Lesson 7 : Syllables of Lulogooli

 Discussion

The consonants and vowels of Lulogooli join to form a syllable (ikitivuku). 

The consonant is abbreviated as “C” and the vowel as “V”. By joining, we get C+V = CV. 

In Lulogooli, a syllable is called “Kitivuku”. This is from the verb “tivuka” meaning “to utter” or “to say”. That is because a syllable in word making often carries a meaning. 

An example word as “Ligeembe” (a hoe) which has three syllables (vitivuku); Li.gee.mbe. Kitivuku “Li” means singularity and also neutral size. The rest of the syllables are the noun’s root; “gee.mbe”.

We had found that consonants of Lulogooli are silent (zichiling’anu) and vowels as sounding (viasuki). The joining of consonants to vowels make the consonants audible. 

The consonants are: b,ch,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,r,s,t,v,w,y,z. When a vowel as “a” is added to each of them they form syllables; ba, cha, da, fa, ga, ha, ja, ka, la, ma, na, pa, ra, sa, ta, va, wa, ya, za. 

For each consonant the five vowels are joined in an example case as “ba, be, bi, bo, bu.”

We had also discussed about doubled vowel sounds, “aa, ee, ii, oo, uu”. They are also joined to consonants to form long syllable sounds as: baa, chaa, daa, faa, gaa, haa, jaa, kaa, laa, maa, naa, paa, raa, saa, taa, vaa, waa, yaa, zaa. 

For the five “b” consonant sound if added long vowels we get “baa, bee, bii, boo, buu”. 

Consonants can be two or more in a syllable. A word as “zimbwa” for dogs has two building parts; “zi+mbwa”. The syllable “mbwa” has 3 consonants, “m+b+w”. 

The three consonants in “Mbw-” can be represented as CCC. When a vowel is added for sound “mbwa”, it is CCCV. 

The reason for two or more consonant combinations is for Lulogooli to gather more sound systems for the language. With more sounds then there is reduced chances of using same sounds to mean several things. 

More Reading for Syllables

Of the combining consonants, letter “n” has the most combining. It goes to four as in the example word “ng’ng’a”. The word can be translated as a vocable, an expression of a bitting, “ng’ng’a!”. 

The syllable format for vocable word “ng’ng’a is therefore; CCCCV. 

Table of Ileseni 7c lists all the “possible” syllables for Lulogooli, including vocables (jeers and interjection) and if words will need to be nativised (Lulogoolinized) to sound as of Lulogooli. 

In the format table, the leading combiner of double and more consonants is additions of slippery /j/ to consonants. This slippery is phonetic representation for letter “Y”. 

Example slippery syllable combinations are; bya, chya, lya, sya, zya and others. They are commonly used in Lulogooli. 

When we learnt about double vowels, we identified that vowels ia, ie, ii, io and iu sometimes are read as ya, ye, yi, yo, yu. We differentiated that we can only write “y” for “i” only if it does not affect grammar. 

A word as “poo” in Lulogooli is “nia”. The word can also be read or written “nya”. Both “nia/nya” mean to poop or to defecate. 

The root verbs for nia/nya are [ni.] and [ny.]. They are both phonetically represented as /nj/ and /ɲj/ respectively. The gist is that /nj/ = /ɲ/. To agree /ɲj/ = /n+j+j/ where grammar is not affected.

A word as “lya” meaning “eat” is different from “lia” that means “of”. The building parts for “lya = ly.a” while “lia = li.a” where “Li.” Is a function of noun class, it has a referral point and functions for noun “Li-“ prefix. 

It is therefore discouraged to write both as “lya” or “lia”. Whereas “lya” will attract the reader as a syllable or combination of root, “lia” will be noticed for grammatical reasons. 

Exercise

1. In your notebook write the 19 Logooli single consonant syllables
2. In your sir/maiden name, break the name into its building syllables. Identify single or double consonants if present
3. Write down the five long vowel syllables for consonant combinations gw, ndy, mb and nch
4. Attempt reading all syllables in table Ileseni 7c