Prof Ruge Publications

Prof ruge work
The documents available on this module reflect a substantial part of the work of Prof. Josephat Rugemalira as a linguist within the university setting. The intention is to provide access to those materials produced under the auspices of the Languages of Tanzania Project which are now largely out of print and have never been made available online. It is my hope that, with time, the University of Dar es Salaam will be able to make the large amount of material produced from that project available to the wider public via the internet.
 
Nyaraka zinazopatikana hapa zinawakilisha sehemu muhimu ya kazi ya Prof. Josephat Rugemalira kama mwanaisimu katika mazingira ya chuo kikuu. Nia ya kuziweka hapa ni kuwawezesha watu mbalimbali kupata nyaraka hizi ambazo zilitokana na kazi za Mradi wa Lugha za Tanzania na ambazo kwa kiasi kikubwa hazichapishwi tena, na hazijawahi kupatikana katika intaneti. Ni matumaini yangu kwamba, hatimaye, Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam kitaweza kuziweka kwenye intaneti nyaraka nyingine nyingi zilizotokana na mradi ule, kwa manufaa ya umma.

According to the preliminary report of the 2002 census, the population of Karagwe was 425,476. The indigenous inhabitants of Karagwe call themselves abanyambo and refer to their orurími ‘tongue/language’ as orunyambo or occasionally as ecinyambo. Since there has been considerable confusion in the literature on this score, a few clarifications are in order. The confusion is of two kinds. First, there is confusion in naming and locating the land, the people, and the language. This confusion apparently originates from Bryan (1959:107) who lists “nyambo (ru-)” and “Karagwe (ru-)” as two distinct languages spoken in the same area, then Tanganyika Territory, south of the Kagera River. Although Rubanza (1988) correctly identifies Karagwe as the name of the old Kingdom, he wrongly aligns it2 with a “Mwani” dialect and never mentions Runyambo except in connection with Guthrie’s and Nurse’s works. What should be clear is that Karagwe is not the name of a language, a people, or even a town. It refers to an administrative territory much larger than a town or a village.


The second type of confusion is inherently controversial, having to do with the problem of defining and identifying languages and dialects. Guthrie (1948, 1967-71), Bryan (1959), Bastin (1978), and Nurse (1979) after him, identified Runyambo (E21) and Ruhaya (E22) as distinct languages (the latter with the Ziba, Ihangiro, and Hamba dialects). Heine’s (1972) classification, however, only mentions Ruhaya. And from the perspective of the two most extensive studies of Ruhaya, Byarushengo et al. (1977) and Rubanza (1988), Runyambo does not exist. In this regard works by Bickmore (1989a, 1992) and Rugemalira (1993b, 2002), are significant for having, at least, reaffirmed Runyambo’s place on the map.