Luo (also known als Dholuo) is a Western Nilotic language spoken by the Luo people, numbering about 3 million. Luo is spoken on the eastern shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. It is broadcast on KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, formerly the Voice of Kenya). Luo is closely related to Lango and Acholi of Uganda. ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, faith-based, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... The Luo are a people of Western Kenya, Central-Northern Uganda, Southern Sudan and Tanzania. ... Lake Victoria, as seen from space Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the Great Lakes of Africa. ... Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) is the state run media (Radio and Television) organization. ...

Sounds

Vowels

Luo has vowel harmony: all vowels in a word have to belong to a single class. Luo has two sets of five vowels, distinguisted by the feature [+/-ATR]. This article is in need of attention. ...

A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... -1... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Consonants

In the table below, orthographic symbols are included between brackets if they differ from the IPA symbols. Note especially the use of ‘y’ for IPA [j], common in African orthographies. When symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant. The orthography of a language is the set of rules of how to write correctly in the writing system of a language. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet used by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) the human vocal apparatus can produce. ...

The International Phonetic Alphabet is a phonetic alphabet used by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) the human vocal apparatus can produce. ...

Bibliography

• Gregersen, Edgar (1961) Luo: A grammar. Dissertation: Yale University.
• Stafford, Roy L. (1965) An elementary Luo grammar with vocabularies. Nairobi: Oxford University Press.
• Omondi, Lucia Ndong'a (1982) The major syntactic structures of Dholuo. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
• Tucker, Archibald N. (ed. by Chet A. Creider) (1994) A grammar of Kenya Luo (Dholuo). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
• Okoth Okombo, Duncan (1997) A Functional Grammar of Dholuo. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
• Odaga, Asenath Bole (1997) English-Dholuo dictionary. / Asenath Bole Odaga. Lake Publishers & Enterprises, Kisumu.
• Odhiambo, Reenish Acieng' and Aagard-Hansen, Jens (1998) Dholuo course book. Nairobi.

External links

• Ethnologue on Luo (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=LUO)
• Luo/Acholi/Lango Language page (http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Luo_root.html)
• Luo and the Nilo-Saharan family (http://members.tripod.com/~TempleBattlestrong/luo.html)
• Rice University Owlnet Luo Homepage (http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/Luo/main.html)