Dholuo () or Nilotic Kavirondo, is a dialect of the Luo group of Nilotic languages, spoken by about 4.2 million Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania,Ethnologue report for Luo who occupy parts of the eastern shore of Nam Lolwe (Lake Victoria) and areas to the south. It is used in broadcasts on Ramogi TV and KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the Voice of Kenya).
Dholuo is mutually intelligible with the Acholi, Alur and Adhola languages of Uganda. Dholuo and the aforementioned Uganda languages are all linguistically related to Dholuo of South Sudan and Anuak of Ethiopia due to common ethnic origins of the larger Luo peoples who speak Luo languages.
Four primary Dholuo dialects exist. These do not have their own names but are purely geographical; northwestern, south-central, east-central, and south. All dialects are highly mutually intelligible, and mainly differ in lexis.
It is estimated that Dholuo has 93% lexical similarity with Dhopadhola (Adhola), 90% with Leb Alur (Alur), 83% with Leb Achol (Acholi). However, these are often counted as separate languages despite common ethnic origins due to linguistic shift occasioned by geographical movement.
Literacy (Of the Luo from South Nyanza)
The foundations of the Dholuo written language and today's Dholuo literary tradition, as well as the modernization of the Joluo people in Kenya, began in 1907. It began with the arrival of a Canadian-born Seventh-day Adventist missionary Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen, whose missionary work over a period of about 14 years along the eastern shores of Lake Victoria left a legacy. (This applies only to the Luo of Southern Nyanza, which are to the East of Lake Victoria). This legacy continues today through the Obama family of Kenya and the Seventh-day Adventist Church to which the Obamas and many other Joluo converted in the early part of the 20th century. The Obamas of Kenya are relatives of former US president Barack Obama.Peter Firstbrook, The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family. Crown Publishers, 2011. p. 106.
From 1906 to 1921, Carscallen was superintendent of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's British East Africa Mission, and was charged with establishing missionary stations in eastern Kenya near Lake Victoria and proselytizing among the local population. These stations would include Gendia, Wire Hill, Rusinga Island, Kanyadoto, Karungu, Kisii (Nyanchwa), and Kamagambo. In 1913, he acquired a small press for the Mission and set up a small printing operation at Gendia in order to publish church materials, but also used it to impact education and literacy in the region.
Over a period of about five years administering to largely Jaluo congregations, Carscallen achieved a mastery of the Dholuo language and was credited with being the first to reduce the language to writing, publishing the Elementary grammar of the Nilotic-Kavirondo language (Dhö Lwo), together with some useful phrases, English-Kavirondo and Kavirondo-English vocabulary, and some exercises were key to the same in 1910. Then, a little more than two years later, the mission translated portions of the New Testament from English to Dholuo, which were later published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.Firstbrook, Ibid., p. 126; Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen, Elementary grammar of the Nilotic-Kavirondo language (Dhö Lwo), together with some useful phrases, English-Kavirondo and Kavirondo-English vocabulary, and some exercises with key to the same. London: St. Joseph's Foreign Missionary Society, 1910.; Dictionary of African Christian Biography — Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen.
In 2019, the Jehovah’s Witnesses released the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in the Luo language. The Bible translation is distributed without charge, both in print and online.
The grammar textbook Carscallen produced was widely used for many years throughout eastern Kenya, but his authorship of it is largely forgotten. It was later retitled Dho-Luo for Beginners and republished in 1936. In addition to the grammar text, Carscallen compiled an extensive dictionary of "Kavirondo" (Dholuo) and English, which is housed at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK. Neither of these works has been superseded, only updated, with new revised versions of the linguistic foundation that Carscallen established in 1910.Arthur Asa Grandville Carscallen, Kavirondo Dictionary. Mimeographed, n.d. 374p. (SOAS Collections). Luo and English; Melvin K. Hendrix, An International Bibliography of African Lexicons. Scarecrow Press, 1982.
Phonology
Vowels Dholuo has two sets of five vowels, distinguished by the feature [±ATR] which is carried primarily on the first formant. While ATR is phonemic in the language, various phonological vowel harmony processes play a major role and can change the ATR of the vowel at output. A current change in certain dialects of Dholuo is that certain pronouns seem to be losing the ATR contrast and instead use [±ATR] in free variance.
+ [−ATR] vowels in Dholuo Front Central Back Near-close Mid Open
+ [+ATR] vowels in Dholuo Front Central Back Close Mid Open
Consonants In the table of consonants below, orthographic symbols are included between angle brackets following the IPA symbols. Note especially the following: the use of for , common in African orthographies; , are plosives, not fricatives as in Swahili spelling (but phoneme can fricativize intervocalically).
+ Phonetic inventory of consonants in Dholuo Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive prenasalized voiceless voiced Fricative Trill Approximant
Phonological characteristics Dholuo is a tonal language. There is both lexical tone and grammatical tone, e.g. in the formation of passive verbs. It has vowel harmony by ATR status: the vowels in a noncompound word must be either all [+ATR] or all [−ATR]. The ATR-harmony requirement extends to the semivowels , .
Grammar
Pronouns Dholuo has both emphatic and non-emphatic pronoun forms. The latter includes both prefixal and suffixal forms – no non-emphatic pronoun forms can be used as free morphemes. +EmphaticNon-emphaticPrefixalSuffixalana- -awanwa- -waini- -iunu- -ueno- -e ~ -gogingi- -gi
Distributives Dholuo exhibits the following distributive pronouns: +'Each' (person)ng'ato ka ng'ato'Each' (thing)moro ka moro'Any' (person)ng'ato ang'ata'Any' (thing)moro a mora
Nouns
Nouns (nyinge) can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. The masculine and feminine are used for people and animals with respectively masculine or feminine natural gender. The neuter is used for all other nouns.
Nouns only change their form when put in the genitive. Most genitives are highly irregular. The majority of genitives, though, end in a consonant.
Possession Dholuo is notable for its complex phonological alternations, which are used, among other things, in distinguishing inalienable possession from alienable. The first example is a case of alienable possession, as the bone is not part of the dog.
The following is however an example of inalienable possession, the bone being part of the cow:
Sample phrases
English Luo Hello Misawa (ber) How are you? Idhi nade? Intie nade? I'm fine. Adhi maber. What is your name? Nyingi ng'a? My name is… Nyinga en… I am happy to see you. Amor neni. Where do you come from? In jakanye? good morning oyawore good evening oimore God bless you. Nyasaye ogwedhi. good job tich maber Salvation resruok goodbye oriti I want water. Adwaro pi. I am thirsty. Riyo deya. / Riyo omaka. / Riyo ohinga. thank you erokamano child nyathi student (university student) nyathi skul, japuonjre (ja mbalariany) come bi go dhiyo take kaw return dwok come back dwogi sit bedi stand / stop chung' / wee hunger kech I am starved. Kech kaya. father wuoro [Dinka] wur mother miyo [Dinka] mor mer God Nyasaye, Nyakalaga, Were, Obong'o ( Different names associated with different attributes of God) Lord (God) Ruoth (Nyasaye) God is good Nyasaye ber help kony [Dinka] ba kony man dichuo woman dhako boy wuoyi (wuowi) girl nyako [Dinka] nya book buk, [Alego/Seme] buge youth rawera pen randiki shorts onyasa trousers long' table mesa plate tao lock rarind, ralor leader jatelo bring kel Go back there. Dog kucha. Come back here. Duog ka. ask / query penj question penjo run ringi [Dinka] walk wuothi jump dum / chikri [Alego/Seme] rain koth sun chieng' moon dwe / duee stars sulwe work tich fish rech [Dinka] cold koyo I want to eat. Adwaro chiemo.I have something to sayAn gi wach grandfather kwaro [Dinka] / kwar grandmother dayo [Dinka] / day white man ja rachar / ombogo / ja wagunda cow / cattle dwasi / dhiang' sing wer [Dinka] song wer good, beautiful ber, jaber bad rach marriage kend [Dinka], "keny" is the process, "thiek" is the marriage marry kendo tomorrow kiny today kawuono here ka / kae there (close by) kacha / kocha there (far) kucho child nyathi money omenda / chung' / oboke / sendi / pesa gun bunde gun fire maj bundestartchakidreamlekistandchung'abroadlokatalkwuo/lossitbedipraisepakeatchiem fire mach I want ugali. Adwaro kuon. maize, corn oduma, bando maize and beans nyoyo taxi matatu (Swahili) farm puodho (Alego-Ndalo) plough / dig out pur / kuny flying (in the air) fuyo fly (insect) lwang'ni stream (river) aora lake nam ocean ataro please asayi
References
Bibliography
External links
Luo phrases and basics A Handbook of the Kavirondo Language (1920) – one of the earliest books on Dholuo Lakeside Font - True Type Font for writing in Dholuo (archived)