Eastern Africa Journal of

Contemporary Research (EAJCR)

Morphological Analysis of Dholuo Number Markers

Jackton Otieno Midigo, Boke Joyce Wambura

Article information:
To cite this article:
Midigo, J.O. & Wambura, B.J. (2024). Morphological Analysis of Dholuo Number Markers.
Eastern Africa Journal of Contemporary Research, 4(1), 22– 32.

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 Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2024, ISSN: 2663-7367 (Online) & ISSN: 2663-7359 (Print)

Morphological Analysis of Dholuo Number

Markers

Midigo Jackton Otieno

Department of Languages, Linguistics and Literature, Rongo University, Kenya
Email: jaktonmidogo@gmail.com

Wambura Boke Joyce

Department of Education and Languages, Tom Mboya University, Kenya
Email: Joyce.boke@gmail.com

Abstract
This study examines plural morphemes in Dholuo nouns by investigating their number markers.
Dholuo being an agglutinative language, some nouns can hardly be noticed to be broken down
into multiple meaningful parts. It is then hard to predict their number marker patterns. Nouns in
Dholuo can exist as bare roots without prefixes or suffixes. They can also exist as poly-
morphemic words with suffixes hard to comprehend. Data for this paper constitutes Dholuo nouns
which were collected from twenty Dholuo speakers purposively sampled from Suna East Sub-
County in Migori County, Kenya. These were analyzed through descriptive research design,
guided by the morphological theory. The findings show that plural morphemes in Dholuo nouns
are irregular and number markers majorly forming plural morphemes are suffixes -e, -i and -ni.
In compound nouns, number markers are formed through inflection of plural morphemes on the
left base, right base or both and in some instances, there is no inflection. The inflection then
makes Dholuo nouns vary in form in expressing grammatical contrast in number. The findings of
this paper would be significant to syntacticians in contributing towards the ongoing attempts to
describe aspects of languages in theoretical linguistics. The findings on Dholuo noun morphology
can also help gain insight on how Dholuo how speakers conceptualize and categorize the world,
revealing underlying cognitive processes.
Keywords: Agglutinative Language, Dholuo Nouns, Number Markers, Plural Morphemes

1. Introduction
Dholuo is spoken as a first language in different parts of Africa by Luo community called
Joluo. It is in the Nilo- Saharan family of languages having six branches. The Luo people
have historically migrated across various East African countries, including Kenya, Sudan,
Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania, where Dholuo is currently being spoken. According
to Oluoch (2022), Dholuo is mainly confined to Kenya and is not widely spoken outside
Kenya. Dholuo belongs to the branch called Chan-Nile (Greenberg, 1966). In Kenya, it is
widely spoken in the following Counties: Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori. Dholuo
has two major regional varieties: The Trans-Yala dialect; spoken in Ugenya, Alego, Yimbo
and parts of Gem (Ojwang, 2018). The South Nyanza dialect is spoken in various
locations of South Nyanza, Siaya and Kisumu. The two groups have different dialects.
The dialect treated as standard in Dholuo is the one spoken in South Nyanza. The data
for this study is analyzed using South Nyanza dialect. Just like the other community

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languages in Africa, Dholuo has not been studied extensively. This implies that there are
many aspects in Dholuo which need to be clarified through various researches. This gap
prompted this paper. The main goal is to analyze Dholuo classified nouns and identify
their number markers forming plural morphemes.

1.1 Background to the Study

Dholuo has distinctive features not similar to other languages hence making the nouns to
be unique, having marked sounds. Onyango (2001) explains that Dholuo has 22 basic
alphabets; 17 consonants and 5 vowels. A, B, (C), E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S,
T, U, W, Y. [C] does not stand alone so it takes [h] for its sound to form /tʃ/ e.g chaki
(begin), chiel (fence) and chieng’ (sun). On the other hand, [s] in Dholuo does not take [h]
to form /ʃ/ while forming lexemes. We only have words like sulwe (star). Dholuo is also
notable for its complicated phonological alternations, making it be agglutinative in nature.
This can affect the formation of number markers morpheme which the current study
investigates. The given example (1) demonstrates inalienable possession indicating an
agglutinative nature of Dholuo.

1.1 Dholuo Gloss English

(1) Chok guok *Bone for dog The bone for dog (The bone

meant as food for dog)

The morpheme -k is a possessive morpheme which can also act as a preposition,

compounded with the noun chogo (bone). The compounding leads to the replacement of
the consonant [g] with [k] and deletion of the final vowel [o]. The study investigates the
rules and nature of morphemes governing the formation of pluralism in Dholuo.
In another sentence demonstrated with example (2) indicates a situation where a noun
can refer to more than one entity.

1.2 Dholuo Gloss

(2) Kendo ber Marriage is good/fir place is good

As argued out in Anyango (2021), Some words in Dholuo are similar in spellings but with
difference in meaning according to the accent. To elaborate on this, the word kendo
demonstrated in example (2) can mean again when both syllable ke and ndo have the
same accent. It can as well mean fireplace when only ke is stressed and pronounced as a
long sound. It can also mean to marry if the pronunciation is short. This nature of Dholuo
leaves a desire for research for a better understanding of the language especially the
investigation of the morpheme number markers and how they are formed which the
current study focuses on.

1.2 Statement of the problem

African languages are understudied because they luck both national and international
outlook. There is need to create an awareness of the descriptive nature of our native
languages just like other Western languages. This study therefore makes a deliberate
effort to investigate Dholuo noun number markers. Dholuo number markers exhibit
intricacies in their formation and usage, including variations in morphology. Dholuo being
an agglutinative language, some nouns can hardly be noticed to be broken down into
multiple meaningful parts. This may cause a challenge in predicting Dholuo number

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marker patterns. Nouns in Dholuo can exist as bare roots without prefixes or suffixes.
They can also exist as poly-morphemic words with suffixes hard to comprehend. Studies
were hardly found explaining how to interpret the use of morphemes for number markers
in Dholuo nouns hence the motivation for this study.
1.3 Research Objective
The study was guided by the following objectives:
1. To investigate morpheme number markers in Dholuo nouns
2. To Examine the use of morphemes in the formation of Dholuo number markers
3. To establish categories of Dholuo number markers
2. Literature Review
African languages have been the subject of theoretical and descriptive studies of late.
However, there is still much to be done on them, especially in Dholuo which is a Nilotic
language spoken in western Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Most theories have been
used to analyze Dholuo word categories. Despite much research work done in Dholuo,
few might have been done to analyze Dholuo nouns number markers which
unfortunately, did not catch the eye of the researcher. However, the following are some
of the researches done in Dholuo.
Connie et al. (2023) analyses morphophonemic processes in Dholuo and Suba
languages of Rusinga Island, Homa Bay County –Kenya. This study employs
Independent Parallel Theory and finds that, there is no phonological relationship
between the Dholuo and Suba words for personal pronouns. An instance is used for
illustration where the Dholuo word kanye for relative pronoun ‘where’ is found to be
disyllabic with CVCV structure. This is discussed in the study as contrasting with the
Suba language word ayi for the relative pronoun ‘where,’ which has the syllable structure
VCV. This study concludes that, Dholuo and Suba verbs are nowhere close to each
other. They are not related phonetically, phonologically and morphologically. This study
uses parameters in morphology under which the current study uses for its discussion.
However, its analysis only focuses on syllabic structure and does not account for
behaviors of morphemes in characterizing the pronouns. A gap the current study fills by
analyzing characteristics of morpheme number markers.
Ogelo (2022) explores relativity effects as evidenced in the behavior of Dholuo-English-
Kiswahili (DEK) multilingual individuals. This study supports the current study in finding
out the morphological features of the Dholuo nouns as a word category spoken by these
multilingual speakers. The investigations in Ogelo (ibid) are carried out under the
linguistic domains of stasis (spatial frames) and kinesis (motion events). These were
both wrapped within the spatial realm. The results of the investigations are analyzed and
interpreted through the theoretical lenses of the thinking-for-speaking hypothesis, the
grammatical aspect approach, multicompetence theory as well as cognitive grammar.
The study however fails to show sufficient evidence of linguistic relativity at the non-
linguistic level for both the spatial reference and the motion event investigations. Instead,
there is evidence of conceptual convergence due to possibly a shared grammatical
category of Dholuo, English and Kiswahili, at the non-linguistic level of the motion event
tasks. The current study on the other hand seeks to concern itself with the analysis of
morpheme number markers in nouns as a word category.
Everline (2013) examines morphosyntactic analysis of ambiguity of mood in Dholuo, she
uses minimalist programme approach. The study is set out to find out how mood is
expressed and how ambiguity is resolved in Dholuo, the modal structure of the language

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and how it can be explained within Chomsky (1965)’s Minimalist Programme. Everline
(ibid) uses desk research in collecting and gathering data from library sources in Dholuo
as well as relying on her intuition (according to Chomsky) as a native speaker. This
current study borrows the idea of morphological aspects in the analysis of Dholuo
language in the analysis of number markers in Dholuo nouns. The current study is
however different from the study of Everline since it investigates morpheme number
markers which is not addressed by Everline (ibid).
Omondi (1982) analyses major syntactic structures of Dholuo. Her research investiges
major syntax using theoretical frame work of the Standard theory of Generative
Transformational Grammar. Her study describes major syntactic structures of Dholuo
and provides basic information about Dholuo phonology. She discusses the various
categories into which formatives of the language may be divided and their morphological
realizations. Her theory presentes a survey of the main syntactic structures and gives the
main rules. The study deals with the imperatives, negations, questions and emphasis,
which is different from what the current study looks at. The findings in Omondi (1982)
however, informs the current study in investigating the nature of Dholuo number
markers. The few mentioned research works leaves the current study with some gaps to
fill. One of which the research did to find out was thus, set of rules governing the
formations of Dholuo, number markers.

2.1 Theoretical Framework

2.1.1 Morphological theory
Morphological Theory was initiated by Chomsky (1970) in the domain of generative
grammar to explain how words are structured. Adams (1973) and Bauer (1983) are some
of the proponents who advanced the operation of this Morphological theory in describing
English language. This Theory explains that morphology interacts with representations at
different linguistic levels hence stands at the interface between lexicon, phonology and
syntax. The study therefore adopts this theory to identify and analyze the morphemes
involved in Dholuo number marking. Morphological Theory was derived from Generative
grammar which provides a formal Theory of language structure meant to construct a set
of rules held to underlie native speaker’s tacit (Chomsky 1970). This theory can be used
to analyze three aspects of word structure such as: phonological word structure and
morphemes, internal structuring of words (relationships between morphologically related
words) and relationship between word structure and syntax. Based on this principle, the
study uses this theory to explore the relationship between number marking and other
grammatical categories, such as agreement and case marking.

Notably, other proponents of this Theory like Halle (1973) analyze morphemes in words
and explains that a morpheme is like a morphologically simple word stored in the lexicon.
Aronoff (1976) on the other hand developed a tenet in this theory which discusses
derivation and posits that lexical roots are stored in the lexicon while inflectional and
derivational morphemes are added by morphological operation. This tenet is used by the
study to examine morphological features depicted in Dholuo number markers. Beard
(1987) further contributed to this morphological theory by proposing another tenet in
morphological operation through inflection, which the study uses to investigatethe
morpheme number markers in Dholuo. The other tenet of this theory states that in
morphology, a grammatical property can be signaled by different formative word forms
which is also used to analyze various nouns in Dholuo, to find out the formation of plural
morphemes. Anderson (1982) argues that grammar takes a word stem together with an

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abstract description of an inflectional form hence suggests that there should be a set of
rules to generate word forms corresponding to inflectional descriptions. This is
investigated in Dholuo number markers hence this theory is found to be relevant in
examining Dholuo plural morphemes to find out how Dholuo nouns form their number
markers.

3. Methodology
This study adopted a descriptive research design in the analysis of data collected from
Dholuo speakers living in Suna East Sub County of Migori County, Kenya. Suna East
Sub County has a total population of 122674, according to the Kenya national statistics
in 2019. This formed the statistics frame from which 20 informants speaking Dholuo as
their first language were purposively sampled. The number of informants chosen was
convenient and easy to manage in collecting the primary data. The informants were
issued with relevant questionnaires to elicit data on Dholuo nouns and their number
markers. The questions were open ended and involved translating English nouns under
various classifications into Dholuo. Answers given were evaluated and coded to find out
if they had the type of primary data required, it was later used for content analysis. The
study also relied on Dholuo written texts for secondary data such as, the bible (muma
maler), novels (Ogila nyakalondo) and short stories (Apirimar) for validity and reliability.
Morphological theory principles were then applied to find out how number markers are
manifested in Dholuo nouns.
4. Results and Discussion
Warriner (1982), states that a noun is a word used to name a person, place, thing or
idea. There are types of nouns classified majorly as common, proper and compound.
Others are classified as concrete, abstract, countable and uncountable/mass nouns.
Nouns can occur in a group and in a related way with other elements hence referred to
as NP which is; a group of words comprising of a determiner, a noun and a modifier. The
data analyzed in this study is however on Dholuo nouns and their number markers. The
intention is to find out the plural morphemes for number markers as discussed:
4.1 Dholuo nouns number markers
Subsection 4.1.1 shows presentation of data on plural suffixes in Dholuo substantive
nouns
4. 1. 1 Plural suffixes
4.1.1.1 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(3) Nyako Nyiri Girl Girls

(4) Buk Buge Book Books

(5) Nanga Nengni Clothe Clothes

Morphological Theory is adopted to analyze how the mentioned plural suffixes acting as
number markers changes the internal structures of nouns. Example (3), indicates that
the application of the plural suffix -i as a number marker changes the singular morpheme
ko to plural morpheme ri, hence the vowel [a] in the first syllable of a single morpheme
changes to [i] after the addition of the number marker. In example (4), the application of

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the plural suffix -e changes the singular morpheme k to the plural morpheme ge hence a
change from voiceless to voiced final consonant. In example (5), the application of plural
suffix -ni changes the singular morpheme nga to plural morpheme ngni
Notably, in Dholuo substantive nouns, it is established that, a plural suffix which may be
a vowel such as [i], [e] or suffix -ni is added as a number marker to form a plural
morpheme to the stem. This is demonstrated with examples (3), (4) and (5). Formation
of plurals in Dholuo nouns are irregular and depends on the use of suffixes which
changes the plural form from the initially indicated singular form. It is also complicated to
predict any rule governing how number markers are applied. From the analysis done on
the data collected, the following observations are made.
There is also a change in the final consonant in the stem if the suffix added is not -ni.
The vowel [a] in most cases changes to [e]. Voiceless obstruents (plosive or fricative
sounds) become voiced and take an -e suffix. These findings are in agreement with the
suggestions in Okoth (1982) which claim that, Dholuo nouns vary in form to express
grammatical contrast in number. If /t/ occurs as the last obstruent in a word, it becomes
/d/. Whenever /k/ occurs as word final, it becomes /g/ in the plural morpheme as
demonstrated with examples (6), (7) and (8) indicating plural morpheme de, ge and dhe
4.1.1.2 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(6) Got Gode Mountain Mountains

(7) Chak Chege Milk Milk

(8) Puth Pudhe Cripple Cripples

Voiced obstruent become voiceless and an -e morpheme acting as a final vowel is

added. If /d/ occurs as the last obstruent in a word, it becomes /t/ and whenever /g/
occurs as word final, it becomes /k/ in the plural before the final vowel which is a suffix
acting as a plural morpheme -e, is added as shown in example (9) and (10).

4.1.1.3 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(9) Kidi kite Stone Stones

(10) Kede Kete Cane Canes

When /w/ or /o/ occurs as word final, it becomes /p/ in the plural and a suffix acting as a
plural morpheme -e which is a final vowel is added as shown in example (11).

4.1.1.4 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(11) Loo Lope Soil Soil

When /p/ occurs as word final, it becomes /w/ in the plural and takes a suffix acting as a

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plural morpheme -e, which is also acting at the same time as a vowel final, after
changing the vowel [a] to [e] as shown in example (12) hence forming a plural
morpheme we.
4.1.1.5 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(12) Pap Pewe Field Field

If the alveolar liquid /l/ occurs as word final, it changes to the nasal compound /nd/ in the
plural and a morpheme -e, final vowel is added to become morpheme nde for plural
marker as show in example (13).
4.1.1.6 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(13) Bul Bunde Drum Drums

When the morpheme ch occurs as word final, it changes to morpheme y in the plural and
takes an [e] vowel final to become morpheme ye as a number marker. This is
demonstrated with example (14).
4.1.1.7 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(14) Wich Wiye Head Heads

4.1.2 Inflected number markers

The presented data indicates how number markers are inflected in Dholuo nouns.
4.1.2.1 Dholuo Gloss English

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural

(15) Ring dhiang’ Ring dhok Meat cow Meat cows Cow’s meat Cows’ meat

Through the Morphological Theory, the current study finds that the right-handed heads
are inflected number markers for Dholuo nouns. The inflected number markers change
the vowel sounds in the compound nouns. This finding confirms the view in Atoh (2001)
which explains that some Dholuo compound nouns have right-handed heads. There are
however some cases where the left-handed elements which are not the heads of the
compound are inflected. In some instances, both bases are inflected for number. Right
hand heads inflected compound nouns in Dholuo is demonstrated with example (15)
The diphthong /i∂/ in singular noun changes to a monothong /ɔ/ in plural noun then /ƞ/
changes to /k/. There are instances where the first noun in the compound noun is
inflected for number markers with /∂/ changing to /ɔ/ as shown in example (16).

4.1.2.2 Dholuo Gloss English

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular

Plural

(16) Ja mriambo Jo mriambo A liar liars A liar Liars

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There are compound nouns where both bases are inflected for number markers with the
first base adding the final vowel [e] to form a morpheme -ne for number marker and the
second base changing its /∂/ in the first syllable to /i/ and adding the morpheme -ndo for
number marker as shown in example (17).
4.1.2.3 Dholuo Gloss English

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular

plural (17) Wuon nyathi Wuone nyithindo Father of a child Fathers of children
Father’s child

English plural: Fathers’ children

There are however compound nouns in Dholuo which do not go through inflection of any
morpheme for number marker hence remain in the same state. Example (18) is a
demonstration where none of the bases are inflected.
4.1.2.4 Dholuo Gloss English

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular

Plural

(18) Rabuond nyaluo Rabuond nyaluo Potato of luo Potato of luo Sweet potato
Sweet potatoes

Atoh (2001) explains that speakers often use compounds comprising of two bases as
standard. The current study found out that Dholuo compound nouns can have up to
three bases, without any inflection for number marker. If they do not, it then becomes
difficult to account for the stretch of morphemes semantically. Example (19) shows
possibility to recursively attach certain base morphemes to form three compounds in
some instances where chi (wife) is compounded to ong’o ng’o ong’o ng’o (ogre).
4.1.2.5 Dholuo English
(19) Chi ong’o ngo ong’o ngo Wife of an ogre
4.1.3 Number markers in Dholuo nouns with unchanging final consonants
4.1.3.1 Dholuo English
Singular Plural Singular Plural
(20) Bag Bege Bag Bags
Another unique character observed in Dholuo nouns is that voiced consonants such as
[b, dh and g] cannot occur in the final position in Dholuo as supported in Tucker (1994).
This study also notices that not all noun roots which take the suffix -e as their plural
suffix have final consonants or obstruent which alternate for voicing. At least there is a
word with a voiced obstruent in the singular noun which doesn’t get unvoiced in the
plural as shown in example (20).
4.1.4 Number markers in Dholuo nouns with consonant vowel suffixes
There is a class of nouns in Dholuo called CV suffixes where the final suffixes are
dropped in plural forms then get inflected with the morpheme for number marker -ni and
-e. This is demonstrated with examples (21), (22), (23) and (24).

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4.1.4.1 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(21) Pala pend-ni Knife Knives

(22) Kog-no Kok-e Nail Nails

(23) Kud-ni Kut-e Worm Worms

(24) Njok-la Njok-ni Thread warm Thread warms

Suffixes -no, -ni, and -la do not have a clear meaning component and are not involved in
productive affixation processes. Inkelas and Zoll (2005) states that they are semantically
empty morphs which are lexically part of the nouns with which they appear. In Dholuo,
these suffixes are deleted in plural forms due to phonological constrains. The study finds
that nouns with underlying voiced obstruent take the plural morpheme -e, hence results
in voicing polarity for the plural form since voicing of /g/ cannot be accounted for across
the deleted empty suffix.
4.1.5 Number markers in Dholuo nouns with unrelated forms
4.1.5.1 Dholuo English
Singular Plural Singular Plural

(25) Dhako Mon Woman Women

This study finds that, there is a class of nouns forming their plural marker with suppletive
stem allomorph (unrelated form). In this case, there is replacement of one stem with the
other hence resulting to an allormoph of a morpheme with no phonological similarity as
seen in example (25). Where dhako (woman) changes to mon (women).
4.1.6 Number markers in Dholuo loan words
There is a group of nouns categorized as loanwords (Okombo, 1982). These are words
from English or Kiswahili which have been borrowed to be used in Dholuo because the
items they name did not exist before. Their pronunciations have been affected by the
phonology of Dholuo. Example (26) demonstrates nativization of an English noun book
to Dholuo noun buk. The vowel [o o] changes to [u]. It forms its number marker by
changing the final consonant [k] to [g] which takes the final vowel [e] to form plural
morpheme -ge.
6.1.6.1 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(26) Buk Buge Book Books

Ernestus and Baayen (2003) posits that integration of non-words into a language often
leads to underlying forms not directly evident in the source. Nevins and Vaux (2006) on
the other hand explain that, speakers frequently infer underlying forms with voiced final
obstruent from inputs with final voiceless obstruent. The study therefore establishes that
in Dholuo, both non-word and in loanword adaptation is based on lexical frequency and
syllable number.

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4 .1.7 Number markers in Dholuo nominal possessors
Nouns in Dholuo can form a class called nominal possessor form in which head nouns
appear in possessor and related constructions, where consonant [d] changes to [t] by
deleting final vowel [i], in order to agree with the possessor form as shown in example
(27).
4.1.7.1 Dholuo Possessor form English Possessor
form

(27) Udi ut lemo Houses Houses of prayer

The singular form of udi (houses) is ot (house) whose possessor form is od lemo (house
of prayer). It can be noticed that singular morpheme in possessor form od changes to ut
in plural morpheme. In this case, there is a change in vowel sounds and voiced
consonant to unvoiced.
4.1.8 Number markers in Dholuo nouns consonant final and vowel final
There are nouns in Dholuo which are consonant final words with morpheme -ny
changing to -nj then adding final vowel [e] as a number marker to form a plural
morpheme -nje as shown in example (28).
4.1.8.1 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(28) Piny Pinje Country Countries

Others are vowel-noun final which changes the final vowel [o] to [e] before adding [b] to
become a morpheme for number marker -mbe. For instance, the singular morpheme -
amo changes to a plural morpheme -embe as shown in example (29).
4.1.8.2 Dholuo English

Singular Plural Singular Plural

(29) Yamo Yembe Wind Wind

5. Conclusions and Recommendations

This paper investigates plural morphemes forming number markers in Dholuo nouns
using Morphological Theory in generative grammar (Chomsky 1970). The findings show
that Dholuo nouns are both substantive and derivative hence irregular in forming
number markers for plural morphemes. Number markers majorly forming plural
morphemes are suffixes -e, -i and -ni. In compound nouns, number markers are formed
through inflection of plural morphemes on the left base, right base or both and in some
instances, there is no inflection. These then make Dholuo nouns vary in form in
expressing grammatical contrast in number. Plural morphemes are formed through
affixation or morphological transformations. Some affixations of plural morphemes in
Dholuo nouns occur through change in the tonal pattern by adopting Dholuo vowels [e]
and [i], which causes voicing and devoicing of the underlying obstruents. There is a
change in the final consonant in the stem of Dholuo nouns when number markers are
adopted. Voiceless obstruents (plossive or fricative sounds) become voiced and take
an -e suffix to form number markers. In addition, other number markers are formed

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 Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2024, ISSN: 2663-7367 (Online) & ISSN: 2663-7359 (Print)
through suppletive stem allomorphs (unrelated form) where there is replacement of one
stem with the other hence resulting in an allomorph of a morpheme with no
phonological similarity. This study recommends that, many studies in African languages
need to be done in this multilingual generation, to avoid being undermined by the other
languages that have become prestigious in use. The study also recommends that
Africans should value using their native languages and learn their complexity.

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