1. Family: Nilo-Saharan
  2. Subfamily: Eastern Sudanic
  3. Genus: Nilotic

Luo

WALS coordinates: 0° 30′ S, 34° 45′ E

spoken in Kenya, Tanzania

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Luo
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Dholuo
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Average
    Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio Average
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Moderately complex
    Tone Simple tone system
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Equal prefixing and suffixing
    Reduplication Full reduplication only
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
    Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
    Indefinite Articles Indefinite word distinct from 'one'
    Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Three-way contrast
    Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Different stem
    Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
    Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
    Ordinal Numerals First/one-th, two-th, three-th
    Distributive Numerals Marked by reduplication
    Numeral Classifiers Absent
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect prefixes
    The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
    The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
    Imperative-Hortative Systems Neither type of system
    The Optative Inflectional optative absent
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
    Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
    Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
    Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
    Simple Clauses
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
    Negative Morphemes Negative particle
    Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
    Predicative Adjectives Mixed
    Nominal and Locational Predication Different
    Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
    Complex Sentences
    Relativization on Subjects Gap
    Relativization on Obliques Pronoun-retention
    Lexicon
    Hand and Arm Different
    Tea Words derived from Sinitic cha