Lesson 17 : Parts of Speech (zingano zia mang'ana) of Lulogooli

Discussion

We have seen that a word is formed by picking agreeing letters (parts) from the prefixes, root word and suffixes. 

A word in Lulogooli can also be defined as a joining of letters to a root-word to form a short or extended meaning. 

A short meaning can be a simple word as “kola”(do), “inzila”(road), “kiene”(itself) and others. 

The words can be grouped into different groups depending on how they are constructed. By construction, the word meaning is being decided before the word end. 

In this lesson we are briefly going to look at the different word constructs. This will help us know the different kind of words (parts of speech) of Lulogooli. 

First, we have names of people or things. The word is constructed by picking a noun class reference, root part and end vowel. “Inzila”(road) has parts “i+nzil+a” [Noun class (Nc) + Root word (Rw) + End vowel(Ev)]. 

A noun in Lulogooli is “Kilaange” from the verb, “Laanga”(call). By what someone or something is called, so is its name or reference. 

Example nouns are Mumaama(mother), Muami(leader), Lisaala(prayer), Liduunda(fruit), Malooto(dreams).

In writing, the nouns above may not repeated by renaming in a sentence. They are referred to by pronouns. Pronouns in Lulogooli are “Visiingilili”. 

Visiingilili come from the act of “kusiingilila” meaning to stand for or look after. In this case, it is the nouns being looked after. There are two types of visiingilili: dependent and independent. 

Example independent Visiingilili are: Ivi (you), Utu(these), Ula(him/her), (those). For independent Visiingilili, they are part of the extended word as morphemes “u”(you), “va”(they), “n”(me). 

The word construct as in “u.la” is Noun Class Agreement + Root word pronoun (u+la). A word as “ivi” may not be divided into smaller parts.

Next word meaning is the verb. The verb is an action or a word that means activity. In Lulogooli, “do” is “kola”. An action or activity is “Kikolwa”. 

Kikolwa is formed by joining a root action word and end vowel [Rw + Ev]. Word as “doola” has parts “dool. + a” for root (pick) and end vowel (a). 

Other example verbs are; Lya(eat), Nyagula(run), Sooma(learn), Umbaka(build, Lagula(prophesize). The end vowel “.a” gives the verb its neutral state. That is before grammatical effects as change of tense or inflections. In this state, the verb is known as stem-verb. 

When a noun or a pronoun is being described, we use “Kiivaali”. Kiivaali is known as adjective in English. “Kuivaala” in Lulogooli is to describe or explain. 

Example “Viivaali” (plural for Kiivaali) are: -akanyu(reddish), -ene(itself), -taambi(tall), -lulu(bitter), -lahi(good), -netu(flourishing). The hyphen “-“ is for noun reference to which noun is being described. 

If it is “Mudoga”(car) as a noun, the adjectives can be “muakanyu”(reddish), “mutaambi”(tall/lifted), “mulahi”(nice). Mudoga is from noun class 3{mu} singular.

Next is when the action or activity gets described. This is basically broadening the literal act, making the reader or listener vision it well. The act of broadening is “kuvaambaliliza”. 

“Kuvaambaliliza” begets the noun “Kivaambalilizi” which works as “Adverb” in English. These words do not have the combining format and can be said to be roots to themselves. 

Some of Lulogooli adverbs include: Kase(always), Galaha(slowly), Vudinyu (hard), Zimbilu (hurriedly), Kisaaza(manly). 

Another word, common in writing, is the Preposition. Because it tells where exactly something is or happening at, Lulogooli calls it “Kimanyya” from the verb, “manyya”(show). 

It can be at (.a) or there (.o). The roots “a” and “o” are combined with locatives to know whether it is inside, outside, directional or where. 

The locatives are included at the Noun class table and they are: 9{i}, 16{ha}, 17{ku}, 18{mu}. By joining, we get; “ia, ha, ku, mu” or “io, hao, kuo, muo”. 

In joining words, we use “Viungi”. Singular is “Kiungi” and works same way as a conjunction. Viungi in Lulogooli do not take the morphological process of adding a prefix or a suffix. 

The words used as Viungi in Lulogooli include: “Na”(and), Kinga(also), Nitali(but), Noho(or), Ku(so), ni(is) among others.

Lastly but not least are the interjections that express surprise or strong emotions is writing. Such a word is known as “Kihugi” singular and "Vihugi" plural in Lulogooli from verb, “huga”(show or be surprised). 

A surprise word can be as simple as a known word, “maama!” or a command, “Leka!”. Or it can be human expression, “magu!” for sadness, “haa!” for happiness. 

For other sounds as animal jeers and onomatopoeia, they are also regarded as Vihugi. Examples are “Guriguguuu!” for cock crowing and “Miao!” for cut purr. 

Example parts of speech words are outlined in the example sentence below. The sentence is translated not to respective grammar and parts of speech as: "See! The-big-hen that's-grey of grandmother that(you know) lays nowadys eggs that-are grey on porch".

Exercise

1. Write the parts of speech in Table Ileseni 17 and their English equivalent
2. Identify two more words for each of the group of words listed