Nyoro-Tooro nouns, like otherBantu languages, have a system of semantically based classing, which not only affects nouns but also modifiers of nouns (adjectives, demonstratives, numbers) and verbs. Just as gender accord is required in manyIndo-European languages, the modifiers and verbs associated with a given noun must show class agreement with the noun by using certain prefixes. This results in marked alliteration:
This class is exclusively used to refer to a person. These prefixes may be added to adjective, noun, and verb stems to express the idea that a person has that characteristic, likeramaga(“to go to war”) →omuramagi(“soldier”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 1 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 1 nouns.
This is a subclass of class 1 that does not take a noun prefix. It is often used for kinship terms, likenyoko(“your mother”), and for professions borrowed from other languages, likemakanika(“mechanic”) <mechanic.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 1a nouns andCategory:Tooro class 1a nouns.
This class is always the plural of Class 1.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 2 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 2 nouns.
This class is always the plural of Class 1a.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 2a nouns andCategory:Tooro class 2a nouns.
This class is exclusively used to refer to inanimates. Natural phenomena and active body parts also belong in this category, as well as anything inanimate that has a connection to one of the concepts listed above, like an object made from a plant and shaped like one.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 3 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 3 nouns.
This class is often the plural of Class 3.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 4 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 4 nouns.
This class is used to refer to a wide variety of items, especially the names of fruits (and other round things), and collectives, inanimate objects that are usually found in groups, likeeriino(“tooth”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 5 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 5 nouns.
This class is normally the plural of Class 5, as well as Class 14 and Class 15, however some of these collectives may only exist in the plural forms, and these usually refer to liquids and small things that can literally and metaphorically cover wide expanses, likeamatemba(“north”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 6 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 6 nouns.
This class is chiefly used to refer to artifacts and tools, which are inanimate objects manufactured by humans that do not belong in another class. These prefixes may be added to noun stems to express anaugmentative, likeenju(“house”) →ekiju(“big house”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 7 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 7 nouns.
This class is almost always used as the plural of Class 7.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 8 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 8 nouns.
This class is used to refer to a wide variety of items, both animate and inanimate, including most names of animals. This class is usually used for foreign loanwords referring to inanimates that do not fit easily into the noun class system, because the singular does not necessarily require a prefix and the plural form is the same as the singular form.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 9 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 9 nouns.
This class is used as the plural of Class 9 and Class 11. If this class is used as the plural of Class 11, theen-,em- andeny- prefixes are always used.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 10 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 10 nouns.
This class is used for a variety of different things. It may be used to form augmentatives, albeit less often than Class 7, likeenju(“house”) →oruju(“big house”). This class is also used to form language names becauseorulimi(“tongue, language”) belongs to this class, likeOruswahiri(“Swahili”). Additionally, this class may be used, without an augment, to derive relative forms from verbs as proper nouns, likehanga(“to create”) →Ruhanga(“God, the one who creates”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 11 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 11 nouns.
This class is often used for diminutives, likeekintu(“thing”) →akantu(“small thing”), although it also includes non-diminutive nouns, likeakahumbi(“billion”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 12 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 12 nouns.
This class is a plural class and is exclusively used to form diminutives from nouns, likeakame(“rabbit”) →otume(“small rabbits”) andamaizi(“water”) →otwizi(“small amount of water”). Some Class 12 diminutive nouns can use this class as a plural class.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 13 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 13 nouns.
This class is usually used as the plural of class 12. These prefixes may be added to adjective, verb and noun stems to express-ness and-hood, like-bi(“bad”) →obubi(“evilness”). They are also added to stems to form the names of religions (fromobusomi(“belief”)), like-siraamu(“Muslim”) →Obusiraamu(“Islam”), and names of countries (fromobukama(“kingdom”)), like-hindi(“Indian”) →Buhindi(“India”), although country names drop the augment vowel. Two nouns use this class in the singular and Class 6 in the plural, namelyobuhyo(“big herd”) andobugenyi(“preparation of a party”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 14 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 14 nouns.
This class is almost always used to form verbal nouns, equivalent to aninfinitive and agerund in a European language. It is prefixed to the verbal stem, like-soma(“read”) →okusoma(“reading; to read”). Only 4 non-verbal nouns,okutu(“ear”),okuju(“knee”),okuguru(“leg”) andokwezi(“moon; month”) are in this class, and they all take the plural of Class 6.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro verbal nouns andCategory:Tooro verbal nouns orCategory:Nyoro class 15 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 15 nouns.
This is used to denote asuperessive locative, and the only noun that belongs in and of itself to this class isahantu(“place”). Other nouns use the prepositionha.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Tooro noun superessive forms andCategory:Nyoro class 16 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 16 nouns.
This class is sparsely used to denote a pregressive locative, a way and a path from something, and the only noun that belongs in and of itself to this class isokuzimu(“the underworld, the path of spirits”). This class is no longer productive, and is only found in words such askunu(“this way”),kuli(“that way”),oku(“over there”),kurungi(“well, in a good way”) andkubi(“badly, in a bad way”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 17 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 17 nouns.
This class is used to denote aninessive locative. Nouns use the prepositionsmu andomu for definite and indefinite nouns respectively.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro noun inessive forms andCategory:Tooro noun inessive forms.
This class is a questionable class: the only two nouns supposedly in this class areenyuma(“back, behind”) andifo(“down, rear”), which themselves are more commonly used as adverbs.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, seeCategory:Nyoro class 19 nouns andCategory:Tooro class 19 nouns.