Phonological processes in plural formation: the case of Dholuo spoken in Tanzania

This study describes the plural formation strategies used in the Dholuo variety spoken in Tanzania. Furthermore, using generative phonology theory, the study endeavors to account for the apparent phonological changes after the morphological processes for plural formation. The findings have revealed that Dholuo widely uses suffixation to form plural. The prominent suffixes are -e, -ni, -ifor nouns and -o for adjectives, where -e is the most productive. There are also other strategies like suppletion, vowel mutation, and zero affixation. Suppletion can be divided further into total suppletion, where a new base is used as a plural marker, and partial suppletion, where there is resemblance in some sounds between the singular form and its plural counterpart. On the other hand, vowel mutation involves the change of the root vowel from /a/ to [e] basing on umlauting features as well as the agentive prefix a- mutating to o-. This study also maintains that the phonological changes observed are not necessarily conditioned by the attached morpheme, but rather the nature of the stem itself. Moreover, since some nouns and adjectives reveal more than one phonological process, rule ordering is observed so that the occurrence of one rule feeds the other. Lastly, there is a need for exhaustive examination of the position of tone and other supra-segmental features in plural formation. There is also a need to work more on plural formation for every Luo variety in order to have a proper generalization across the language.