appear either as prefixes and suffixes. i.e. Nfumbye emmere ‘I have cooked food.’ Nafumbye emmere ‘I cooked food.’ Nafumba emmere ‘I cooked food’ [far past] Future tense is marked by two aspect constructions. Banaafumba emmere ‘They will cook food’ Balifumba emmere ‘They will cook food’ [far future] In some constructions, Luganda displays periphrastic tenses. E.g Nfumba emmere bulijjo ‘I always cook food’ Nja kufumba emmere ‘I will cook food’ Ntera okufumba emmere [I sometimes cook food]. The perfective aspect in Luganda involves various morpho-phonetic changes depending on the phonological environment at hand. For instance all verbs ending in /b, p, m/ will manifest this aspect as '-ye'; all verbs ending in /t,k/ will attract a phonological change, where /t,k/ will change into '-se'. The rest of other phonemes change according to established phonological rules.
Mood	Luganda makes use of the following moods: imperative mood, conditional mood, subjunctive mood, indicative mood and infinitive mood. There are notable changes that occur on application of imperative mood. In second person singular, the person is not manifest on the verb; second person plural, third person singular and plural is manifest. In subjunctive mood, the notable change is that, the FV "a" changes into "e" in all persons. Conditional mood is not morphhologically marked on the verb, it is phrasal.
Infinitival forms	Luganda has one infinitive form marked by (o)ku-. It should be noted that all Luganda verbs are bound morphs, except about two only that appear as free morphs. The infinitive (o)ku- relates to the 15Oku noun class.
Verbal constructions	Luganda has transitive, intransitive, ditranstive and auxiliary verbs. A Luganda verb is glutinable for person, tense, aspect, and mood. Luganda verbs are also known to take on verb extensions common in Bantu languages including causative, applicative, reflexive, reciprocal, capable, passive.
Adpositions	Luganda has prepositions at both word and phrase level. E.g mu ‘in’, ‘among’, ‘within’, ‘to’, ‘from’; ku ‘at’, ‘on’, ‘to’; e ‘to’ etc. At phrase level, they appear as, waggulu ku… ‘on top of…’, waggulu wa… ‘above’ etc. In indicating the grammatical relation between the verb and the noun, Luganda concordial agreements based on the noun class system.
Complementation	In this field you describe complementation strategies. Does [your language] make use of complementizers?
Special Properties of Luganda	Negative sentences in Luganda are usually formed by prefixing si- for 1st person singular (this replaces the 1st person personal pronoun, n-). For all other persons, the prefix te- is used coming before the subject pronoun. Depending on the morpho-phonological environment, the negators, si- and te- change. In environments where the negator comes but not next to a verb, it is an independent entity.
Demonstratives	Luganda, has different forms of demonstratives that correspond to the Luganda noun class system. These demonstratives express spatial relations in three distinct ways: proximate [-no], intermediate [-o] (distal) and most distal [-li] (non-proximal). Examples: Omuti guno gwange, This tree is mine; Omuti ogwo gwange, That tree is mine; Omuti guli gwange, The other tree is mine.
Orthography	The current Luganda orthography was standardised 1947. This orthography (spelling system) uses the Roman Alphabet. Interesting in this spelling system is the indication of short and long vowels; short and long consonants. The short vowel and consonant are written singly while long vowels and consonants are written double. All vowels (a, e, i, o, u) can be double: omukeeka (mat), maama (mummy), ekibiina (class/group), omuwuulu (bachelor), emmeeme (soul). All consonants can be double except /l, r, h, w, y). For example: okubba (thief), ettama (cheek) etc. The double consonants are pronounced with more stress compared to a single consonant.
Short Bibliography	#Ashton, Ethel O., and others (1954) A Luganda Grammar, London: Longmans, Green. Murphy, John D. (1972) Luganda-English Dictionary. Catholic University of America Press Chesswas, J. D. (1963) Essentials of Luganda. Oxford University Press Kiingi, K.B. (2009) Enkuluze ya Oluganda eya e Makerere, olusunsula 2a, Kampala: Fountain Publishers.