Seth Cable Structure of a Non-Indo-European Language Fall 2009 Ling748 1 Some Basic Facts about the Dholuo Language 1. Genetic Grouping and Related Languages Dholuo ( / d!"ðólúô / ) (or ‘Luo’) is a language from the Nilo-Saharan language family. • Dholuo = dho$ lu$ô = speech of the Luo (1) The Nilo-Saharan Language Family • One of the four major (and most controversial) super-families of languages in Africa. • Languages in the family stretch from the Nile watershed into the Sahara, with a couple pockets in Western Africa. (17 nations, 11 million speakers) Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nilo-Saharan.png • Comprises a large number of highly typologically diverse sub-branches. • Dholuo is a member of the ‘Western Nilotic Branch’ of the ‘Nilotic’ sub-group, which is in turn a subgroup of the ‘Southern’ division of the ‘Eastern Sudanic’ sub-group of the ‘Chari-Nile’ sub-branch of the family: Nilo-Sarahan > Chari-Nile > Eastern-Sudanic > Southern ES > Nilotic > Western Nilotic > Luo > Southern Luo > (Dholuo, Acholi, Lango, Alur, Adhola, Kumam, Labwor, Lwo) • Closest linguistic relatives: Lango and Acholi • More distant relatives: Dinka, Nuer, Fur, Songhay, Masai and NubianSeth Cable Structure of a Non-Indo-European Language Fall 2009 Ling748 2 2. Number of Speakers and Vitality of the Language Dholuo is spoken by the 3.5 million Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania. Thus, it is by no means an endangered language. However, it is a minority language, in the sense that speakers are under great economic and social pressure to speak either English or Swahili. Consequently, as noted by Tucker (1994), the language has undergone certain ‘shifts’ as a result of influence from Swahili. Indeed, the dialect described by Tucker (1994) is more indicative of older speakers of the language (he did his fieldwork in the 1960’s). Perhaps due to these issues, there is relatively little linguistic scholarship on Dholuo, and what literature there is can be somewhat inaccessible: • Out-of-print grammars and dictionaries (mainly for language learners) • Various articles in out-of-the-way journals. • Major works by Omondi (1982), Tucker (1994), and Okoth-Okombo (1997) 3. Location As stated above, Dholuo is principally spoken in Kenya and Tanzania. Specifically, it is spoken in an area surrounding parts of the eastern shore of Lake Victoria. Image taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Image-Languages-Lakevictoria-fr.svgSeth Cable Structure of a Non-Indo-European Language Fall 2009 Ling748 3 4. Phonological Inventory and Orthography • There is a Roman orthography for Dholuo which is entirely phonemic, and which keeps remarkably close to IPA. • We will transcribe all our Dholuo data using this orthography. • Transcription in IPA is also permitted (and encouraged), but is entirely optional. (This is in keeping with the perspective that this is more a class on Dholuo than it is on ‘field methods’). 4.1 The Consonants Below are the consonants of Dholuo. Each consonant is represented first in IPA notation, then in the Dholuo orthography. Paired with each consonant is a word from Dholuo beginning in that sound (which Martina will pronounce for us). IPA Dholuo Orthography Example (in D.O.) Bilabial: voiceless stop / p / p pi 'water' voiced stop / b / b .bur 'hole' nasal stop / m / m .mór 'happiness' prenasalized stop / mb / mb mbáká 'story' glide (labiovelar?) / w / w wích 'head' Labio-Dental: fricative / f / f fúó 'stupid' Dental: voiceless affricate (stop?) / t!"θ / th thûl 'snake' voiced affricate (stop?) / d!"ð / dh dhok 'mouth' prenasalized affricate (stop?) / nd!"ð / ndh ndhíayó 'far'Seth Cable Structure of a Non-Indo-European Language Fall 2009 Ling748 4 IPA Dholuo Orthography Example Alveolar: voiceless stop / t / t tedo 'to cook' voiced stop / d / d .díél 'goat' nasal stop / n / n nendo 'sleep' prenasalized stop / nd / nd ndiko 'to write' rhotic (trill) / r / r .réch 'fish' lateral / l / l lum 'grass' fricative / s / s .súná 'mosquito' Palatal: voiceless stop (affricate?) / c / ch chak 'milk' voiced stop (affricate?) / ɟ / j ji 'people' nasal stop / ɲ / ny nyakó 'girl' prenasalized stop / ɲɟ / nj njofní 'tapeworm' glide / j / y .yath 'tree,medicine' Velar: voiceless stop / k / k .kâ 'here' voiced stop / g / g gi 'thing' nasal stop / ŋ / ng' .ng'á 'who' prenasalized stop / ŋg / ng .ngégé 'tilapia' Glottal: Fricative / h / h .higa "year" 4.2 The Vowels As a first pass, Dholuo possesses a typical ‘five-vowel’ system. It has the following sounds: • A high front vowel: / i / • A mid front vowel: / e / • A low central vowel: / a / • A high back vowel: / u / • A mid back vowel: / o /Seth Cable Structure of a Non-Indo-European Language Fall 2009 Ling748 5 However, for each of the five ‘vowel spaces’ above, Dholuo makes a further sub-distinction, between vowels that are (so-called) “+ATR” and ones that are (so-called) “-ATR”. • In IPA, a “+ATR” vowel is indicated with the following sub-script: / a) / • In IPA, a “-ATR” vowel is indicate with the following sub-script: / a* / Thus, the full inventory of Dholuo vowels is as follows: (2) The Vowel Space of Dholuo FRONT CENTRAL BACK +ATR i! u! HIGH -ATR i" u" +ATR e! o! MID -ATR e" o" +ATR a! LOW -ATR a" 4.2.1 What is “ATR”? (a) “ATR” stands for “Advanced Tongue Root”. (b) ‘Advanced tongue root’ occurs when the speaker ‘expands’ their pharyngeal cavity, usually by advancing their tongue root. (c) The effect this has on the quality of the resulting vowel is complex. • However, the resulting distinction is kind of similar to the distinction in