Luganda tones

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Luganda, the main language of southern Uganda, is a tonal language, traditionally described as having three tones: high (á), low (à) and falling (â). Rising tones are not found in Luganda, even on long vowels, since a sequence such as [àá] automatically becomes [áá].[1][2]

Tones perform various functions in Luganda: they help to distinguish one word from another, they distinguish one verb tense from another, and they are also used in sentence intonation, for example, to distinguish a statement from a question.

The complexity of the Luganda tonal system has attracted the attention of numerous scholars, who have sought ways of describing Luganda tones most economically according to different linguistic models.[3]

General characteristics

Although there are many complexities of detail, the general lines of tone in Luganda are simple. Most sentences have a gradual descent from the first high tone to the last, as in the following sentence:[4]

  • kye kibúga ekikúlu mu Ugáńda 'it is the chief city in Uganda'

The three high tones ú, ú, and áń stand out prominently from the other syllables, and each one is a little lower than the last. The toneless syllables between are lower in pitch than the high tones. This descent is known as downdrift or 'automatic downstep' and is common in many African languages whenever tones come in a sequence HLH.

Another type of tonal pattern very common in Luganda is the high tone plateau.[5] In this pattern, two high tones are at the same level, and the voice remains continuously high from one the other:

  • kírí mú Úgáńda 'it is in Uganda'[4]
  • mu mambúká gá Úgáńda 'in the north of Uganda'[6]

A third type of tonal pattern, not quite so common, is to have a series of low tones followed by a jump to a high one:

  • Mbarara kibúga 'Mbarara is a city'[7]
  • ebitabo kkúmi 'ten books'[8]

These three tonal patterns will be heard to occur again and again in Luganda sentences, and much of the description below concerns when to use one and when another.

Types

There are two main types of high tone in Luganda, the ordinary (lexical and grammatical) high tones which are always present in the word, and phrasal high tones which are added to toneless syllables and which can be present or absent depending on where in the sentence the word is used.

Lexical tones

Lexical high tones are those that go with particular words, such as those on the words below:

  • ekibúga 'city'
  • ensî 'country'

When a word is spoken in isolation or at the end of a sentence, a tone on the final syllable is always heard as a falling tone; but in other contexts, it will generally be heard as an ordinary high tone.

Some words in Luganda have two lexical high tones:

  • Kámpálâ '(the city of) Kampala'
  • eddúúkâ 'shop'

When this happens the two tones link into a plateau, and the syllables between are also raised.[9] (In this article, a plateau will be shown by underlining.)

Grammatical tones

A grammatical tone is one that arises when a verb is used in a particular tense. For example, a verb in the subjunctive mood always has a high or falling tone on the last syllable:[10]

  • muyingirê 'you should come in, please come in'

In this article, to distinguish them from phrasal high tones, lexical and grammatical tones will be marked in bold.

Phrasal tones

Many words in Luganda (about a third of nouns) have no lexical tones. However, in most contexts, they acquire high tones on all but the first syllable or, to be more exact, on all but the first mora (see below).

  • mu mambúká 'in the north'[6]
  • ekítábó 'book'

A geminate consonant such as [tt] can count as one mora:

  • Toro [ttóóró] '(the kingdom of) Toro'[11]
  • ggwé [ggwéé] 'you (sg.)'
  • ssóméró 'it is a school'[12]

Since [àá] becomes [áá] in Luganda, the following word also has a high tone throughout:

Phrasal tones can also be added to the end of words that have a lexical high tone if there is at least one low tone after the lexical high tone. This low tone may be a complete syllable or the second half of a syllable with a falling tone:

  • túgendá 'we are going'
  • eddwâlíró 'hospital'
  • amasérengétá 'south'

Whenever a word has a lexical as well as a phrasal tone like this, the two tones do not form a plateau but instead there is a sequence HLH, with the second H a little lower than the first.[14]

Phrasal tones tend to be less prominent than lexical tones and often in a sentence if a word with lexical tone is substituted for one with a phrasal tone, the pitch will be higher.

In this article, to distinguish them from lexical and grammatical tones, phrasal tones will be underlined.

Words containing HLL

Normally a high tone in a Luganda word is followed by one low tone (which may be the second half of a syllable with falling tone or the whole of the next syllable) after which phrasal tones are added. However, there are certain words in which a high tone is followed not by one low tone but by two or even three low tones before a phrasal tone is added:

  • bálilabá 'they will see'[15]
  • abálilaba 'they who will see'

The existence of such words greatly complicates the description of Luganda tones and has important implications for theoretical accounts of the language.[16]

Intonational tones

As well as the types of tone mentioned above, there are also intonational tones such as those which distinguish a question from a statement. For example, if a toneless word asks a yes-no question, it has high tones except the last syllable, which is low:

  • ssóméro? 'is it a school?'[17]

A question like the following has a rise-and-fall on the last vowel:

  • gwe gulí gwé ńnéngérá wálî? 'is it the one I see there?'[17]

Another type of intonational tone is an upglide sometimes heard just before a pause mid-sentence. (It is referred to by Stevick as 'comma intonation'.)[18]

One way in which tones are not used in Luganda, however, is for focus or emphasis. As Crabtree says, 'The tone in Luganda is level, therefore it is impossible to emphasize as in English.'

Instead he lists some other ways in which words can be emphasised in Luganda, such as placing the important word first, omitting an initial vowel where it would normally be added,[19] using a relative construction (e.g. 'books are what I want'), using a negative construction (e.g. 'what I want, is it not books?') and others.[20]

Downdrift

Lexical tone downdrift

The usual pattern when two words have lexical or grammatical high tone (unless the two tones are in the same word, as in Kámpálâ) is for the second tone to be a little lower than the first, with the syllables in between a little lower than the high tones, making a dip:

  • ebibúga mu nsî 'cities in the country'[21]
  • bonná bawalâ 'all of them are girls'[8]
  • atéma omutî 'he cuts the tree'[22]
  • mu kibúga Kámpálâ 'in the city of Kampala'[21]
  • ebibúga birí 'those cities'[21]

There is also usually a downstep if the first word ends in a lexical tone and the second word begins with one:

  • balugú múńgi 'many yams'[23]

The falling tone in balugû 'yams' changes to a high tone in this context, but there is still a downstep just as if the L part of the HL was still audible.

There is always downdrift when a phrasal tone follows a lexical one:

  • kíri mu Bunyóró 'it is in Bunyoro'[11]

Phrasal tone downdrift

A phrasal tone is usually followed by a plateau. Nonetheless, there are a few kinds of phrases where downdrift is found instead. One of these is when a noun is followed by the pronominal words banó 'these', abó 'the aforesaid', bonnâ 'all', or yekkâ 'alone' (or their equivalents in other noun classes), e.g.[24]

  • abántú banó 'these people'
  • abántú abó 'the aforementioned people'
  • abántú bonnâ 'all people'
  • omúntú yekkâ 'the person alone'
  • amátóóké anó bonnâ 'all those bananas'

However, there is plateauing before demonstrative adjectives of the -li type:

  • abántú bálî 'those people'[21]

Two other contexts where there is downdrift after a phrasal tone word are before nga 'when, if, as' and before nti meaning 'that':[24][25]

  • báánumyá nga bálya 'they talked as they were eating'
  • agámbá nti 'he says that...'

(The word nga in this context is toneless, but before a noun it has a tone: ngá sukkáali 'like sugar'.[26] It also has a tone when it means 'how...!': ngá wano bulúńgi! 'how beautiful it is here!'[17])

There is also a downstep after a personal pronoun in phrases like the following:

  • nzé Mukásá 'I am Mukasa'[27]
  • ggwé aní? [ggwáaní] 'who are you?'[28]

In phrases like all of the above, HLL words like báányumá 'they talked' or akagáalí 'bicycle' have a phrasal tone on the final syllable in the same way as they do at the end of a sentence or when pronounced in isolation.

Plateauing

Lexical tone plateauing

As noted above, the usual pattern with words containing lexical tones is for each word in a series to be a little lower in pitch than the one before. However, there are some circumstances when two lexical tones will be on the same level and make a plateau.[29]

Phrases with 'of'

Typical of such phrases are those containing the word -á 'of', which forms a plateau not only with the preceding word but also with the following one, for example:

  • mu maséréngétá gá Úgáńda 'in the south of Uganda'[6]

The plateau is shown here by underlining.

If the second word is toneless, however, the plateau is made only with the preceding word:

  • ekkengélé yómulénzí 'the boy's bell' (shortened from yá omúlénzí)[24]

Verb + Location

Another kind of phrase which often has plateauing is 'verb + location', for example:

  • kírí mú Búgáńda 'it is in Buganda'[4]
  • bágéńdá Wáńdegeyá 'they are going to Wandegeya[30]
  • nabígúlá mú Kámpálâ 'I bought them in Kampala'[31]
  • ogitééká kú mmééza 'you put (Present tense) it on the table'[32]
  • wano wáyítíbwá Kíbúli 'this place is called Kibuli'[17]

Sometimes there can be a slight dip in this kind of phrase, e.g.

  • kíri mu maséréngétá gá Úgáńda 'it is in the south of Uganda'[6]

But even here the three underlying high tones are on the same pitch and do not drift downwards.

However, there is usually no plateauing in this type of phrase when the verb is relative:

  • ekíri mu Bugáńda 'which is in Buganda' (with downdrift)[33]

There is also no plateauing when the verb is negative:

  • tebává mu Ugáńda 'they don't come from Uganda'[31]

There can also be no plateauing when a word with phrasal tone follows a lexical tone:

  • kíri mu Bunyóró 'it is in Bunyoro'[11]

'And'

Another situation where plateauing will follow a lexical tone is after the word ná or né 'and':

  • Ugáńda né Kénya [pronounced yugáńda né kkénya] 'Uganda and Kenya'[34]
  • ebíjánjááló n' ébínyóobwá 'the beans and the peanuts'[21]
  • n' ábáwálâ 'and girls'[35]

But as usually happens when a toneless noun follows, there is no plateau if the noun after ná has only phrasal tones:

  • ebinyóobwa n' ébijánjááló 'the peanuts and the beans'[21]

Note that né is toneless in phrases like the following, when it is followed by a 'narrative tense' verb (a 'narrative tense' verb is a form of relative clause verb without its initial vowel, used after ne):

  • ne bálímâ 'and they cultivate'[36]

A plateau is also found after words like álná 'they have' (literally 'they are with') when positive, but not when negative:

  • bálíná bálúgúńgi 'they have many yams'[23]
  • tebálíná balugúńgi 'they don't have many yams'[23]

Verb + time

A plateau is heard before words like jjó 'yesterday', lulí 'the day before yesterday', and ddí 'when?' in these sentences:[37]

  • nayózá jjó essaáti enó 'I washed this shirt yesterday'
  • nassálíbwá lúlí envíirí 'I cut my hair the day before yesterday'
  • watúúká ddí wanó? 'when did you arrive here?'

But there is no plateau if the time adverb is toneless. Instead the adverb plateaus with the following word:

  • nagúla dd(á) éssááti enó 'I bought this shirt a long time ago'

Phrasal tone plateauing

In contrast to lexical tones, words with a phrasal tone very easily make a plateau with the following word, as the following examples show (the plateaus are indicated by underlining):

  • mu mambúká gá Úgáńda 'in the north of Uganda'[6]
  • avá mú Búgáńda 'he comes from Buganda'[38]
  • abántú mú kíbúga 'people in the city'[21]
  • mu kyaló Másíńdi 'in the village of Masindi'[21]
  • ebíjáńjááló byé bááúzzê 'the beans that they bought'[21]
  • ayágálá ókúlímá ámátóóké 'he wants to cultivate bananas'[23]

The phrasal high tone at the end of words like túgendá 'we are going' will also make a plateau in the same way, for example:

  • túgendá mú lúgúúdó 'we are going into the street'[18]
  • báfumbé émmére 'they are cooking emmére (staple food)'[26]
  • amalwáalíró ámákúlu 'large hospitals'[26]

Note that in these examples, it is not the lexical tone of words like túgendá which forms a plateau with the following high tone, but the phrasal tone at the end of the word. So there is first downdrift in túgendá and then a plateau.

In a sentence like the following, in which an HLH word like túgendá is used in a 'verb + location' sentence where the location has a lexical tone, according to Stevick, the plateau in such sentences will start with the lexical tone. However, the speaker on the recordings of the Luganda Basic Course in sentences of this kind makes a plateau starting only with the second tone, so that there is a downstep first then a plateau:

  • túgéndá mú Úgáńda 'we are going to Uganda' (according to Stevick)[39]
  • túgendá mú Úgáńda 'we are going to Uganda' (as read on the recordings)[40]

Low tones then high

The third common pattern in Luganda intonation is Low + High. This is only found if the first word is toneless. The following are some circumstances when no phrasal tones are added to a toneless word, and it has low tones throughout.

First, when it is the subject or topic of a sentence (unless it is a personal pronoun like ggwé 'you sg.'):

  • Mbarara kibúga 'Mbarara is a city'.[41]

A toneless word also remains low-toned before a numeral or quantity word (except after a negative verb), e.g.

  • ebitabo kkúmi 'ten books'[8]
  • abantu báńgi 'many people'[8]
  • amatooke ameká? 'how many bananas?'[42]

The word buli 'each' also remains low-toned when followed by another word:

  • buli lunáku 'each day'[30]

An adverb or a subordinate clause can also form the topic of a sentence and be low-toned, e.g.[21][43]

  • oluvannyuma, bálya emmére 'afterwards, they eat emmére (staple food)'
  • nga ayagala ebijanjaalo, abigúla 'when he wants beans, he buys them'

Falling tones

A high or a low tone may be found on any vowel, but a falling tone is found only on:

  • (a) a final vowel, e.g. eggî 'egg'[44]
  • (b) a long vowel, e.g. okulóotá 'to dream'[45]
  • (c) a vowel followed by a prenasalised consonant, e.g. Abagândá 'Baganda people'
  • (d) a vowel following a consonant + semivowel, e.g. okulwâlá 'to fall sick'[1]
  • (e) a short vowel followed by a geminate consonant, e.g. okubôbbá 'to throb'.[45]

When a falling tone occurs on a syllable closed by a geminate, such as in okucôppá 'to become poor', the fall is very slight and hard to hear, though it can be measured instrumentally. The main way of telling that a word like this has a falling tone is that the tone on the following vowel is high.

Morae

One way of explaining these facts is to analyse Luganda words as consisting of morae or moras, that is, speech segments each lasting a certain time. According to this analysis, a short vowel has one mora and a long vowel has two morae. A 'long' consonant such as gg, mb, or ly also has one mora. Thus the third syllable of Abagândá can be said to be long by position, since it has two morae, one belonging to itself and the other 'borrowed from' or 'shared with' the prenasalised consonant which follows. A long syllable can have a falling tone, with the first mora high and the second mora low.

Certain accommodations have to be made to make the model fit. For example, an initial syllable starting with a vowel always counts as one mora, even in words like ensî 'country' where the vowel is long and followed by a prenasalised consonant.[46]

No syllable can have more than two morae.[22] For example, the second syllable of omwéngé 'beer' has only two, despite starting with mw and being followed by a prenasalised consonant.

Final vowels

Final vowels are usually pronounced short, but in some words (including all words with monosyllabic stems) the vowel becomes long before a suffix, for example ensî: kí? 'which country?'.[47][48] Final vowels which can become long are considered to have two morae. Certain other final vowels, such as the final of the subjunctive mood, are considered to have one mora.[49]

A final vowel therefore, if it is not toneless, can either have a high tone on the second mora (e.g. emú: 'one') or on the first mora (e.g. mwendâ 'nine'),[50] or on its single mora (muyingiré 'please come in').[10] All three of these, when at the end of a sentence, are pronounced with a falling tone. But in other contexts they have different pronunciations. For example, before the suffix kí 'what?' a tone on the first mora of a bimoraic final vowel will fall (ensî kí? 'what country?')[51] but a tone on the last mora will remain high (tukolé kí? 'what should we do?').[10]

If a word ends in a falling tone, the tone becomes an ordinary high tone in some circumstances. One of these is when it is the subject of a sentence:

  • Kámpálá kibúga 'Kampala is a city'[52]
  • bonná bawalâ? 'are all of them girls?'[8]

Another is before a quantity word:

  • balugú múńgi 'many yams'[23]

Although there are now two high tones in adjacent syllables, nonetheless a downstep still occurs just as if the L part of the falling tone were still audible, so that in the above phrase is slightly lower in pitch than .

Nouns

Luganda nouns tend to fall tonally into certain regular patterns, of which the most common are (a) toneless (b) tone on the second mora from the end (c) tone on the third mora from the end. These three patterns together account for about 83% of nouns in Luganda. Some examples of the commonest patterns are as follows.

Toneless nouns

Judging from the numbers in the word list at the end of the Luganda Basic Course, about one third of all nouns (32%) in Luganda are underlyingly toneless. However, when pronounced in isolation, they will have phrasal tones on all but the first mora (counting en- at the beginning of a word as one mora), as follows:

  • ekítábó 'book'
  • essóméró 'school'
  • omúntú 'person'
  • engáttó 'shoe(s)'
  • omúlímú 'work, job'
  • omúlénzí 'boy'
  • akámwá 'mouth'
  • olúpápúlá 'paper'
  • enté 'cow(s)'
  • envá 'relish'
  • amátá 'milk'

Penultimate tone

Also very common, about 26% of the words, are nouns with a penultimate tone, that is on the second mora from the end of the word. If the penultimate syllable is long, as in enyáńja 'lake', both moras are high-toned. What all these nouns have in common is that the last vowel cannot take a phrasal tone. Examples are:

  • entébe 'chair'
  • ekibúga 'city'
  • embúzi 'goat'
  • ekikópo 'cup'
  • omukóno 'hand, arm'
  • enyáńja 'lake'
  • ensíḿbi 'money'
  • áwa 'coffee'

Antepenultimate tone

Nouns which have a high tone on the third mora from the end of the word (e.g. akagáali 'bicycle') are also very common, and the various types listed below account for at least 25% of the vocabulary.

When used before a pause, or before a pronominal word like banó 'these' or bonnâ 'all' (see above) these words acquire a phrasal tone on the final syllable:

  • akagáalí akó 'that bicycle'[53]

However, in other contexts no phrasal tone is added, and there is no plateau with the following word:

  • omwáaka ogúyísê 'last year'[54]
  • ánywedde mázzi ku kankyâ 'I didn't drink water for breakfast'.[55]

Contrast the following example, where the phrasal tone of matá 'milk' makes a plateau with the following word.[55]

  • ánywedde matá kú kánkyâ 'I didn't drink milk for breakfast'

Some nouns of this type are:

  • amáasó 'eyes'
  • omwâná 'child'
  • omwâká 'year'
  • omwêzí 'month'
  • enyáanyá 'tomatoes'
  • amâzzi 'water'
  • cáayi 'tea'
  • ssukáari 'sugar'
  • akagáali 'bicycle'
  • emméeri 'ship'
  • ekitûndu 'part'
  • erînnya 'name'
  • Abagânda 'Baganda people'

To these can be added a few nouns with the tone on the antepenultimate syllable, which are all marked by Stevick as HLL:

  • ebugwáńjuba 'west'
  • ebuváńjuba 'east'
  • ekíbala 'fruit'
  • ekkólero 'workshop'
  • omusómesa 'teacher'

A few nouns (mostly foreign) have a double tone followed by LL:

  • Áméreka 'America'
  • Omusíráamu 'Muslim'
  • Olufálánsa 'French (language)'
  • ennímáawa 'lemon' (Portuguese limão)
  • amatáfáali 'brick'[56]

Falling tone on the final

About 9% of the nouns have a falling tone on the final. The shorter of these nouns (up to three moras) have a single tone:

  • ensî 'country'
  • eggî 'egg'
  • embwâ 'dog'
  • balugû 'yam(s)'
  • omutî 'tree'

The longer nouns have a second tone earlier in the word, which links into a plateau:

  • ekibíínâ 'class'
  • ekkómérâ 'prison'
  • olubááwô 'board'
  • eddúúkâ 'shop'
  • ekyéńkyâ 'breakfast'
  • obukííkâ 'direction'

A few less common nouns have a tone on the penultimate and the final:[57][58]

  • mugóbâ 'driver'
  • musíkâ 'heir'

Other patterns

A very few words (about 2%) have the tone far enough from the end of the word to allow for two phrasal tones following the HL of the lexical tone:

  • amasérengétá 'the south'
  • eddlíró 'hospital'

Other patterns are possible, for example Olwókusatú 'Wednesday' (ending in HLLL), but these patterns account for only a small percentage of the nouns.

Variable tone nouns

There are certain words in Luganda which have a high tone on the third mora, and in which the tone shifts to the following mora when the word is used without its initial vowel:[59]

  • Abagânda 'Baganda people' - Bagáńda 'they are Baganda'
  • omusómesa 'teacher' - musomésa 'he is a teacher'
  • omuwála 'girl' - muwalâ 'she is a girl'
  • omutámiivu 'drunkard' - mutamíivu 'he is a drunkard'

Hyman and Katamba note that the same alternations take place in certain verb tenses:

  • agulâ 'he who buys' - abigúla 'he who buys them'
  • alagíra 'he who commands' - atulágira 'he who commands us'
  • ayáámba 'he who helps' - atuyáamba 'he who helps us'

A similar alternation occurs in numbers 1-5, and the words for 'yours' and 'his', with two differences, one that the tone comes on the second mora, and secondly that with a monosyllabic stem, the tone on the final is not deleted:

  • bisátu - ebísatu 'three (e.g. books)'
  • binâ - ebínâ 'four'
  • bibyô - ebíbyô 'your ones (e.g. books)'

A few foreign nouns (mostly from Swahili) are also irregular, in that they have an extra tone in the plural or in the diminutive where the prefix has an extra syllable:[58]

  • bbakúli 'bowl' - plural mabákúli 'bowls'
  • gguníya 'sack' - plural magúníya 'sacks'
  • kkaláamu 'pen, pencil' - plural makáláamu
  • mbaláasi 'horse' - diminutive kabáláasi 'little horse'

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives in Luganda are of two types, those with two syllables, namely -ange 'my', -affe 'our', -ammwe 'your (pl.)', -aabwe (pronounced [-aawwe]) 'their' and those with one syllable, namely -ô 'your' and -ê 'his, her, its'.

The two-syllable possessives used on their own have an HLL tone: ekkyânge 'my one (e.g. place, book, etc.)',[60] ewâffe 'our home'.[61] However, when they are used with a noun, they become enclitic, and if the noun is HLL this tone goes on the final vowel of the noun, making a plateau with the earlier tone:

  • eríńnyá lyange (before a pause, lyangé) 'my name'[62]
  • okusómésá wange 'my teacher'[63]
  • akagáálí kange 'my bicycle'[63]
  • cááyí waffe 'our tea'[64]
  • amázzí waffe 'our water'[64]

If added to a noun with a falling tone on the final, the final tone changes from falling to high:

  • ensí: yange 'my country'[65]
  • eddúúká yange 'my shop'
  • amagí gaffe 'our eggs'[64]

Otherwise if the noun has penultimate tone, the tone on the final vowel is deleted by Meeussen's rule (HH > HL):

  • ekibúga kyange 'my city'

When used with a toneless noun, however, the tone on the final migrates to the third mora of the noun. The tones which follow are all L:

  • ekitábo kyange 'my book'[66]
  • kitabó kyange '(it is) my book'[46]
  • ebitábo byaabwe 'their books'[60]
  • kitóóke kyange 'my plantain tree'[67]
  • kisumúluzo kyange 'my key'[67]
  • olupápula lwange 'my paper'[66]

(The above rules are those given in the literature. In practice, however, the reader on the Luganda Basic Course recordings sometimes adds a tone on the final syllable of the noun even where it is theoretically not permitted: ensímbí zaabwe 'their money',[68] emigáátí gyaffe 'our loaves', where the text writes emigáàtì,[69] ekitábó kyange 'my book'.[32])

With a monosyllabic possessive namely -ô 'your' or -ê 'his', the tones are different. The first tone remains in the same place as before, then there is a plateau from the first tone to the end:

  • ekitábó kyô 'your book'[70]
  • eríńnyá lyô 'your name'[62]
  • ekibúgá kyô 'your city'[70]
  • akagáálí ké 'his bicycle'[60]

But when the noun has a tone on the final syllable, it becomes a high tone, and the tone of - is suppressed by Meeussen's rule (HH > HL):

  • ensí: yo 'your country'
  • mu kibííná: kyo 'in your class'

Verbs

High and low-toned verbs

Like many Bantu languages, Luganda has high-toned and low-toned verbs. In the infinitive, low-toned verbs have the usual phrasal tones on all but the first mora:

  • okúsá 'to grind'
  • okwérá 'to sweep'
  • okúggálá 'to shut'
  • okújjá 'to come'
  • okúlíndá 'to wait'
  • okúsómá 'to study, read'
  • okúsómésá to teach'
  • okúgúlá 'to buy'

High-toned verbs (which are about 60% of verbs) have a high tone on the mora immediately following the infinitive prefix oku-. Phrasal tones are added only in the case of longer verbs:

  • okulyâ 'to eat'
  • okunywâ 'to drink'
  • okutúma 'to send'
  • okulába 'to see'
  • okukóla 'to work, to do'
  • okufúna 'to get, obtain'
  • okuyîmbá 'to sing'
  • okutândíká 'to begin'
  • okuyîngírá 'to enter'

Meeussen's rule (HH > HL)

Verbs in Luganda are particularly affected by a rule known as Meeussen's rule, which is common in many African languages, whereby a sequence of tones HH becomes HL. Similarly HHH becomes HLL and HHHH becomes HLLL. (This rule does not affect nouns in Luganda.)

Thus *bá-lí-lába 'they will see' theoretically has three high tones, one for the prefix bá- 'they', one for the future tense-marker -lí-, and one for the verb-stem itself lába 'see'. However, after the operation of Meeussen's rule, and the addition of a phrasal tone, it changes as follows:[71]

  • *bá-lí-lába > bálilabá 'they will see'

The important point here is that a phrasal tone cannot be added (except on the very last syllable before a pause) to any syllable that formerly had a high tone. Thus in the above word bálilabá the remaining lexical tone on bá is followed not by one low-toned syllable, but by two.

Hyman and Katamba give the following examples to illustrate how a lowered H cannot acquire a phrasal tone or form a plateau:[15]

  • bálilabá ébíkópo 'they will see cups' (with a plateau), where bálilaba is derived from *bálílába
  • abálilaba ebikópo 'they who will see cups' (with downdrift), where abálilaba is derived from *abálílábá

To make sense of the tones of Luganda verbs therefore, it is necessary to consider not only what tones the verb actually has, but also the underlying tones which it formerly had before the operation of Meeussen's rule.

Tones in tenses

Various elements add a tone to verbs:[72]

  • The tone of the subject prefix. This usually has a tone if it is 'diphonic' (consisting of two phonemes) such as bá- 'they', tú- 'we', kí- 'it' etc, but usually toneless if it is monophonic (consisting of one phoneme), e.g. a- 'he/she', n- 'I', o- 'you (sg.)' etc. (For an exception see below on relative clause verbs.)
  • The tone of the tense-marker. The tense-markers -á- (Near Past), -náa- (Near Future), -lí- (General Future), -kyá- ('Still') all add a tone, while -a- (Far Past) adds a tone in the syllable which follows. (The tense-markers -nna- 'not yet' and -aaka- 'just' do not add a tone; there is also no tone in the ending -nga used to make the habitual aspect.)
  • The tone of the verb-stem, if it is high-toned. In the Infinitive and General Future this tone is on the first mora only, but in the Present tense it affects the first two moras.
  • The tone of the negative marker. The 1st person negative marker sí- has its own tone. The negative marker with other persons is te-, which adds a tone on the following syllable. In relative-clause verbs the negative marker is -tá-.
  • In addition, many tenses add a grammatical tone on the final syllable. In longer verbs, in some cases this tone may move to the penultimate syllable.

Having added these tones, the following rules apply:

  • Any sequence HLH (HLLH, HLLLH) becomes a plateau by the plateauing rule, for example tebágulá becomes tebágúlâ 'they do not buy'.
  • Any sequence HH (HHH, HHHH) becomes HL (HLL, HLLL) by Meeussen's rule, unless there is a plateau; for example bálábá becomes bálaba 'they see'.
  • Phrasal tones are added to the end of the verb, except that:
(a) A phrasal tone is not added to any syllable of which the tone has been deleted by Meeussen's rule, except at the end of a sentence or before pronominal words such as bonnâ 'all'.
(b) A phrasal tone also does not directly follow the General Future infix -lí- in low-toned verbs, even if the tone of -lí- is deleted.

Relative clause verbs

Relative clause verbs have a different intonation from ordinary verbs in Luganda. They are more commonly used than in English, since as Crabtree pointed out (1902) they are used for emphasis.[73] For example, instead of 'who bought things?' a Luganda-speaker would say 'which are the ones who bought things?'

  • bakí abágúzé ebintu?[74]

Similarly, instead of 'he went to Buganda to teach', a Luganda-speaker might say 'what he went to Buganda for is to teach':[75]

  • yágéndá mú Búgáńda kusómésá 'what he went to Buganda for is to teach'

An initial vowel is usually added before diphonic subject-prefixes such as bá- (e.g. abágúlâ 'they who buy'), but not before monophonic prefixes such as a-. However, this initial vowel disappears in certain contexts, such as the second example above.

In object clauses, such as the following, a toneless prefix acquires a tone:[76]

  • emmére gye áḿba 'the staple food which she is cooking'

But when an object copula is used as in the following sentence, both kinds of prefix lose their tone:

  • emmére gye bafúḿba 'the staple food is what they are cooking'.

The word gwe, ge, bye etc. itself usually has no tone. However, the rules for such clauses can be complex.[77]

Examples of tenses

In the tables which follow, examples are given of six commonly used tenses, together with the subjunctive mood, with some comments on each. In the tables two verbs are used, -gula 'buy' and -lábá 'see', as examples of low and high-toned verbs respectively.[78]

Present tense

basic relative negative neg. rel.
'he buys' agúlá agulâ tágúlâ atágúlâ
'he sees' alába alába tálaba atálaba
'they buy' bágulá abágúlâ tebágúlâ abátágúlâ
'they see' bálaba abálaba tebálaba abátalaba

The underlying tones of the 3rd person plural of the high-toned verb change by Meeussen's rule as follows:

  • *bá-lábá > bálaba 'they see' (HHH > HLL)

That is, the first two moras of the verb-stem in this tense are underlyingly high. (Compare básesemá 'they vomit'; bátandíká 'they begin'.)

When an object-infix such as -gu- 'it (e.g. bread)' is added, the tones change as follows:

  • *bá-gu-lábá > bágúlába 'they see it'

The negative and relative versions of this tense all have a grammatical tone on the final vowel, which in fact has two moras and is underlyingly *-aá. In a two-mora high-toned verb, this final tone disappears by Meeussen's rule, but it reappears and makes a plateau when the verb-stem has three moras or more:

  • tebálaba 'they do not see' (HHHH > HLL)
  • tebáléétâ 'they do not bring' (HHLH > HHH)

When the irregular verb -li 'is (in a certain location)' is used in a relative clause, a high tone is placed on the final vowel when the prefix is toneless. But when the prefix has a tone, the tone on the final is deleted by Meeussen's rule. The tone therefore varies according to whether the prefix is monophonic or diphonic:

  • alí 'he is' - alí 'who is'
  • báli 'they are' - abáli 'who are'

The two words alí and alí, although both end in high tones, are pronounced differently in contexts such as the following, where the tone of alí is higher and does not make a plateau:[33]

  • alí mú Búgáńda 'he is in Buganda'
  • alí mu Bugáńda 'who is in Buganda'

Perfect tense

basic relative negative neg. rel.
'he has bought' aguzê aguzê tágúzê atágúzê
'he has seen' alábye alábyê tálábyê atálábyê
'they have bought' bágúzê abágúzê tebágúzê abátágúzê
'they have seen' bálabye abálábyê tebálábyê abátálábyê

The Perfect tense uses a different stem from the Present (e.g. -guzê instead of -gula 'buy'), and there is an underlying high tone on the ending. In longer (3-mora) low-toned verbs, such as -genda 'go' or -kweka 'hide (something)', the final tone moves to the penultimate syllable in the basic form:

  • agéńze 'she has gone' (not *agenzê as one might expect)

All the forms of this tense have a tone on the final vowel, but the basic form is different from the negative and relative. In high-toned verbs, Meeussen's rule applies in the basic form (e.g. bálabye 'they have seen'), but in the negative and relative forms there is a plateau instead (tebálábyê they have not seen'). Another example, using the 1st person negative marker sí-, which keeps its own tone, is the following:

  • ntégedde 'I have understood' vs. sítégéddê 'I have not understood'[79]

Near Past tense

basic relative negative neg. rel.
'he bought (today)' yágúzê eyágúzê teyáguze atááguze
'he saw' yálábyê eyálábyê teyálabye atáálabye
'they bought' báágúzê abáágúzê tebááguze abááguze
'they saw' báálábyê abáálábyê tebáálabye abáálabye

The Near Past tense uses the same verb-stem as the Perfect tense but with the tense marker -á-. The subject prefixes change to yá- 'he' and báá- 'they'. The final vowel once again is -ê.

In low-toned verbs the subject prefix makes a plateau with the grammatical tone on the final vowel:

  • yá-gúzê 'he bought (today)' (from okúgúlá 'to buy')

In longer low-toned verbs in this tense the final tone moves to the second mora of the penultimate syllable:[80]

  • yákẃése 'he hid (today)' (from okúkwéká 'to hide something')

In high-toned verbs in this tense there is always a plateau even in the basic form of the verb (in this it differs from the Perfect tense above). Contrast:

  • bálabye 'he has seen' (from okulába 'to see')
  • báá-lábyê 'he saw (today)'

Far Past tense

basic relative negative neg. rel.
'he bought' yagúla eyagúla teyagúla atáágula
'he saw' yalába eyalába teyalába atáálaba
'they bought' águla abáágula tebáágula abáágula
'they saw' álaba abáálaba tebáálaba abáálaba

The tense-infix of this tense is a, which puts a tone on the syllable which follows it.

Although the forms in the table above do not appear to have a high tone on the final, in fact there is an underlying high tone, which reappears and makes a plateau in forms like the following:

  • ya-gú-kwékâ 'he hid it'

Another indication that there is an underlying high tone on the final vowel is the fact that forms like águla 'they bought' do not add a phrasal tone on the final syllable (except before a pause or before a pronominal word like bonnâ 'all').

Near Future tense

basic relative negative neg. rel.
'he will buy (today)' anáagúlá anáagúlâ táágúlê atáágúlê
'he will see' anáálába anáálába táálábe atáálábe
'they will buy' bánaagúlá abánáágúlâ tebáágúlê abátáágúlê
'they will see' bánáálába abánáálába tebáálábe abátáágúlábe

The Near Future tense has a tense-marker -ná-a-. In the relative and negative forms, there is an (underlying) grammatical tone on the final vowel. In the negative of this tense, the final vowel changes to -e.

In the second person singular -ná-a- becomes nó-o-:[81]

  • *o-ná-a-lyâ > onóolyâ 'you (sg.) will eat'

General Future tense

basic relative negative neg. rel.
'he will buy' alígulá alígúlâ táligulá atáligulá
'he will see' alílabá (?) alílaba tálilaba atálilaba
'they will buy' báligulá abálígúlâ tebáligulá abátaligulá
'they will see' bálilabá abálilaba tebálilabá abátalilabá

This tense has a tone on the tense-marker -lí-. The tone of this disappears by Meeussen's rule after a high-toned subject prefix. A peculiarity of this tense is that with a low-toned verb, the syllable after -lí- cannot bear a phrasal tone, even when the tone of -lí- itself is deleted by Meeussen's rule.

The forms given above differ from those given by Stevick,[82] who states that in this tense as in the Present the first two moras of a high-toned verb stem have underlying tone. However, the examples given by Hyman and Katamba (e.g. báliwulírá 'they will hear')[71] imply that only the first mora of a high-toned verb has an underlying tone in this tense. Contrast the Present tense example below, in which both syllables of -laba are low, with the Future tense, where only the second syllable has a phrasal tone:

  • bálaba omúgáátí 'they see bread'[83]
  • bálilabá ébíkópo 'they will see cups'[84]

Subjunctive mood

  • agulê 'he should buy'
  • alabê 'he should see'
  • bagulê 'they should buy'
  • balabê 'they should see'

The subjunctive mood has just a single tone on the final vowel, which causes all earlier tones in the verb to be deleted. Before a pause, this tone becomes a falling tone, but before kí? 'what?', it remains high:[10]

  • muyingirê 'please come in, you should come in'
  • tukolé kí? 'what should we do?'

Contrast the following, where the final vowel has a falling tone and two moras:[46]

  • ensî kí? 'what country?'

The subjunctive has no relative clause or negative form, but a negative may be made by using the subjunctive of the verb okúlémá 'to fail' plus the infinitive.[85]

  • balemé okuyîngírá 'they should not come in'[86]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.xiii.
  2. Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.56.
  3. See Hyman & Katamba (1993) for an overview.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.105.
  5. For the term see Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.44.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Luganda Basic Course, p.26.
  7. Luganda Basic Course, p.138.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Luganda Basic Course, p.103.
  9. Luganda Pretraining Program, p.88.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Luganda Basic Course, p.182.
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.29.
  12. Luganda Pretraining Program, p.82.
  13. Luganda Basic Course, p.12.
  14. Luganda Pretraining Program, p.147.
  15. 15.0 15.1 Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.45.
  16. Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.36.
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Luganda Basic Course, p.242.
  18. 18.0 18.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.xxiii.
  19. Hyman & Katamba (2010), p.76.
  20. Crabtree (1902), p.144-5.
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 21.6 21.7 21.8 21.9 Luganda Basic Course, p.xviii.
  22. 22.0 22.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.xi.
  23. 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 Luganda Basic Course, p.xxii.
  24. 24.0 24.1 24.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.xx.
  25. See also Hyman & Katamba (2010), p.94, 96.
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.xvii.
  27. Luganda Basic Course, p.73.
  28. Luganda Basic Course, p.3.
  29. Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.44.
  30. 30.0 30.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.xix.
  31. 31.0 31.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.167.
  32. 32.0 32.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.168.
  33. 33.0 33.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.219.
  34. Luganda Basic Course, p.166.
  35. Luganda Basic Course, p.118.
  36. Luganda Basic Course, p.232.
  37. Luganda Basic Course, p.144.
  38. Luganda Basic Course, p.16.
  39. Luganda Pretraining Program, p.193.
  40. Luganda Basic Course, p.136; cf.p.87, 88.
  41. Luganda Basic Course, p.30.
  42. Luganda Basic Course, p.156.
  43. See Hyman & Katamba (2010), p.84, for further examples.
  44. Luganda Basic Course, p.331.
  45. 45.0 45.1 Dutcher & Paster (2008), p.127
  46. 46.0 46.1 46.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.xiv.
  47. Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.51.
  48. Hyman & Katamba (1990).
  49. Luganda Basic Course, p.183.
  50. Luganda Basic Course, p.67.
  51. Luganda Basic Course, p.136.
  52. Luganda Basic Course, p.20.
  53. Luganda Basic Course, p.169.
  54. Luganda Basic Course, p.145.
  55. 55.0 55.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.141.
  56. Luganda Basic Course, p.292.
  57. Luganda Basic Course, p. xvi.
  58. 58.0 58.1 Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.62.
  59. Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.58.
  60. 60.0 60.1 60.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.172.
  61. Luganda Basic Course, p.80.
  62. 62.0 62.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.2-3.
  63. 63.0 63.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.163.
  64. 64.0 64.1 64.2 Luganda Basic Course, p.157.
  65. Luganda Basic Course, p.56
  66. 66.0 66.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.184.
  67. 67.0 67.1 Hyman & Katamba (1993), p.49.
  68. Luganda Basic Course, p.186.
  69. Luganda Basic Course, p.185, cf.p.168.
  70. 70.0 70.1 Luganda Basic Course, p.56.
  71. 71.0 71.1 Hyman & Katamba (1993), pp.36, 45.
  72. Luganda Basic Course, p.xiv ff.
  73. Crabtree (1902), p.145.
  74. Luganda Basic Course, p.240.
  75. Luganda Basic Course, p.188.
  76. Luganda Basic Course, p.xxi.
  77. See Hyman & Katamba (2010), pp.87ff.
  78. Luganda Basic Course, pp.xxv-xxxv.
  79. Luganda Basic Course, p.15.
  80. Luganda Basic Course, p.xxvii.
  81. Luganda Basic Course, p.259.
  82. Luganda Basic Course, p.xxxiv.
  83. Luganda Basic Course, p.xxxi.
  84. Hyman & Katamba 1993, p.45
  85. Luganda Basic Course, p.254.
  86. Luganda Basic Course, p.252.

Bibliography

  • Crabtree, William Arthur (1902). Elements of Luganda Grammar: Together With Exercises and Vocabulary. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013.
  • Dutcher, Katharine & Mary Paster (2008), "Contour Tone Distribution in Luganda" Proceedings of the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, ed. Natasha Abner and Jason Bishop, 123-131. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
  • Hyman, Larry M. & Francis X. Katamba (1990). "Final vowel shortening in Luganda". Studies in African Linguistics 21, 1-59.
  • Hyman, Larry M. & Francis X. Katamba (1993). "A new approach to tone in Luganda", in Language. 69. 1. pp. 33–67.
  • Hyman, Larry M. & Francis X. Katamba (2010). "Tone, syntax, and prosodic domains in Luganda". ZAS Papers in Linguistics 53, pp. 69–98.
  • Kamoga, F.K. & Stevick, E.W. (1968). Luganda Basic Course. Foreign Service Institute, Washington. Sound files of this course are available free on the Internet.
  • Kamoga, F.K & Stevick, E.W. (1968). Luganda Pretraining Program. Foreign Service Institute, Washington.