Lusoga language
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- This article is about the Lusoga language. For the Basoga people/tribe/kingdom, see Busoga.
| Lusoga (Soga or OluSoga) |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Uganda | |
| Region: | All over Uganda, but mainly in Busoga region | |
| Total speakers: | First language (native speakers): +/- 3 million (2002 cencus) Second language: +/- 100 000 (2002 cencus) |
|
| Ranking: | ~ 136 | |
| Language family: | Niger-Congo Atlantic-Congo Volta-Congo Benue-Congo Bantoid Southern Narrow Bantu Central J Nyoro-Ganda Lusoga |
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | Major language of Uganda, official status unclear/pending... | |
| Regulated by: | Lusoga Language Authority (LULA) (Uganda) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none/pending... | |
| ISO 639-2: | xog | |
| ISO 639-3: | xog | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Contents |
[edit] Introduction - What is Lusoga?
LuSoga (Soga or OluSoga) is a tonal Bantu language that is spoken in Uganda. In terms of the number of speakers, is one of the major languages spoken in Uganda, after English, Swahili, and Luganda. However, it is mainly spoken in the Busoga region of southern Uganda by +/- 3 million people (2002 cencus), which is mainly within the natural boundaries of Lake Victoria to the south, Lake Kyoga to the north, the Nile river to the west and the Mpologoma (Lion) river to the east of Iganga district. It is tonal in the sense that a given word can change its meaning depending on its tone, i.e. some words are differentiated by pitch. Words that are spelled the same may carry different meanings according to their pitch. Lusoga is rich in metaphors, proverbs and folktales.
[edit] History and development
Lusoga, the native language of the people of Busoga, developed over time as a spoken language. Its written form is only as recent as the arrival of the Arab and European traders and missionaries. It only until after the second half of the nineteenth century, that Lusoga was first written down and appeared in print in its own right.
The Lusoga language is very similar to Luganda – spoken by the Baganda, especially that spoken by the Ssesse Islanders. It is believed that the people in southern Busoga originally came from Buganda and in the early 14th Century overwhelmed the original inhabitants - the Luo who came from the north and Iteso who came from the north-east. This similarity of language is best depicted by the folklore surrounding the death of Bishop Hannington.
James Hannington (1847-1885) led a Christian expedition into the interior of East Africa aiming to reach the Kingdom of Buganda. Most expeditions to Buganda in those days were made from the east, from Mombassa in Kenya. To reach Buganda, travelers had to go through Busoga. On the orders of the King of Buganda, Hannington was detained by one of Busoga’s chiefs. The chief then received the order to have Hannington killed, which he did. Later probably due to the embarrassment of the wrong their king had ordered, the Baganda alleged they had sent the message ‘mu mute’ (release him – in Luganda), but this had been mispronounced by the Musoga messenger as ‘mu mwite’ (kill him – in Lusoga). The truth of this story is of course still debatable but the tale is still told today.
Lusoga is used in some primary schools in Busoga as pupils begin to learn English, the official language of Uganda.
(There are quite a few actual errors that I simply do not have the time to fix so please remeber this is a starting point)
[edit] Dialects
Linguistically, the Basoga are part of the Bantu speaking group. Originally, Lusoga language comprised of several dialects formed by the intermingling of people during the early migration period, 17th and 18th century. There are so many dialects of the Lusoga language that it is difficult to reach agreement on the correct way to spell or pronounce certain words. For instance, in the north of Busoga, there is a distinct H but people from Southern Busoga do not accept this H as being appropriate to the Lusoga Language. Busoga was mainly divided into two dialect zones. Across the northern part of Busoga, the dialects Lulamogi and Lupakoyo was traditionally spoken. Lupakoyo resembled Runyoro. It had a close belt of Runyoro associated dialects running east from Bunyoro, across the northern region of present-day Buganda, across northern Busoga and through Bugwere east of Busoga. In the southern part of Busoga a dialect known as Lutenga was traditionally spoken which resembled Luganda. Related dialects were spoken in the Ssese Islands, Buvuma Island and eastern Buganda.
But with the established of the Lusoga Language Authority (LULA), Busoga Kingdom has promoted a standard Lusoga language. It has done enough research on the Lusoga language and published several literatures in Lusoga. It publications can be found at Busoga Cultural Centre Offices library located in the Nile garden in Jinja town. Others are available in bookshops throughout Busoga and in major bookstores in Kampala and other parts of the country. Some of the more accomplished Lusoga publications include a Lusoga Bible, grammar books, riddles, proverbs, several story books and dictionaries e.g. English/Lusoga - Lusoga/English dictionary. A limited online version is available at Lusoga - English Dictionary (not fully complete though - as of 22 September 2006).
[edit] Some useful basic grammar and vocabulary
In common with other tonal Bantu languages, Lusoga has a noun class system in which prefixes on nouns mark membership of one of the noun genders. Pronouns, adjectives, and verbs reflect the noun gender of the nominal they refer to. Some examples of noun classes:
[edit] Possessive Prefixes
In the Bantu languages around the Lake Victoria region in Uganda, nouns are reflected mainly by changing prefixes: human beings are indicated by the prefix Ba- (plural), and Mu- (singular), and the name of the country Bu-.
- mu - person (singular), e.g. musoga = native of Busoga land
- bu - land, e.g Busoga = land of the Basoga
- lu - language, e.g. Lusoga = language of the Basoga
- ba - people, e.g. Basoga = the Basoga people
- ki - customs or traditions, e.g. kisoga = describes religious tradition or culture common to the Basoga people.
[edit] Self Standing pronouns:
- Nze – me
- Iwe/Imwe – you
[edit] Always attached to a verb:
- N – I
- O – You (singular)
- A – He/She
- Tu – We/Us
- Mu – You (plural)
- Ba – They
[edit] Demonstratives:
- Wano – Here
- Kino – This (thing)
- Ono – This (person)
- Oyo – That (person)
- Bino – These (things)
[edit] Interrogatives:
- Ani – Who?
- Ki – What?
- Lwaki - Why?
- Tya – How?
[edit] Greetings:
Greeting in Lusoga is accomplished just as it is in the western countries. However, it assumes a more personal nature and just as in the West, its form depends on the time of the day and the elapsed time since the last contact with the greeter.
The following dialog illustrates the basic form to greet a peer or an elder in a respectful manner:
- Person A:
- Wasuzotya(osiibyotya) ssebo(nnyabo)? – How did you sleep(How was your day) sir(madam)?
- Person B:
- Bulungi, wasuzotya(osiibyotya) ssebo(nnyabo)? – Well(Good), How did you sleep(How was your day) sir(madam)? – Well, how did you sleep(How was your day) sir(madam)?
- Person A:
- Bulungi ssebo(nnyabo) – Well sir(madam)
The personal nature of the greetings ensues when the individual being greeted chooses to answer the question instead of merely responding with good or fine. It is sort of like being asked "How do you do?" and you respond "How do you do?" However, in Lusoga, the individual being greeted is free to actually delve into the fine details. Additionally, simply drop the sir/madam to achieve the same effect as in English. The above dialog only addresses greeting one person because some words change into multiple others e.g "Wasuzotya" is the combination of a singular prefix (Wa - you ), word (sula - sleep), and singular postfix (otya - How did) spoken as one with a plural form that subsequently becomes "Mwasuze mutya" which is composed of two distinct words emerging from two different plural prefixes, a word, and the plural form of the postfix. The Basoga, speak slowly and as such it is impossible to not separate the plural form. (This brief insight probably belongs elsewhere but at least you get it at all from a Musoga)
[edit] Introductions:
- Ninze Nankwanga – I am Nankwanga
[edit] Some common Verbs:
When conjugating the verb, remove ‘oku’ and replace it with the required pronoun i.e. n, o, a, tu, mu, ba.
- Example:
- okukola – to work/to do,
- nkola – I work/do,
- okola – you work/do,
- akola – he/she works/does,
- tukola – we work/do,
- mukola – you work/do (plural),
- bakola – they work/do.
- okukola – to work/to do,
- Okukola – to work/to do
- Okusoma – to read/to study
- Okunwa – to drink
- Okulya – to eat (Be careful, the above example does not work all the time with all forms of all words e.g the singular from here is Ndya. However it is a start)
- Okutambula – to walk
- Okuvuga – to drive/to ride
- Okusobola – to be able to
- Okutwala - to carry/to take
- Okuseka - to laugh
[edit] Numbers:
(This was previoulsy done by someone better versed in Luganda.
| 1 - 10 | 11 - 19 | 20 - 29 | 30 - 39 | 40 - 49 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – Ndala | 11 – Ikumi na ndala | 20 – Abiri | 30 – Asatu | 40 – Ana |
| 2 – Ibiri | 12 – Ikumi na ibiri | 21 – Abiri na ndala | 31 – Asatu na ndala | 41 – Ana mu emu |
| 3 – Isatu | 13 – Ikumi na isatu | 22 – Abiri na ibiri | ||
| 4 – Ina | 14 – Ikumi na ina | |||
| 5 – Itaanu | 15 – Ikumi na itaanu | |||
| 6 – Mukaga | 16 – Ikumi na mukaga | |||
| 7 – Musanvu | ||||
| 8 – Munana | ||||
| 9 – Mwenda | ||||
| 10 – Ikumi |
As long as you learn to count from 1 – 10 and 20, 30, 40,… the rest will be easy. Its just a matter of joining one number to the other...
| 50 - 99 | 100+ |
|---|---|
| 50 – Ataano | 100 – Kikumi |
| 60 – Nkaga | 110 – Kikumi na ikumi |
| 70 – Nsanvu | |
| 80 – Kinana | |
| 90 – Kyenda |
[edit] Telling the Time:
Telling the time in Lusoga is different from the way it is told in English because hours of darkness correspond to PM to include early morning hours. You wake up at 6:00 am while a Musoga waking up at the same time refers to the same time as "essawa erii ikumi na ibiri munkyo (the time is 12 in the morning)". Essentially, the number representing the current time is simply skewed behind by six. Time is said using the word ‘essaawa’, e.g. essaawa ndala – 7 o’clock.
[edit] Food:
- Food – Emmere
- Sugar – Sukaali
- Coffee – Kaawa
- Milk – Amata
- Chicken – Nkoko
- Teaspoon – Kajiiko
- Plate – Sowaani
- Saucepan – Sefuliya
- Cup – Kikopo
[edit] Genaral phrases & vocabulary:
- Ssente mmeka – How much (price)
- (Bed)room – Kisenge
- Table – Mmeeza
- House – Ennyumba
- Kitchen – Ffumbiro
- Door – Oluggi
- Chair – Ntebe
- Wait! – Linda!
- Journey/trip – Olugendo
- Get out – Fuluma
- Tomorrow – Enkya
- Slow – Mpola
- Quick – Mangu
- Mr – Mwami
- Miss – Mukyala
- My friend! – Munnange!
- My friends! – Bannange!
- Wamsi - Under
- Senga - Aunt
- Omuntu - Person
- Omusaiza - Man
- Omukazi - Woman
- Omwaana - Child
- Omuzungu - White man/white person
- Taala - Lamp
- Omwezi - Moon/Month
[edit] References
- Fallers, Margaret Chave (1960) The Eastern Lacustrine Bantu (Ganda and Soga). Ethnographic survey of Africa: East central Africa, Vol 11. London: International African Institute.
- Van der Wal, Jenneke (2004) Lusoga Phonology. MA Thesis, Leiden University.
- Cohen, David William (1970). A survey of interlacustrine chronology. The Journal of African History, 1970, 11, 2, 177-202.
- Cohen, David William (1986). Towards a reconstructed past : Historical texts from Busoga, Uganda. (Fontes historiae africanae). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Fallers, Lloyd A (1965) Bantu Bureaucracy - A Century of Political evolution among the Basoga of Uganda. Phoenix Books, The University of Chicago.
[edit] See also
- Busoga - Busoga Kingdom on Wikipedia
- Ugandan monarchies - Uganda's other Kingdoms on Wikipedia
[edit] External links
- Ethnologue - Lusoga A detailed Ethnologue report for Lusoga by Ethnologue.com
- Busoga Kingdom Online - Lusoga An excellent online summary of the Lusoga language by the Busoga Kingdom Online
- Lusoga - English Dictionary Online Lusoga - English Dictionary by Webster's (not fully complete - as of 22 September 2006)
