Tooro language

Tooro or Rutooro is a Bantu language spoken mainly by the Tooro people from the Tooro Kingdom in western Uganda. There are three main areas where Tooro as a language is mainly used: Kabarole District, Kyenjojo District and Kyegegwa District. Tooro is unusual among Bantu languages as it lacks lexical tone. It is most closely related to Runyoro.

Phonology

Vowels

Tooro has 5 short vowels and 5 corresponding long vowels. It also has 3 diphthongs.

Nasal vowels

Vowels followed by a nasal cluster tend to be nasalised, even to the point that the nasal consonant is barely heard.

Vowel lengthening

Vowels can be lengthened in these contexts:

Compensatory lengthening as a result of glide formation
* If the second vowel is not high-toned but part of a noun phrase, the second vowel is half-lengthened.
* If the high-toned vowel follows a consonant cluster, the vowel is not lengthened.
* If the vowel is not high-toned but part of a noun phrase, the second vowel is half-lengthened
A word follows the structure VCV and the first vowel has a high tone
* If the word follows the structure VCVCV and the second vowel has a high tone, the first vowel is half-lengthened
Two underlying consecutive vowels where one of them is not seen on the surface due to vowel elision
*The lengthening does not apply to the negative element ti-, but the dropping does
Imbrication, specifically where two -ir suffixes are next to each other and the first /ɾ/ is dropped
A vowel comes before two consecutive nasal consonants
Vowel shortening

Word-final long vowels are shortened, except if they are in the penultimate syllable of a noun phrase. As a result, the inherently long final vowel in obuso "forehead" and the phonetically long final vowel in omutwe "head" are shortened in isolation but are lengthened after a monosyllabic qualifier.

Diphthongs

Tooro has 3 diphthongs, /ai/, /oi/ and /au/, the latter only being attested in 3 words, 2 being English loanwords. In some dialects, /ai/ is pronounced as .

Vowel hiatus resolution

Tooro has different ways of resolving vowel hiatus in individual words or in between words:

If the first vowel is /a/ or /o/ and the second vowel is /i/, diphthongisation occurs.
If the first vowel is /e/ and the second vowel is /i/, /e/ is dropped and causes compensatory lengthening in /i/, although it is not always as such.
If the first vowel is a non-close vowel and follows a consonant, and if the second vowel is not /i/, the first vowel is dropped and causes compensatory lengthening.
If the first vowel is a non-close vowel and does not follow a consonant, and if the second vowel is not /i/, /j/ is epenthetically inserted in the middle of the vowels.
* This can occur multiple times in the same word
*This does not occur if the first vowel is before the tense-aspect-mood affix /-a-/ or the refiexive affix /-e-/ in the subjunctive mood, in which case it glides
Mid vowel harmony

Some suffixes that are added to verbs exhibit mid vowel harmony, where the vowel in the suffix is lowered to a mid vowel if the vowel in the ultimate syllable of the verb root is a mid vowel. Mid vowel harmony does not apply if consonant mutation to the verb root also applies, instead only the consonant mutation in the verb root applies "I went.

Consonants

Consonant mutation

Certain suffixes, specifically the perfective -ir, the nominalizer -i, the short causative -i, and the long causative -is cause the consonant before it to be mutated.
The first two suffixes mutate /ɾ, d͡ʒ/ or to and /t/ to . However, perfective -ir mutates /d͡ʒ/ to inconsistently, and most of the time, it can be used with or without mutation. The distinction between the perfective and applicative -ir is important as the applicative -ir cannot cause mutation. Additionally, only the unmutated perfective -ir can cause mutation, as the mutated form, -iz, cannot cause mutation.
Causative -i also mutates /ɾ/ or to and to . Since the /zj/ and /sj/ clusters are not permitted in Tooro"s phonotactics, the /j/ is dropped.
Finally, causative -is only mutates /ɾ/ to . It cannot mutate /d͡ʒ/, or /t/.

Tone

Tooro has 2 main tones, and 2 other tones that appear in restricted circumstances. It is worth mentioning that vowels and nasal consonants can have a high tone.

High tone

Although Tooro lacks lexical tone, it has grammatical tone in the form of the high tone. In isolation, the high tone always falls on the penultimate syllable of a word, however, when a noun is modified by a following disyllabic adjective, the noun loses its high tone except if the noun functions as a predicate. -ona "all, whole" and -ombi "both" are exceptions to this, as they let the noun keep its high tone. Additionally, a noun followed by a monosyllabic adjective makes the high tone fall on the last syllable of the noun. An adjective with more than two syllables morphologically lets the noun keep its high tone. This means that ondi "the other " & endi "the other " are considered trisyllabic as they are derived from o-o-ndi/e-e-ndi and overlong vowels are not permissible. Thus, the only difference between "another person" and "the other person" is the high tone of the noun. Demonstratives also let the noun keep its high tone, regardless if the demonstrative has only 1 or 2 syllables.

omutwe "head"
omutwe gwe "his/her head"
omutwe gwange "my head, any of my heads"
Omutwe gwange. "The head is mine."
omutwe ogwange "my own head"
omutwe murungi "a good head"
omutwe gunu "this head"
omutwe gwona "the/a whole head"
Falling tone

A falling tone appears in two cases:

When the final two syllables of a word follow the structure CVɾV, especially when the first vowel is a non-close vowel.
In the penultimate syllable, where the following syllable begins with /j/
Rising tone

Rising tone is very rare, and only occurs in one case where a monosyllabic noun stem which has no noun prefix is used without an augment word-finally.

Phonotactics

The following syllable types are allowed in native Tooro words, where V stands for a vowel, C a consonant, N a nasal consonant, and G a glide.

V : this syllable type is only allowed word-initially.
CV
N : this syllable type is also only allowed word initially.
NCV
* Note that C includes other nasal consonants, thus tinnyagire "I did not kidnap" is permissible.
CGV
NCGV
* Note that C includes other nasal consonants, thus tinnywire "I did not drink" is permissible.

Note that since these rules only apply to native Tooro words, loanwords like Kristo "Christ" may break them.

Orthography

Tooro uses the same orthography as Nyoro.

/a/

/aː/

/β/

/b/

/tʃ/

/d/

/e/

/eː/

/f/

/g/

/h/

/i/

/iː/

/dʒ/

/k/

/l/

/m/

/n/

/ɲ/

/o/

/oː/

/p/

/ɾ/

/r/

/s/

/t/

/u/

/uː/

/v/

/w/

/j/

/z/

Vowel hiatus resolution between words is not indicated in the orthography, except for some short words like na "and", -a "of" or nka "approximately". Doubled vowels are not used in environments where vowel lengthening can be easily predicted. Tone is not represented in the orthography.

Grammar

Noun classes

Like most Bantu languages, Tooro has noun classes, shown in the table below.

Class number	Prefix	Typical meaning	Example
1	mu-	Humans	omuntu "person"
1a	∅-	Kinship terms, foreign professions	nyoko "your mother"
2	ba-	Plural of class 1	abantu "people"
2a	baa-	Plural of class 1a	baanyoko "your mothers"
3	mu-	Plants	omuti "tree"
4	mi-	Plural of class 3	emiti "trees"
5	ri-, i-	Body parts, solid objects, places, abstract nouns	eriiso "eye"
6	ma-	Plural of class 5, class 15 and sometimes class 14, liquids	amaiso "eyes"
7	ki-	Inanimate objects, tools, augmentatives	ekitabu "book", "bed"
8	bi-	Plural of class 7	ebitabu "books", "beds"
9	n-, ∅-, ∅-	Animals, abstract nouns, loanwords	embuzi "goat"
10	n-, ∅-	Plural of class 9 and class 11	endimi "tongues"
11	ru-	Languages, abstract nouns, augmentatives	orulimi "tongue"
12	ka-	Abstract nouns, diminutives	akame "rabbit, hare"
13	tu-	Plural diminutives	otume "small rabbits"
14	bu-	Abstract nouns, kingdoms, plural of class 12, sometimes singular of class 6	obume "rabbits, hares"
15	ku-	Infinitives, verbal nouns	okulya "eating, to eat"
16	ha-	Locatives	ahantu "place"
17	ku-	Locatives, adverbs	kubi "badly, in a bad way", kunu "this way"
18	mu-	Locatives	omunju "in the house"
	i-	?	enyuma/enyima "underside"

A noun is made augmentless in these circumstances:

If the noun is preceded by the class 16 locative ha- or the class 18 locative mu-
If the noun is preceded by the nya- "the aforementioned"
In proper nouns, including personal names
If the noun is used as a predicate, regardless of whether a verb is present
If the noun is a direct object for negative transitive verbs

Compare the following examples:

ekitabu "book"
kitabu "it is a book"
kinu ekitabu "this book"
kinu kitabu "this is a book"