Lusoga language
Encyclopedia
Soga, or Lusoga, is a Bantu
language spoken in Uganda
. It is the native language of the Soga people of the Busoga
region of southern Uganda. With three million speakers, it is one of the major languages of Uganda, after English, Swahili
, and Luganda. However, it is largely restricted to the Busoga region, which is mainly within the natural boundaries of Lake Victoria to the south, Lake Kyoga
to the north, the Nile
river to the west and the Mpologoma (Lion) river to the east of Namutumba
district. Like most Bantu languages, it is tonal
.
and in the early 14th Century overwhelmed the original inhabitants, the Nilotic Luo
who came from the north, and the Teso who came from the north-east.
The written form of Soga is only as recent as the arrival of the Arab and European traders and missionaries. It first appeared in print in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Soga is used in some primary schools in Busoga as pupils begin to learn English, an official language
of Uganda
. It is also taught in secondary schools and is offered as a course subject in tertiary institutions such as Busoga University
and Makerere University
.
. It had a close belt of Runyoro associated dialects running east from Bunyoro
, across the northern region of Buganda
, across northern Busoga and through Bugwere, which is east of Busoga. In the southern part of Busoga a dialect known as Lutenga was traditionally spoken which resembled Luganda. Related dialects were also spoken in the Ssese Islands
, Buvuma Island
and eastern Buganda
.
But with the established of the Lusoga Language Authority (LULA), Busoga Kingdom has promoted a standardised Lusoga language. It has done enough research on the Lusoga language and published several literatures in Lusoga. It publications can be found at Busoga Cultural Centre Offices library located in the Nile garden in Jinja, Uganda
. Others are available in bookshops throughout Busoga and in major bookstores in Kampala
and other parts of the country. Some of the more accomplished Lusoga publications include a Lusoga Bible
, grammar books, riddles, proverbs, several story books and dictionaries e.g. Eibwanio www.fountainpublishers.co.ugEnglish/Lusoga - Lusoga/English dictionary. A limited online version is available at Lusoga - English Dictionary.
, Lusoga has a noun class system in which prefixes on nouns mark membership of one of the noun genders. Pronouns, adjectives, and verbs reflect the noun gender of the nominal they refer to. Some examples of noun classes:
around the Lake Victoria
region in Uganda
, nouns are reflected mainly by changing prefixes: human beings are indicated by the prefix Ba- (plural), and Mu- (singular), and the name of the country Bu-.
The following dialogue illustrates the basic form to greet a peer or an elder in a respectful manner:
The personal nature of the greetings ensues when the individual being greeted chooses to answer the question instead of merely responding with good or fine. It is sort of like being asked "How do you do?" and you respond "How do you do?" However, in Soga, the individual being greeted is free to actually delve into the fine details.
Additionally, simply drop the sir/madam to achieve the same effect as in English. The above dialog only addresses greeting one person because some words change into multiple others e.g. "Wasuzotya" is the combination of a singular prefix (Wa - you), word (sula - sleep), and singular postfix (otya - How did) spoken as one with a plural form that subsequently becomes "Mwasuze mutya" which is composed of two distinct words emerging from two different plural prefixes, a word, and the plural form of the postfix. It is sometimes impossible to not separate the plural form.
As long as you learn to count from 1 to 10 and 20, 30, 40, the rest will be easy. It is just a matter of joining one number to the other.
Eibwanio:Lusoga English Dictionary
Soga, or Lusoga, is a Bantu
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
language spoken in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
. It is the native language of the Soga people of the Busoga
Busoga
Busoga is a traditional Bantu kingdom in present-day Uganda.It is a cultural institution that promotes popular participation and unity among the people of Busoga, through cultural and developmental programs for the improved livelihood of the people of Busoga. It strives for a united people of...
region of southern Uganda. With three million speakers, it is one of the major languages of Uganda, after English, Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
, and Luganda. However, it is largely restricted to the Busoga region, which is mainly within the natural boundaries of Lake Victoria to the south, Lake Kyoga
Lake Kyoga
Lake Kyoga is a large shallow lake complex of Uganda, about in area and at an elevation of 914 m. The Victoria Nile flows through the lake on its way from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert. The main inflow from Lake Victoria is regulated by the Nalubaale Power Station in Jinja. Another source of water...
to the north, the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
river to the west and the Mpologoma (Lion) river to the east of Namutumba
Namutumba
Namutumba is a town in Eastern Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative and commercial centre of Namutumba District. The district is named after the town.-Location:...
district. Like most Bantu languages, it is tonal
Tone (linguistics)
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information, and to convey emphasis, contrast, and other such features in what is called...
.
History and development
The Soga language is very similar to neighbouring Bantu languages such as Luganda and Gwere. It is believed that the people in southern Busoga originally came from BugandaBuganda
Buganda is a subnational kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Ganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda, comprising all of Uganda's Central Region, including the Ugandan capital Kampala, with the exception of the disputed eastern Kayunga District...
and in the early 14th Century overwhelmed the original inhabitants, the Nilotic Luo
Luo (family of ethnic groups)
The Luo are an ethnic linguistic group located in an area that stretches from South Sudan and Ethiopia through northern Uganda and eastern Congo , into western Kenya, and ending in the upper tip of Tanzania. These people speak an Eastern Sudanic language, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language...
who came from the north, and the Teso who came from the north-east.
The written form of Soga is only as recent as the arrival of the Arab and European traders and missionaries. It first appeared in print in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Soga is used in some primary schools in Busoga as pupils begin to learn English, an official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
of Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
. It is also taught in secondary schools and is offered as a course subject in tertiary institutions such as Busoga University
Busoga University
Busoga University , is a private university in Uganda, affiliated with Busoga Diocese of the Church of Uganda.-Location:The main campus of Busoga University is located in the town of Iganga, approximately , by road, northeast of the city of Jinja, on the highway between Jinja and Tororo...
and Makerere University
Makerere University
Makerere University , Uganda's largest and second-oldest higher institution of learning, , was first established as a technical school in 1922. In 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees from the University of London...
.
Dialects
Linguistically, the Soga are part of the Bantu peoples. Soga has several dialects dating to the intermingling of people during the early migration period of the 17th and 18th centuries. There were so many dialects that it was difficult to reach agreement on the correct way to spell or pronounce certain words. For instance, in the north of Busoga, there is an 'H' in many words which does not appear in dialects of southern Busoga. Thus Busoga was divided into two dialect zones. Across the northern zone, the dialects Lulamogi and Lupakoyo were spoken. Lupakoyo closely resembled NyoroNyoro language
The Nyoro language is a local language of the Nyoro people of Uganda. It belongs to the Niger–Congo family, Benue–Congo subgroup, Bantu branch . Its Ethnologue code is NYR, ISO 639-2: nyo. It probably has two dialects: Orunyoro and Rutagwenda. A standardized orthography was established in 1947....
. It had a close belt of Runyoro associated dialects running east from Bunyoro
Bunyoro
Bunyoro is a kingdom in Western Uganda. It was one of the most powerful kingdoms in East Africa from the 16th to the 19th century. It is ruled by the Omukama of Bunyoro...
, across the northern region of Buganda
Buganda
Buganda is a subnational kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Ganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda, comprising all of Uganda's Central Region, including the Ugandan capital Kampala, with the exception of the disputed eastern Kayunga District...
, across northern Busoga and through Bugwere, which is east of Busoga. In the southern part of Busoga a dialect known as Lutenga was traditionally spoken which resembled Luganda. Related dialects were also spoken in the Ssese Islands
Ssese Islands
The Ssese Islands are an archipelago of eighty-four islands in the northwestern part of Lake Victoria in Uganda. The islands are coterminous with the Kalangala District in southern Central Uganda, which does not have any territory on mainland Uganda....
, Buvuma Island
Buvuma Island
Buvuma Island refers to a Lake Victorian island chain and the chain's largest island.-Location:This chain of more than fifty islands is located a few kilometres off the northern shore of Lake Victoria, Uganda in the Napoleon Gulf. Buvuma lies some 25 km south of the major city of Jinja, and...
and eastern Buganda
Buganda
Buganda is a subnational kingdom within Uganda. The kingdom of the Ganda people, Buganda is the largest of the traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda, comprising all of Uganda's Central Region, including the Ugandan capital Kampala, with the exception of the disputed eastern Kayunga District...
.
But with the established of the Lusoga Language Authority (LULA), Busoga Kingdom has promoted a standardised Lusoga language. It has done enough research on the Lusoga language and published several literatures in Lusoga. It publications can be found at Busoga Cultural Centre Offices library located in the Nile garden in Jinja, Uganda
Jinja, Uganda
Jinja is the largest town in Uganda, Africa. It is the second busiest commercial center in the country, after Kampala, Uganda's capital and only city. Jinja was established in 1907.-Location:...
. Others are available in bookshops throughout Busoga and in major bookstores in Kampala
Kampala
Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division. The city is coterminous with Kampala District.-History: of Buganda, had chosen...
and other parts of the country. Some of the more accomplished Lusoga publications include a Lusoga Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, grammar books, riddles, proverbs, several story books and dictionaries e.g. Eibwanio www.fountainpublishers.co.ugEnglish/Lusoga - Lusoga/English dictionary. A limited online version is available at Lusoga - English Dictionary.
Some useful basic grammar and vocabulary
In common with other tonal Bantu languagesBantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, Lusoga has a noun class system in which prefixes on nouns mark membership of one of the noun genders. Pronouns, adjectives, and verbs reflect the noun gender of the nominal they refer to. Some examples of noun classes:
Possessive Prefixes
In the Bantu languagesBantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
around the Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to discover this lake....
region in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, nouns are reflected mainly by changing prefixes: human beings are indicated by the prefix Ba- (plural), and Mu- (singular), and the name of the country Bu-.
- mu - person (singular), e.g. musoga = native of Busoga land
- bu - land, e.g. Busoga = land of the Soga
- lu - language, e.g. Lusoga = language of the Soga
- ba - people, e.g. Basoga = the Soga people
- ki - customs or traditions, e.g. kisoga = describes religious tradition or culture common to the Soga people.
Always attached to a verb
- N – I
- O – You (singular)
- A – He/She
- Tu – We/Us
- Mu – You (plural)
- Ba – They
Demonstratives
- Wano – Here
- Kino – This (thing)
- Ono – This (person)
- Oyo – That (person)
- Bino – These (things)
Greetings
Greeting in Soga is accomplished just as it is in the western countries. However, it assumes a more personal nature and just as in the West, its form depends on the time of the day and the elapsed time since the last contact with the greeter.The following dialogue illustrates the basic form to greet a peer or an elder in a respectful manner:
- Person A:
- Wasuzotya (osiibyotya) ssebo (nnyabo)? – How did you sleep (How was your day) sir(madam)?
- Person B:
- Bulungi, wasuzotya (osiibyotya) ssebo (nnyabo)? – Well (Good), How did you sleep (How was your day) sir (madam)? – Well, how did you sleep (How was your day) sir (madam)?
- Person A:
- Bulungi ssebo (nnyabo) – Well sir (madam)
The personal nature of the greetings ensues when the individual being greeted chooses to answer the question instead of merely responding with good or fine. It is sort of like being asked "How do you do?" and you respond "How do you do?" However, in Soga, the individual being greeted is free to actually delve into the fine details.
Additionally, simply drop the sir/madam to achieve the same effect as in English. The above dialog only addresses greeting one person because some words change into multiple others e.g. "Wasuzotya" is the combination of a singular prefix (Wa - you), word (sula - sleep), and singular postfix (otya - How did) spoken as one with a plural form that subsequently becomes "Mwasuze mutya" which is composed of two distinct words emerging from two different plural prefixes, a word, and the plural form of the postfix. It is sometimes impossible to not separate the plural form.
Some common Verbs
When conjugating the verb, remove ‘oku’ and replace it with the required pronoun i.e. n, o, a, tu, mu, ba.- Example:
- okukola – to work/to do,
- nkola – I work/do,
- okola – you work/do,
- akola – he/she works/does,
- tukola – we work/do,
- mukola – you work/do (plural),
- bakola – they work/do.
- okukola – to work/to do,
- Okukola – to work/to do
- Okusoma – to read/to study
- Okunhwa – to drink
- Okulya – to eat (Be careful, the above example does not work all the time with all forms of all words, as some verbs are irregular e.g. the singular from here is Ndya. However it is a start)
- Okutambula – to walk
- Okuvuga – to drive/to ride
- Okusobola – to be able to
- Okutwala - to carry/to take
- Okuseka - to laugh
Numbers
| 1 - 10 | 11 - 19 | 20 - 29 | 30 - 39 | 40 - 49 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – Ndala | 11 – Ikumi na ndhala | 20 – Abiri | 30 – Asatu | 40 – Anha |
| 2 – Ibiri | 12 – Ikumi na ibiri | 21 – Abiri na ndhala | 31 – Asatu na ndhala | 41 – Ana na ndhala |
| 3 – Isatu | 13 – Ikumi na isatu | 22 – Abiri na ibiri | ||
| 4 – Inha | 14 – Ikumi na inha | |||
| 5 – Itaanu | 15 – Ikumi na itaanu | |||
| 6 – Mukaaga | 16 – Ikumi na mukaaga | |||
| 7 – Musanvu | ||||
| 8 – Munaana | ||||
| 9 – Mwenda | ||||
| 10 – Ikumi |
As long as you learn to count from 1 to 10 and 20, 30, 40, the rest will be easy. It is just a matter of joining one number to the other.
| 50 - 99 | 100 - 500 | 500 - 900 | 1,000 - 5,000 | 5,000 - 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 – Ataanho | 100 – Kikumi | 600 - Lukaaga | 1,000 - Lukumi | 6,000 - Nkumi kakaaga |
| 60 – Nkaaga | 200 – Bibiri | 700 - Lusanvu | 2,000 - Nkumi ibiri | 7,000 - Nkumi kasanvu |
| 70 – Nsanvu | 300 - Bisatu | 800 - Lunaana | 3,000 - Nkuni isatu | 8,000 - Nkumi kanaanha |
| 80 – Kinaanha | 400 - Bina | 900 - Lwenda | 4,000 - Nkumi ina | 9,000 - Nkumi kenda |
| 90 – Kyenda | 500 - Bitaanu | 5,000 - Nkumi itaanu | 10,000 - Mutwaalo |
Telling the Time
Telling the time in Soga is different from the way it is told in English because hours of darkness correspond to PM to include early morning hours. You wake up at 6:00 am while a Musoga waking up at the same time refers to the same time as "essawa erii ikumi na ibiri munkyo (the time is 12 in the morning)". Essentially, the number representing the current time is simply skewed behind by six. Time is said using the word ‘essaawa’, e.g., essaawa ndala – 7 o’clock.Food
- Food – Emmere
- Sugar – Sukaali
- Coffee – Kaawa
- Milk – Amata
- Chicken – Enkoko
- Teaspoon – Kajiiko
- Plate – Sowaan
- Saucepan – Sefuliya
- Cup – Kyikopo
General phrases & vocabulary
- Ssente imeka – How much (price)
- (Bed)room – ekisenge
- Table – Menza
- House – Enhumba
- Kitchen – Eifumbiro
- Door – Olwiigi
- Chair – Entebe
- Wait! – Linda!
- Journey/trip – Olugendo
- Get out – Fuluma
- Tomorrow – Idho
- Yesterday - Idho
- Slow – Mpola
- Quick – Mangu
- Mr – Mwami
- Miss – Mukyala
- My friend! – Mukwano wange!
- My friends! – Banange!(commonly used as an exclamation)
- Under - Wansi/Ghansi
- Aunt - Senga
- Person - Omuntu
- Man - omusaadha
- Woman - Omukazi
- Child - Omwaana
- White man/person - Omuzungu
- Lamp - Eitaala
- Moon/Month - Omwezi
External links
- Ethnologue - Lusoga A detailed Ethnologue report for Lusoga by Ethnologue.com
- Busoga Kingdom Online - Lusoga An excellent online summary of the Lusoga language by the Busoga Kingdom Online
- Lusoga - English Dictionary Online Lusoga - English Dictionary by Webster's
Eibwanio:Lusoga English Dictionary