A Study of Phonological Processes in Dholuo and Suba Languages

The study dealt with the analysis of morphophonemic processes in Dholuo and Suba languages of Rusinga Island, Homa Bay County –Kenya. The study was guided by three objectives, namely: to analyze Dholuo and Suba phonology, to contrastively analyze verbs of Dholuo and Suba languages and to examine the lexical structures of Dholuo and Suba languages. The study employed independent parallel theory. This theory clarifies the fact that all languages share some common and obvious similarities as a result of sharing one common origin. The study employed both purposive and random sampling techniques in sample selection. Interviews and observation schedules were used as instruments of data collection. Only qualitative data was collected and thematic analysis used. It is notable from the findings that there is no phonological relationship between the Dholuo and Suba words for personal pronouns. It is notable that the Dholuo word ‘kanye’ for relative pronoun ‘where’ is disyllabic with CVCV structure. This contrasts with the Suba language word ‘ayi’ for the relative pronoun ‘where’ which has the syllable structure VCV. The Dholuo and Suba verbs are nowhere close to each other. They are not related phonetically, phonologically and morphologically. For example, the verb ‘drink’ has totally different forms in Dholuo “metho” and Suba “okunywa” languages. It is evident that all Dholuo verbs begin with consonants and end mostly with vowels while the Suba language words for the English infinitive ‘to’ start and end with vowels. It is for the above reason that we have the Dholuo word for ‘to bite’ as ‘kayo’ and ‘okuluma’ for Suba language for the verb “bite”. The Suba words resemble the words in most Bantu languages and more specifically Luhya. This study will go a long way in helping linguistis to reconsider studying Suba language as purely Bantu and closely linked to Luluhyia language. Furthermore, the findings of this study may be used to boost the effort of preservation of Suba language as an endangered one. It was notable that Dholuo language has not infiltrated into Suba language vocabulary apart from affecting it from the perspective of language shift where Suba language speakers prefer speaking Dholuo to promote their business in Homa Bay County which is predominantly Luo in settlement