>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 08/25/04 12:33AM >>>
an aside: In Luganda anaimals are generally uncountable. Thus enkoko can mean 1 or many chickens, and so it is with cattle and many animals (empologoma, embizzi, embuzi , etc) However, as a friend told me, in Lugwere -- with which Luganda has about 68% lexical similarity, onkoko is one chicken and enkoko is 2 or more. Likewise, onte is one cow, and ente are 2 or more cows. What about counting in other languages? >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Compatriot Ssemakula, I thought you would take that observation to its logical conclusion, which in line with the thesis of the summarised report should suggest that there are differences in the way the Bagwere and Baganda "think". Not that I expect any such inference to stand to scrutiny. On a more serious note,don't you think your example is out of context to the extent that it suggests that one can never know whether a Muganda is talking about one chicken or more than one? "My chicken is lost" is certainly understandably different from "My chickens are lost" - Enkoko yange........ vs Enkoko zange.........., not so? After all, even English,ever confused as it is, has one sheep, 2 sheep.....; but I thought the point of the report (as summarised) was that when it comes to 1,2,3........, the group studied did not make a fine distinction between fairly large numbers. Interesting stuff! Best regards, Yoswa New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage! -------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug