Bukusu dialect
Bukusu | |
---|---|
Lubukusu | |
Native to | Bukusu |
Native speakers | 1.4 million (2009 census)[1] |
?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | bxk |
Glottolog | buku1249 |
JE.31c [3] |
Bukusu is a dialect of the
Phonology
p | tʃ | k | |
(b) | (d) | (dʒ) | (ɡ) |
f | s | x | |
β | |||
m | n | ɲ | ŋ |
l r | j | w |
Several consonants undergo fortition after nasal consonants: [β, w → b, j → dʒ, l, r → d]; Mutonyi (2000) postulates that Bukusu has no phonemic voiced plosives.[4]
Variations
The language has three main variations:
- The dialect spoken north of Kimilili area, with its heaviest influence being noted in the region around Kitale
- The dialect spoken west of Webuye town, with its purest form being in the region around, and to the west of, Bungoma
- The dialect spoken east of Webuye town, extending into Kakamega and Lugari districts.
Of these, the language spoken around
Influences
The
During the Ugandan civil wars of the 1970s, many of the Gisu and Masaba left Uganda for Kenya, mainly to live with Bukusu relatives around the Bungoma area. After the wars ended, a large number did not return to Uganda, having already started new lives in Kenya. Their large dispersal among the Bukusu in that area has had a discernible influence on the Bukusu language in the Bungoma region. Native speakers of the language will easily identify someone from the area based on their speech. Of particular note is the substitution of R with L, so that, for example, the verb 'khuufwara' (xuufwara) - to wear [clothes] is now pronounced 'khuufwala', as it is in the Gisu and Masaaba languages.
The dialect spoken east of Webuye town is influenced by the neighbouring Kabras and Tachoni dialects of the Luhya language. This is particularly noticeable in the changes in noun prefixes: in the original Bukusu language, for example, the term 'something' would be rendered as 'siSindu'. In the Kabras language, the term is rendered as 'eShindu'. The Bukusu east of Webuye town will usually say 'eSindu', thus adopting the prefix of the Kabras language while retaining the Bukusu root word 'Sindu' (as opposed to the Kabras root word, 'Shindu').
Because it borders the
See also
- Luhya languages
Bibliography
- De Blois, Kornelis Frans (1975) 'Bukusu generative phonology and aspects of Bantu structure' (Annales de MRAC, no. 85). Tervuren: Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale.
- Nasiombe Mutonyi (2000) Aspects of Bukusu Morphology and Phonology
References
- ^ Bukusu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ a b Maho (2009)
- ^ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- ^ Jeff Mielke, 2008. The emergence of distinctive features, p 141–142