Locative enclitics in Ruruuli-Lunyala, Runyankore-Rukiga and Luganda: Form and functions

Abstract

In this article, we describe the form and functions of locative enclitics in Ruruuli-Lunyala, Runyankore-Rukiga and Luganda. We demonstrate that although locative enclitics play the role of locative references, there are other non-locative functions which have not yet been reported in these three languages. The article pursues two objectives: (1) To describe the form of locative enclitics in the three languages; and (2) to describe the locative and non-locative functions of enclitics. Data for Luganda and Runyankore-Rukiga were collected using interviews and focus group discussions. For Ruruuli-Lunyala, examples were drawn from a spoken corpus of Ruruuli-Lunyala, a Ruruuli-Lunyala dictionary and elicitations from two native speakers. The findings show that locative enclitics in Ruruuli-Lunyala, Runyankore-Rukiga and Luganda play the role of locative reference in addition to non-locative functions. The non-locative functions attested in the three languages include partitive, politeness, comparative, adverbial, tense and aspect. Some encliticised words have become lexicalised, while others are used in idiomatic expressions.