User:Ethanmurray/Luo grammar

Introduction
Luo, or Dholuo, as its speakers call it, is the language of more than three million people. Dholuo speakers are centered in Nyanza Province, located in southwestern Kenya. Languages in Kenya are often divided into Bantu, Nilotic, and Cushitic; Luo is Nilotic.

According to Owen Ozier, "The three most closely related languages to Kenyan Luo are the languages of the Acholi and Lango in Uganda, and the Alur language in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both Lango and Acholi languages are sometimes referred to as "Lwo" by native speakers. Because Luo speakers are centered in southwest Kenya, there are significant populations of Luo speakers across the borders in both Tanzania and Uganda.

"Luo occasionally borrows from Kiswahili, as Kiswahili has a larger vocabulary, and is one of the official national languages of Kenya. There are also cases of words shared between Luhya and Luo, despite their disparate (Bantu vs. Nilotic) origins. Examples include words for yes and no."

As a disclaimer, the author of this brief text is neither a linguist nor a person at all fluent with Dholuo, but merely someone who likes languages, and thought that there was not nearly enough information about Dholuo available on line. This is a work in progress and not a definitive text.