Lugbara

About

Lugbara is a language spoken in West Nile (Northwestern Uganda) plus DR Congo (Orientale Province) and South Sudan (especially in Morobo County of Central Equatoria State). During 2024, the Census in Uganda recorded over 1.2 million Lugbara, but there are much more elsewhere including UK, America, Australia, etc. According to Lugbara mythology, the first Lugbara couple (Gborogboro and Meme) were created by ADROA [GOD]. Other stories say the Lugbara broke away from their Eastern neighbours (the Madi migrating from Nigeria) at Rejaf near Juba in ancient Sudan. Data for this dictionary was collected from various research sources including publications, media broadcasts and everyday speech. Anyone can use this dictionary for whichever purpose. To contact the Lugbara Living Dictionary Manager, whatsapp to +256-781-345712...

Grammar

Every Lugbara word ends with a vowel eg nyanya = tomato(es). Lugbara dialects like Aringa, Ayivu, Maracha, Terego, Vurra, etc sometimes interchange E with I eg e'bu = i'bu [hoe] or O with U eg ori = uri [fear]. Lugbara words are written the way they sound eg afa = property. Nouns can be either singular or plural, but adding a number or -yi after the subject shows the difference eg ti yi = cows. Nevertheless, some words change when more than one eg mva [child] becomes anzi [children]. Numbers are written as follows: ogbo or toko (0), alu (1), iri (2), na (3), su (4), towi or tawu (5), azia (6), aziri (7), aro (8), oromi (9), mudri or modri (10). After 10, you add "drini [for its top]" eg 11 = mudri drini alu. Multiples of 10 are written as "kali" eg 20 = kali iri; 30 = kali na, etc. Multiples of 100 are "turu" while 1000s are "alifu" eg 5000 = alifu towi. Millions are milioni... Present tense sentences are organised in the Subject - Object - Verb format eg Ma ongo ngo. = I'm singing a song (Literally I'm song singing). If you order the sentence like English (SVO), then it becomes past tense eg A ngo ongo. = I sang a song. Some words have more than one meaning depending on at least three tones (Rising or high, middle, falling or low) eg ti can mean produce, cow or drip.