GENEALOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE LULUHYIA DIALECTS’ LEXICOSYNTACTIC SIMILARITIES

  • David Wafula Lwangale Egerton University
  • Dr. Phyllis J. Bartoo Egerton University
  • Prof. James K. Mutiti Pwani University
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53555/er.v1i5.545
Keywords: genealogical,, syntactic, dialect,, lexicosyntactic

Abstract

The syntactic similarity of given languages may be used as evidence of their genealogical
relatedness. This paper focuses on the lexicosyntactic similarities inherent across the
Luluhyia dialects as evidence of their common origin. Despite the principle of language
universals as advanced by Naom Chomsky leading to universal grammar (UG), not all
languages of the world ascribe to the same syntactic structure. The findings of the study
presented in this paper show that the Luluhyia dialects have the same syntactic structure as a
result of the similarities of their lexical items. Such syntactic similarities across the Luluhyia
dialects are an indicator of a once linguistically and anthropologically unified community
whose origin was undisputedly one. The Luluhyia dialects use basically the same words only
differing in pronunciation, stress placement and vowel length. In most cases, the distinction
between the Luluhyia dialects cannot be detected by non-native speakers of the dialects. The
variations are mostly suprasegmental in nature. However, the relatedness of the Luluhyia
dialects is overtly displayed prompting a genealogical connection

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Published
2016-08-31
How to Cite
Lwangale, D. W., Bartoo, D. P. J., & Mutiti, P. J. K. (2016). GENEALOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE LULUHYIA DIALECTS’ LEXICOSYNTACTIC SIMILARITIES. IJRDO- Journal of Educational Research, 1(5), 54-64. https://doi.org/10.53555/er.v1i5.545
Issue
Vol. 1 No. 5 (2016): IJRDO - Journal Of Educational Research
Section
Articles

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