A Modern Runyoro-Rutooro Grammar (J.10)

Author: L.T. Rubongoya. Series edited by: Bernd Heine, Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †.

Series: EALD East African Languages and Dialects Volume 9

1999
20 pp. Roman, 334 pp.
14 tables, subject index
Text language(s): English
Format: 160 x 240 mm
570 g
Paperback
€ 69.80

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The author, an experienced teacher and native speaker of Runyoro-Rutooro, describes all facets of this Ugandan Bantu language in a form suitable for linguists and laymen alike. After Guthrie, the language is classified as Central Bantu (J.10, Nyoro-Ganda, Tooro). Although the manuscript for this grammar was completed over ten years ago, Rubongoya can be regarded as a protagonist of a very modern trend among African intellectuals who have entered the international scene with writings on their history and culture only recently. These academic contributions challenge the traditional Western universalist approach and provide Africans and Westerners alike with insights available only to a writer from within.

In his grammar, the author enters into a dialogue with earlier European attempts at describing the Runyoro-Rutooro language, incorporating what is useful from this earlier literature, but discussing grammatical issues from a new perspective. He rejects, for example, the traditional use by Bantuists of the terms preposition and conjunction to describe aspects of the Runyoro-Rutooro language and opts instead for the term joining words to emphasize that the respective words and phrases have a different grammatical function from prepositions and conjunctions in European languages.

This book can be used as a work of reference for all those interested in the Runyoro-Rutooro language policy, its teaching at school and university levels, or in any further study of the language. Furthermore, the grammar can be of value to the comparatively oriented Bantuist, who can draw on material here which is actually in use, in contrast to the far-fetched language examples foreign experts frequently gather.

Under these links you will find an ethnographical account of traditional Rutooro culture from the same author, furthermore several descriptions,  dictionaries and text collections of (Ugandan) Bantu and non-Bantu languages of the Great Lakes Bantu area:

Accompanying material:

• A Linguistic Bibliography of Uganda (ISBN 978-3-89645-180-4)
• Beyond the Language Issue (ISBN 978-3-89645-819-3)
• Erwachsenenbildung in Äthiopien und Uganda (ISBN 978-3-89645-684-7)
• Linguistic Landshapes (ISBN 978-3-89645-085-2)
• Naaho Nubo – The Ways of Our Ancestors (ISBN 978-3-89645-420-1)
• SUGIA Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika (ISBN 978-3-89645-090-6)
• The Historical Reconstruction of Great Lakes Bantu Cultural Vocabulary (ISBN 978-3-89645-095-1)

Cross-reference:

• Igikuria Phonology and Morphology (E.40) (ISBN 978-3-89645-029-6)
• Ik Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-133-0)
• Iraqw-English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-065-4)
• Kasus im Ik (ISBN 978-3-89645-135-4)
• Kinyamwezi (ISBN 978-3-927620-40-7)
• Legenden, Märchen und Fabeln aus Ruanda (ISBN 978-3-89645-743-1)
• Phonology and Morphology of Ekegusii (E.42) (ISBN 978-3-89645-026-5)
• Relative Clauses in Luganda (E.15/J.10) (ISBN 978-3-89645-020-3)
• Tales, Fables and Narratives of Rwanda (ISBN 978-3-89645-745-5)
• The Ha Language of Tanzania (ISBN 978-3-89645-027-2)
• Wörterbuch Kinyarwanda–Deutsch (ISBN 978-3-89645-588-8)

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