Rutara languages

Rutara
Runyakitara Nyoroan
Geographic distribution	Uganda, Tanzania, the DRC and Rwanda
Ethnicity	Rutara people
Linguistic classification	Niger–Congo? Atlantic–Congo Volta-Congo Benue–Congo Bantoid Southern Bantoid Bantu Northeast Bantu Great Lakes Bantu West Nyanza Rutara
Proto-language	Proto-Rutara [1]
Subdivisions	North Rutara South Rutara Kerewe Zinza
Language codes
Glottolog	ruta1242

The Rutara or Runyakitara languages (endonym: Orutara, Orunyakitara) are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken in the African Great Lakes region. They include languages such as Runyoro, Runyankore, Rukiga and Ruhaya. The language group takes its name from the Empire of Kitara.

Classification

David L. Schoenbrun classifies the Rutara languages as follows: ^{[2] [3]}

• Rutara
  • North Rutara
    • Nkore-Kiga-Nyoro-Tooro
      • Nkore-Kiga (Runyankore-Rukiga)
        • Nkore (Runyankore)
        • Kiga (Rukiga)
      • Nyoro-Tooro (Runyoro-Rutooro)
        • Nyoro (Runyoro)
        • Tooro (Rutooro)
    • Ruuli (Ruruuli)
    • Talinga (Kitalinga)
    • Hema (Ruhema)
  • South Rutara
    • Haya (Luhaya)
    • Nyambo (Runyambo)
  • Kerewe
  • Zinza

Standardized language

• Runyakitara

History

According to glottochronological calculations, Proto-Rutara emerged in the year 500AD in the Kagera region of Tanzania near Bukoba. In 1200AD It split into multiple groups which were north Rutara (which spread northwards into Uganda and the DRC), South Rutara, Zinza and Kerewe. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

References

1. Muzale, Henry R. T. (1998). "A Reconstruction of the Proto-Rutara Tense/Aspect System".
2. An Intellectual History of Power: Usable Pasts from the Great Lakes Region. p. 700.
3. https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/ruta1242
4. A Green Place, a Good Place: Agrarian Change, Gender, and Social Identity in the Great Lakes Region to the 15th Century. Boydell & Brewer, Limited. 1998. p. 46. ISBN   978-0-85255-681-8.
5. Stephens, Rhiannon (2 September 2013). A History of African Motherhood: The Case of Uganda, 700-1900. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9781107030800.
6. Elfasi, M.; Hrbek, Ivan (January 1988). Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century. UNESCO. ISBN   9789231017094.
7. Schoenbrun, David L. (1993). "Cattle herds and banana gardens: The historical geography of the western Great Lakes region, ca AD 800?1500" . The African Archaeological Review. 11–11: 39–72. doi:10.1007/BF01118142. S2CID   161913402.