992 VOCABULARIES 



Notes ox Luganda. 



Luganda possesses fifteen out of the sixteen original Bantu prefixes, although the 

 twelfth jirefix (Tu-) is now Imt little used. The tenth prefix (Iti- or Izi-)is absent— perhaps 

 only recently so. 



In addition, however, to the normal prefixes, Luganda— perhaps also Runyoro— offers 

 two others not easily classed. These are Ogu- (sing.), Afja- (,pl.), both used as augmenta- 

 tives (slightly in a contemptuous sense). Thus : Embuzi is a goat ; Ogu-buzi, a huge 

 clumsy goat ; Aga-buzi = huge goats. Muntu is a man ; G^mtu (pi. Gantu) is a giant. 

 Efi<i>Hi/a enene = a large crocodile ; Ogicganya ogunene = a monstrously large crocodile 

 <^pl. Ag(i</o))i>/a). It might at one time have seemed as though Ogu- and Agci- were only 

 more primitive forms of the third and sixth prefixes — Omu- is sometimes followed in the 

 ]ilural by Ama-. But my researches into the Masaba and Kavirondo languages (dealing 

 with the original forms of the first and third, Gumu-, and the sixth, Genua-, prefixes) 

 do not lend much support to this idea. It is not uncommon among Bantu languages for 

 .special and local prefixes (often honorific) to arise from the prefacing of word-roots by 

 adjectives and consonants in abbreviated form. Ogu- and Aga- may thus have originated 

 locally in Luganda and Runyoro without belonging to the original set of Bantu prefixes. 



There is also a little understood prefix Se- in Luganda, usually masculine in sense 

 and vaguely honorific, sometimes answering to the term " Mr." Sedume is a buU ; 

 Segimnga, a cock. Senzige, in folk-lore, stands for "Messrs. Locust," or "Mr." Locust. 

 J^eljo is father or chief — nowadays " Sir." Se-kiboho, Se-hagwao, Seruti, are titles of 

 officials in the Uganda hierarchy. This honorific masculine prefix seems to crop out 

 occasionally in other Bantu tongues, as Se- or Si- : witness Si-ha)~iga, i.e. " ^Ir. Doctor," 

 in Ci-nyanja and Citonga on Lake Nyasa. 



A similar feminine prefix, Nya-, Na-, Nyi-, corresponds to 8e-, and is by no means 

 confined to Luganda. Nya-ho (mother), "Madam," corresponds to Se-ho, "Sir." Xya' 

 zala = mother-in-law, JSfamasole = Queen-mother, Nalinya = the " Queen-sister," Nalongo 

 = a mother of twins ; and so forth. 



But these male and female prefixes have no corresponding particles — no concord — as is 

 the case with the real sixteen or eighteen prefixes of the Bantu languages. They use as 

 corresponding particles the concord of the first and second {Omu- and Aba-) prefixes. 



Luswga is very like Luganda. In some cases it remains the more primitive form of 

 words. A curious point should be noted in regard to its version of the sixteenth (Pa-) 

 prefix. This becomes ra-, ya-. 



