Tooro () or Rutooro (, , ) is a Bantu language spoken mainly by the Tooro people (Abatooro) 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. +Tooro vowelsFrontBackClose Close-mid Open
Nasal vowels Vowels followed by a nasal cluster tend to be nasalised, even to the point that the nasal consonant is barely heard (e.g. Abakonjo [aβakṍːⁿd͡ʒo] "Konjo people").
Vowel lengthening Vowels can be lengthened in these contexts:
Compensatory lengthening as a result of glide formation (e.g. o-mu-ána → [omwáːna] "child") If the second vowel is not high-toned but part of a noun phrase, the second vowel is half-lengthened (e.g. o-mu-ana wange → [omwaˑna wáŋge] "my child"] A high-toned vowel comes before a consonant cluster where the first consonant is nasal (e.g. omugongo [omugóːŋgo] "back"). If the high-toned vowel follows a consonant cluster, the vowel is not lengthened (e.g. [omwénda] "(unit of) nine"). If the vowel is not high-toned but part of a noun phrase, the second vowel is half-lengthened (e.g. omugongo gumu [omugoˑŋgo gúmu] "one back") A word follows the structure VCV (where C = consonant and V = vowel) and the first vowel has a high tone (e.g. enu [éːnu] "this (class 9)") If the word follows the structure (C)VCVCV and the second vowel has a high tone, the first vowel is half-lengthened (e.g. omubu [oˑmúbu] "mosquito" Two identical vowels near each other (e.g. a-ba-ana → [abáːna] "children") Two underlying consecutive vowels where one of them is not seen on the surface due to vowel elision (the first vowel is dropped) (e.g. ni-a-kir-a → [naːkíɾa] "he/she is becoming cured") The lengthening does not apply to the negative element ti-, but the dropping does (e.g. ti-o-kozire → [tokozíɾe] "you (sg.) have not worked") Imbrication, specifically where two -ir suffixes are next to each other and the first /ɾ/ is dropped (e.g. n-jwah-ir-ire → [nd͡ʒwahiːɾe] "I am tired in a way") A vowel comes before two consecutive nasal consonants (e.g. oku-n-noba → [okuːnóba] "to dislike me (inf.)
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 (obuso bwe [oβusóː βwe] "his/her forehead"; omutwe gwe [omutwéː gwe] "his/her head").
Diphthongs Tooro has 3 diphthongs, /ai/, /oi/ and /au/, the latter only being attested in 3 words, 2 being English loanwords (autu "vegetable cooking oil", etauni < Eng. "town", etaulo < Eng. "towel"). In some dialects, /ai/ is pronounced as [ei].
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 (e.g. ba-it-a → baita [βáíta] "they kill"). 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 (e.g. o-ku-se-is-a → okusiisa [okusíːsa] "to cause to grind"). 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 (e.g. ba-et-a → beeta "they invite"). 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 (e.g. a-et-a → ayeta "he/she invites"). This can occur multiple times in the same word (e.g. o-e-et-a → oyeyeta "you (sg) invite yourself") 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 (e.g. o-a-ka-hik-a → wakahika "you (sg) just arrived", a-e-ror-e → yerole "may he/she see him/herself")
Mid vowel harmony Some suffixes that are added to verbs exhibit mid vowel harmony, where the vowel in the suffix (/i/ or /u/) is lowered to a mid vowel (/e/ or /o/ respectively) if the vowel in the ultimate syllable of the verb root is a mid vowel (e.g. okucumbira "to cook for someone"; okusekera "to laugh for someone"). 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 (e.g. ngenzire (from the root √-gend-) "I went (and the effect remains)" instead of *ngenzere).
Consonants +Tooro consonantsBilabialLabio-dentalAlveolarPost-alveolarPalatalVelarGlottalPlosive Affricate Fricative NasalTapTrillApproximant
Consonant mutation Certain suffixes, specifically the perfective -ir (not to be confused with the applicative -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 [d] to [z] and /t/ to [s] (e.g. barubasire "they have walked" < √-rubat- "to walk"; omubaizi "carpenter < √-baij- "to do carpentry"). However, perfective -ir mutates /d͡ʒ/ to [z] inconsistently (e.g. baizire "they have come" < √-ij- "to come"; bahiijire "they have panted" < √-hiij- "to pant"), and most of the time, it can be used with or without mutation (e.g. babaijire ~ babaizire "they have done carpentry" < √-baij-). The distinction between the perfective and applicative -ir is important as the applicative -ir cannot cause mutation (e.g. okurubatira "to walk for" < okurubata "to walk"). Additionally, only the unmutated perfective -ir can cause mutation, as the mutated form, -iz, cannot cause mutation (e.g. beereze "they have cleaned < √-eer "to clean" instead of *beezize).
Causative -i also mutates /ɾ/ or [d] to [z] and [t] to [s] (no instance has been found of causative -i mutating /d͡ʒ/). Since the /zj/ and /sj/ clusters are not permitted in Tooro"s phonotactics, the /j/ is dropped (e.g. okukwasa "to make touch" < *okukwasya < okukwata "to touch").
Finally, causative -is only mutates /ɾ/ to [z] (e.g. okuhazisa "to cause to scratch" < okuhara "to scratch"). It cannot mutate /d͡ʒ/, [d] or /t/ (e.g. okutundisa "to cause to sell" < okutunda "to sell" instead of *okutunzisa).
Tone Tooro has 2 main tones (high and low, low tone being the default), and 2 other tones (falling and rising) that appear in restricted circumstances. It is worth mentioning that vowels and nasal consonants can have a high tone (e.g. nnywa [ń̩ɲwa] "I drink").
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 (person, class 1)" & endi "the other (class 9)" 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 [omuːntu óːndi] "another person" and [omúːntu óːndi] "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 [omútwe] "head" omutwe gwe [omutwéː gwe] "his/her head" omutwe gwange [omutwe gwáːŋge] "my head, any of my heads" Omutwe gwange. [omútwe gwáːŋge] "The head is mine." omutwe ogwange [omútʷ‿ogwáːŋge] "my own head" omutwe murungi [omútwe murúːŋgi] "a good head" omutwe gunu [omútwe gúnu] "this head" omutwe gwona [omútwe gwóːna] "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 (where C = consonant and V = vowel), especially when the first vowel is a non-close vowel. (e.g. okukora [okukôɾa] "to work") In the penultimate syllable, where the following syllable begins with /j/ (e.g. rediyo [redîjo] < Eng. radio)
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 (e.g. enu ka [eːnǔ ka] "this is a house").
Phonotactics The following syllable types are allowed in native Tooro words, where V stands for a vowel (short or long), C a consonant, N a nasal consonant, and G a glide. V (e.g. ina [íːna] "four (class 10)"): this syllable type is only allowed word-initially. CV (e.g. ina [íːna] "four (class 10)") N (e.g. ndi [ń̩di] "I am"): this syllable type is also only allowed word initially. NCV (e.g. endiisa [endíːsa] "honeyguide") Note that C (consonant) includes other nasal consonants, thus tinnyagire [tiːɲaɡíɾe] "I did not kidnap" is permissible. CGV (e.g. enwa [éːnwa] "wasps") NCGV (e.g. embwa [éːmbwa] "dog") Note that C (consonant) includes other nasal consonants, thus tinnywire [tiːɲwíɾe] "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. +Tooro orthographyaaabbbcdeeefghiiijkl/a//aː//β//b//tʃ//d//e//eː//f//g//h//i//iː//dʒ//k//l/mnnyoooprrrstuuuvwyz/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" (e.g. okusoma ekitabu [okusóm‿eːkitáβu] "to read a book"; ky'abantu [c‿aβáːntu] "of (class 7) the people"). Doubled vowels are not used in environments where vowel lengthening can be easily predicted (e.g. in a penultimate syllable before a nasal cluster). Tone is not represented in the orthography.
Grammar
Noun classes Like most Bantu languages, Tooro has noun classes, shown in the table below (augment vowels in brackets). +Tooro noun classesClass numberPrefixTypical meaning(s)Example1(o)mu-Humansomuntu "person"1a∅-Kinship terms, foreign professions (subclass of class 1)nyoko "your mother"2(a)ba-Plural of class 1abantu "people"2a(∅)baa-Plural of class 1a (subclass of class 2)baanyoko "your mothers"3(o)mu-Plantsomuti "tree"4(e)mi-Plural of class 3emiti "trees"5(e)ri-, (e)i-Body parts, solid objects, places, abstract nounseriiso "eye"6(a)ma-Plural of class 5, class 15 and sometimes class 14, liquids (mass nouns)amaiso "eyes"7(e)ki-Inanimate objects, tools, augmentativesekitabu "book", "bed"8(e)bi-Plural of class 7ebitabu "books", "beds"9(e)n-, (e)∅-, ∅-Animals, abstract nouns, loanwordsembuzi "goat"10(e)n-, (e)∅-Plural of class 9 and class 11endimi "tongues"11(o)ru-Languages, abstract nouns, augmentativesorulimi "tongue"12(a)ka-Abstract nouns, diminutivesakame "rabbit, hare"13(o)tu-Plural diminutivesotume "small rabbits"14(o)bu-Abstract nouns, kingdoms, plural of class 12, sometimes singular of class 6obume "rabbits, hares"15(o)ku-Infinitives, verbal nounsokulya "eating, to eat"16(a)ha-Locatives (on)ahantu "place"17(o)ku-Locatives (way, path), adverbskubi "badly, in a bad way", kunu "this way"18(o)mu-Locatives (in)omunju "in the house"(19)(e)i-?enyuma/enyima "underside"
A noun is made augmentless (i.e. without an augment, equivalent to the base state in Luganda) in these circumstances:
If the noun is preceded by the class 16 locative ha- or the class 18 locative (o)mu- (e.g. omunju "in the house" < enju "house")