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Didn't the early Logooli Bible solve the grapheme problem?

 


"You want to know the right Lologooli? Find it in the early Lologooli Bible translation." That is a statement common amongst the elderly population in answer to people asking about writing today. This answer can be received as condescending till thought is given to it. 

One elaborate relook as to the writing of Lologooli 1951 Bible is a paper; "Morphophonological Issues in Translation: The Lulogooli Bible". Dr. Joyce Wangia was mainly concerned with 'what was missing' than 'what was there'. Such way, other Lologooli linguists have grown to 'correct' than to 'understand'. This creates a gap which in turn affects successive language study. 

It should not be argued that the early Logooli Bible aimed at creating a 'Luhya outfit' and hence largely detached. The first work was carried out in Vihiga coutesy of Emry Rees. By 1907 a first reader had already been printed. Moving to Kaimosi (Tiriki) soon after we observe new vocabulary as in the 1940 Luragoli-English dictionary. With the arrival of Rev. Chadwick of CMS in 1912 and the politics to work on a 'central' dialect, his friend Canon A.J. Leech greatly preferred a Luwanga, Lumarama, Lushisa and Lutsotso, also drawing vocabulary from Lusamia, Lukhayo and Lumarachi. 

Towards the change of some graphemes - ky to ch/chy, ts/dz to z, gi to ki and more must have been to 'simplify', often caused by learning English and Kiswahili. By 1902 there was little external influence on Lologooli and the argument that a 'purer' version of it existed then is water tight. And if what is spoken (and written) today is to go by, it shall be a work on dialect(s). 

It is no problem to 'change'. It is problem if the change sooner hits a wall. Grapheme 'k' for instance that was replaced with 'ch' will contradict many anaphoric inferences. Key thing to Lologooli is root word before prefixes and suffixes. For words (verbs) whose root word start with letter y-, the suffix if not k-, will contradict with verbs starting with ch-. We can then say we have graphemes /k/ and /ch/ of 'similar articulation'. 

Examples - 

  • yama (bear fruit) - kyāmi (it has bore fruits)
  • chāma (bend)      - chāmi (bend, plural). 
If the two above are written same, other inferences are likely to further contradict in knowledge that Logooli verbs by demonstrative infer cross-cuttingly. Reasons why ambiguity is common in Lologooli can be said to stem from homographs indifference. To be on the safe side it is to start right lest the whole process is later corrected or deserted. 
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