Women, Development and Peacebuilding in Africa by Jennifer Ball

Author:Jennifer Ball
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319979496
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Language Orthography

I went to Kisoro for a meeting this morning where they were discussing the orthography of Rukiga and Rufumbira, our local languages. It was a meeting at the LC5, district level. There are going to be changes to the primary school curriculum. Beginning in February 2007, nationally, P1–P3 are to be taught in the vernacular; the local language is supposed to be the medium of instruction.

There need to be changes in the way we write Rufumbira. Rufumbira is similar to Kinyarwanda but different because they are francophone, whereas here we are anglophone. It was only in 1995 that Rufumbira was added to the National Constitution. Before 1995, they did not recognize our language in Uganda. Before, it was always written like the way it is in Rwanda.

For us, in our language, we have words that sound the same except that one form has a double vowel. This significantly changes the meaning. An example is the word in Rufumbira for water is amaazi while the word for feces is amazi. The way our languages have been written up to the present is that there is no distinction made between these words which have got long and short syllables; they are both written with only one vowel. When reading in our languages, a person has to decipher the meaning within the context of the sentence. This is difficult for most people, but even more so for children, who are now to learn these languages in primary school.

I feel strongly this orthography needs to be changed to be consistent with how the language is spoken. And the orthography must have the same principles for both Rufumbira and Rukiga, because both children and teachers mix in schools in both areas.

So now the Ministry of Education and Sport has sent a notice around to the districts instructing the local councils to find people who are “competent, interested, and have time to do some writing,” to form a Language Board. This Board is supposed to discuss and decide on a consistent orthography and on the language textbooks to use in schools.

People have been opposing this idea because they think we want to change the language. I’m only saying we should change how it is written. There is so much political opposition. Maybe they think because I write books. You see, I write my books in the orthography with the single and double vowels. And I know of two other Rufumbira writers who also do this. So people say, the writers are just imagining this problem. A mother language is an essential right. Let the Bafumbira take a common stand in its literal establishment.

Juliana went on to describe her many efforts to advocate about this issue with the various authorities. With a certain satisfaction, she updated me a few months later.

It took two weeks last month. The Language Board has now developed a Rufumbira dictionary and grammar book, and has chosen textbooks to be taught in the schools. People now think I did something good for agitating for change.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.