Gwere language
Gwere, or Lugwere, is the language spoken by the Gwere people (Bagwere), a Bantu people found in the eastern part of Uganda. It has a close dialectical resemblance to Soga and Ganda, which neighbour the Gwere.
| Gwere | |
|---|---|
| (O)lugwere | |
| Native to | Uganda |
| Region | Eastern Region |
| Ethnicity | Bagwere |
Native speakers | 410,000 (2002 census)[1] |
Niger–Congo?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gwr |
| Glottolog | gwer1238 |
JE.17[2] | |
Gwere, though closest in dialect to its eastern neighbours, also has many words similar to those used by tribes from the western part of Uganda. For example, musaiza (a man) resembles mushiiza used by the western languages with the same meaning.
The Ruli, a somewhat distant people living in central Uganda, speak a language that has almost exactly the same words used in Lugwere, but with a very different pronunciation.
Orthography and alphabet
- a - a - [ɑ]
- aa - aa - [ɑː]
- b - ba - [β]
- bb - bba - [b]
- c - ca - [c]
- d - da - [d]
- e - e - [e]
- ee - ee - [eː]
- f - fa - [f]
- g - ga - [g]
- i - i - [i]
- ii - ii - [iː]
- j - ja - [ɟ]
- k - ka - [k]
- l - la - [l]
- m - ma - [m]
- n - na - [n]
- ny - nya - [ɲ]
- ŋ - ŋa - [ŋ]
- o - o - [o]
- oo - oo - [oː]
- p - pa - [p]
- r - ra - [r]
- s - sa - [s]
- t - ta - [t]
- u - u - [u]
- uu - uu - [uː]
- v - va - [v]
- w - wa - [w]
- y - ya - [j]
- z - za - [z][3]
References
- Gwere at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
- Gwere, Omniglot.
- Akinlabi, Akinbiyi (1995). Theoretical approaches to African linguistics. Africa World Press. ISBN 0-86543-463-8.
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