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GOD is great; first and foremost! Secondly, JESUS is the Way! |
TABLE OF CONTENTS (MENU): |
Introduction |
Pronunciation Parameters |
Word Classes |
Vocabulary (A to Z) |
Numbers |
The LORD's Prayer |
Books in the Holy Bible |
The 10 Commandments |
Uganda National Anthem |
Lugbara Anthem |
Colours |
The Verb "Be" |
Relationships (The Clan) |
Days of the Week |
Calendar |
Lugbara Proverbs |
Riddles |
Idioms |
Lost in Translation (Lugbara AI) |
Introduction: |
This machine translation tool was created painstakingly from scratch (zero) with gritty nerves on the 3rd Agofe's 90th birthday afternoon (Saturday 26th November 2016) after a South Sudanese Acholi-Madi in Tennessee, USA (named Suzy Abdelfarag [aka Suzzana, Mamur, Akema] who spoke "fluent" Arabic) asked me via Facebook to teach her Luganda (so that she could understand her favourite Ugandan musicians eg Jackie Chandiru who is a Lugbara-Ganda and Mowzey Radio). Dismissively, Suzy wanted more than just the basic words I started the lessons with, but while checking out a Luganda Dictionary at www.archive.org, I literally SNAPPED without apologies because of what I had noticed about self-learning versus waiting for teachers to teach during my school career. Reinforced every year, Aiko's Lugbara Dictionary is where the Old and New meet (like Synthetic Imagination) linking the Niger Basin to Congo, Sudan and Uganda. It's a Lugbara Language Museum for historical, scientific and cultural research: Use Ctrl + F (key combination) or add this one-page electronic dictionary as a file to any AI chatbot to swiftly find any words you want! There is no English to Lugbara section, but you can try Data Augmentation (ie reverse-translate using an electronic Search tool when you want to find a Lugbara translation for the English word you already know). I'm only human and apologise in advance for any mistakes: I've cleaned thousands of errors by the way especially before Volume 10 (rationalised a lot spiritually and while proofreading spellings). I was even tempted to delete all the data, but resilience convinced me to keep polishing instead; therefore corrections and suggestions are always welcome through WhatsApp: +256-781-345712 or Email: aikoug@gmail.com! I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me in the name of JESUS (like Tower of Babel language multiplication by YHWH in Genesis 11 and Galileans filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost amazingly speaking other languages in Acts 2:1-13)! Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that: JESUS Christ is Lord [YESU Kurisito ni Opi] (Philippians 2:10-11)! |
Pronunciation Parameters: |
In Lugbara phonology, every Lugbara word ends with one of the five vowels eg nyanya = tomato; mucele = rice; karoti = carrot; ovakedo = avocado; osu = bean. Letters Q [Kaya] and X [Ekasa, Alamakanda in Aringa dialect] are not used (meaning only 24 on a keyboard can do), but four unique ones with an apostrophe are added: 'B, 'D, 'W and 'Y (which all sound like putting H after them though personal names omit the apostrophe). The 28 letters (comprising 23 consonants and 5 vowels) in the Simplified Lugbara Alphabet sound like this: Ah, Ba, Bha, Cha, Da, Dha, Eh, Fa, Ga, Ha, Ii (as in Israel), Ja, Ka, La, Ma, Na, Oh, Pa, Ra, Sa, Ta, Uw (as in soUnd), Va, Wa, Wha, Ya, Yha, Za. One of the sweetest things about Lugbara is that words are pronounced the way they are written. Since nursery in Jinja (Busoga), I was confusingly taught to recite English vowels separately in a different acoustic compared to the vowels in the ABC to Z(ed) rhyme, but later realised that the former sequence was exactly how Lugbara vowels sound. Consonant clusters (with silent letter denoted by rounded brackets) in Lugbara are: (D)J, DR, (G)B, HW, (K)P, MB, M(G)B, MV, ND, NDR, NG, NY, NZ and TR while diphthong (vowel) clusters and other noteworthy phonetics include the following: |
aa as in rat, for example leta-a |
c as in church, for example Candiru (though can also be spelt Chandiru) |
dj (letter D is silent) as in jilt, for example odji (pronounced oji) |
ee (preferably single E instead of a long vowel) as in emblem, for example andree (also andre) |
gb (letter G is silent) as in bend, for example Lugbara (pronounced Lubara) |
ii as in import, for example 'di-i (also sometimes written as 'di'i with a glottal stop though archaic); letter I doesn't need to be repeated when noun is not being emphasized eg zii can just be zi, the second I stands for "the one (and only)" |
kp (letter K is silent) as in pen, for example okpo (pronounced opo) |
mv (letter M becomes N) as in conversation, for example omve (pronounced onve) |
oa as in soar, for example Boroa |
oo (preferably single O) as in hold, for example ocoo (also oco); not oo as in food |
uu (preferably single U) as in chew, for example cuu (pronounced chu) |
z (letter Z becomes J after N) as in jean, for example onzi (pronounced onji). Otherwise, most times remains z as in zebra, for example ozu and when the first letter of a word, for example zukulu. |
The Old Vocabulary was small because some words have multiple meanings based on three major tones (to five including rising and falling), pronunciation or context eg o'du can mean day, thigh, omen, leopard; etc. However, the existing language which has a simplified 5-fold framework keeps getting New words added eg simu = phone; etc. Most nouns can denote both singular and plural (though adding yi after them also does); exceptions include mva [child] which becomes anzi [children]; etc while others are pronounced differently eg agu, agupi, etc. Adding suffixes -jo, -ko, -ru, -si and -yo to nouns creates new words; verbs also have -ku, -ma, -nga, -ta, -za and -zu. Adjectives follow the Subject eg buku eka = red book. In the entries ahead, semi-colon (;) shows different tones and meanings while goal brackets [ ] show translation. Lugbara sentences in past tense are structured using the Subject-Verb-Object arrangement like in English, but present continuous and future tenses follow S-O-V and ni [is] or nga [will, shall] may be added after the Subject to mark the difference eg YESU nga 'ba onzi pa [JESUS will save sinners]. When words are written together, the intended meanings may not change; so be very keen to spot the mashups eg Amanga votiyi 'be minira = Ama nga voti yi 'be mini ra [We will cast votes for you surely]. Short forms include: Ma mu ku = A mu ku [I'm not going]; Mi nya capati osu si = I nya capati osu si [You eat chapati with beans]; Eri ma mutuka = I-ma mutuka [His motorcar]... |
Some words are borrowed or modified from English plus other languages like Swahili, Luganda, Lingala, etc. Lugbara words are often written the same way they are pronounced; repeated letters especially consonants look ambiguously redundant and can be reformed eg Vurra, Uleppi, Owaffa, Oluffe, Okollo, Ofudde, Mekki, etc unless very special and meaningful (What you see is what you hear [WYSIWYH]). |
Marks for Simple Tones: |
In English, some words have different spellings, but the same pronunciation eg chase/ chess; chat/ chart; hat/ heart/ hurt; lace/ less; load/ lord; mane/ men; son/ sun; etc. In Lugbara, the same spelling can have different pronunciations (hence meanings) based on three (to five including rising and falling) tones indicated by accents as below. |
´ High tone eg aí [salt], drí [head], tí [cow]; |
- Mid tone eg aī [accept, pray], drī [hand], tī [strangle] (Mid tone is the most common tone in Lugbarati); |
` Low tone eg aì [ask, beg], drì [(to) heat], tì [produce]... |
Word Classes include: |
1. Ecipiri (Conj[unction]) |
2. Obi (Adv[erb]) |
3. Ru (N[oun]) |
4. Ruparia (Pron[oun]) |
5. Usuta (Interj[ection]) |
6. Vutivutia (Post[position] instead of Preposition) |
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