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| Some of the TKK books now rewritten |
Rewriting TKK series Lulogooli
books has helped to structure words that a reader would miss out or be mixed on
pronouns, tenses, intonation and native’s applied accent. An L2, reading Book
2B; “Lidiku lia kiitu” /lidiku Lyechitu/, would easily find the words in a
diction search as one good user earlier belaboured English translations of the
words using a pencil.
Primarily, the rewriting has
harmonized the letters “ts, dz and z” to “z”, “r and l” to “l”, noun class “e
and i” to “i”, second person object “mo and mu” to “mu”, third person object
referred by “o” (ololi)1, “u” (uvuuki)2 and “a” (avee)3
to “a” and a few more others.
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| From this chart you can identify some changes in title names |
Secondly, agglutination has been
checked. In instances of over separation or over agglutination of morphemes
that makes the word not only unnatural but ungrammatical too. From the book,
“Ingoko Iagota” /Engoko Yagota/, page 24 paragraph 2 has the sentence:
“Niyitsulitsanga mivuyu minenene jayateelanga maavelera muno.” Structure
writing gives: “Niaizuliza(optional suffix ‘-nga’) mivuyu minenene jia (space)
iateelaa (note pronoun ‘i’ for ‘ingoko’) ma (space) aveelela (tonal double ‘e’
and use of ‘l’ allophone) muno.
Marking tone by single or double
vowels is the simplest way to word meaning derival. Where deprived the sentence
confuses. Word “agula” /yagula/ is used as “she bought” (page 24 second
paragraph Book 2B) and also written “aagula” /yaagula/ (page 31 paragraph 1
same book 2B). With the TKK series writing in ‘reporting’, we expect past
tenses. “Agula” is present active while /yagula/ fails to mark tense tone,
which /yaagula/ does by missing “a”, third person pronoun in writing.
Additionally, Book 2C; Chogo na
Isukili ieie /Chogo Nesukili Yeye/ keeps the beautifully story exchanging
between present active to past tense, or so that is how a native would get it
out. If the words are to, then the interpretation would oscillate. Page 29
second paragraph, “Vamogiinga kukidali nivamohila muinyuumba”, /Vamugiinga
kukidali nivamuhila mmba/ is active reporting. Yet the whole story is a past
tell of what happened to Chogo during the school holidays. Writing
“Vaamogiinga” for ‘they carried him’ is not same to “Vamogiinga” for ‘they are
carrying him’ /vamogiing(“-a” of low tone)/ or ‘they then carried him’ /vamogiing(“-a”
of raised tone).
Also captured in the rewrite is
avoidance of elisions. Here, the TKK series (earliest published in 1967: Book
1B and latest in 1980: Book 3B; Nvoolela /Mbolera/ does not take note that
words must be “whole”. “Muindooho” is /mundoho/4 , “Muimoni” is
/mmoni/5 and more.
It may not be epenthesis per se
when noon class agreement are used for nouns. Words as /avaana/, /amavaha/,
/ivikoondo/ all have an opening vowel that they would be still okay without.
However, to avoid a scenario where there is a presence of a vowel every
preceding a word, dropping is necessary. But for pointers “iki” /yiki/, “ugu”
/yigu/, “ili” /yiri/ and more.
To conclude, Book 2B; Lidiku Lia
Kiitu /Lidiku Lyechitu/ gives an exercise at page 48. It asks learners to match
the description to one of the nouns listed below. Looking at the 10
descriptions, all are detached to the nouns in descriptions. We would expect
“Ia kulyilaa kuo” (what we eat on) and not /Yakulilaa ku/ (where we cry on?)
and expect the noun to be “imeesa” /emesa/ (table).
….
1 Book 1D; “Kuzye
Mulisooma” /Kutsie Mwisooma/ page 7 first sentence: “Muana aaloli mama” /mwana
ololi mama/.
2 Book 1D; “Kuzye
Mulisooma” /Kutsie Mwisooma/ page 5 third sentence: “Muana aavuuki” /mwana
uvuuki/.
3 Book 1D; “Kuzye
Mulisooma” /Kutsie Mwisooma/ page 14 second sentence: “Muana avee kumagulu”
/Mwana aveeye kumagulu/.
4 TKK Supplementary
Reader 1 for Primary 2; Ingoko Iagota /Engoko Yagota/: page 27 paragraph 2.
5
TKK Supplementary Reader 2 for Primary 2; “Avaayi vaa zing’oombe” /Vaayi
Vetsing’ombe/.
[30/04/2025, 5:58 pm] Dave Odden: Teacher, please explain! I wrote _nziti_ when reporting that I killed a chicken, and you punished me saying “No! Write _niti_!”. I am confused, am I supposed to *write* _niti_ but *say* _nziti_, or am I supposed to also say _niti_? Later, I wrote _viiti_ and you yelled at me “No! Write _vaiti_!”. I become more confused since in my village we *say* _viiti_, but I guess I have to stop relying on pronunciation when I learn to write.
ReplyDeleteNext, when I was writing about my group sprinkling on medical powder, I reported that the doctor told us “_vaidi_” since we say, _viidi_ and I heard him say _viidi_, therefore we should write _vaidi_. But you tell us “No! In this case, write _viidi_!”. Ullogoori is vidinyu muno! The next day I wanted to say that my friend remembered something, so I wrote what I said: _yiizulizi_. Sadly, you told me that I should instead write _aizulizi_ and when the story turned to what *I* remembered, I was told to write _nizulizi_ and not use so many z’s (‘cuz I wrote _nzizulizi_).
I decided I could not learn this language. I learned that when I say _nzivisi_ “I hid myself” I ought to write _nivise_ but when I say _niyizulizaanga_ I ought to write _niaizuliza(optional suffix ‘-nga’)_. Maybe that means I am pronouncing words wrong. I do say _niyizulizaanga_ (I could be saying _ni yizulizaanga_ but I am not very good at hearing the spaces which the experts say I should be listening to), and I am pretty sure that mother, father, grandmother and grandfather all say _niyizulizaanga_, but perhaps we should be saying _nziyizulizaanga_, just like we say _nzivisi_ when we write _nivise_ or _nivisi_, at this point I cannot remember how to speak or write the language.
I think I have to switch to speaking Swahili and English and should not try pronouncing words in Ullogoori until I first learn how all of the words are spelled, then I can try to pronounce the way that I write. Grandmother is nice, but she insists on pronouncing words, and I can’t understand her unless she writes everything down so that I can look it up in a dictionary.
Great work!
ReplyDelete