Spelling
There are several slightly different orthographies for Kinyarwanda including those created by the first Protestant and Catholic missionaries. There is also no official dictionary which means there is some disgreement about the spelling of many words. However, this dictionary tries to be consistent with what is taught in Rwandan schools.
General rules
In Kinyarwanda there are many combinations of letters which will cause some letters to change. This is usually done to ease pronunciation, as can be observed if you try to pronounce something like umu+ana.
| Letters | Result | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| u + vowel | u → w | umu+ana → umwana, ku+iga → kwiga |
| i + vowel | i → y | imi+enda → imyenda, iki+obo → icyobo |
| a + a | a | aba+ana → abana |
| a + e | e | ama+ezi → amezi |
| a + i | i | ama+izero → amizero |
| a + i (start of adjective) | e | ma+iza → meza, ba+inshi → benshi |
| n + labial (b, m, v, f, p) | n → m | n+fite → mfite, in+bwa → imbwa |
| n + vowel (at start of stem) | n → nz | in+oga → inzoga, n+iza → nziza |
| n + h | nh → np → mp | in-hanuka → impanuka, n+huzamahanga → mpuzamahanga |
| n + r | r → d | in+rwara → indwara, n+ra+kora → ndakora |
The change down rule
When the next consonant after k is one of c, f, h, p, s, t or k, then it becomes g, e.g.
Likewise t becomes d, e.g.
The A-I-U rule
This rule governs which vowels will occur in a verb suffix. If the next to the last syllable in a verb stem contains a, i, or u, the added suffix will contain i but if the next to the last syllable has e or o, the added suffix will contain e. For example, when adding the locative suffix to a verb:
Similarly when added the causative suffix:
Word interactions
The pronunciation rules of Kinyarwanda mean that usually vowels between words are not pronounced to allow words to flow into each other. Sometimes this is reflected in the spelling such as with the prepositions na and nka, e.g.
- na umugabo → n'umugabo - and the man
- nka ijambo → nk'ijambo - like the word
However sometimes the spelling remains unchanged despite the change in pronunciation, e.g.
- ni umugabo - he is a man
- uri umwarimu - you are a teacher
Mu and ku
The prepositions mu and ku usually cause the proceeding noun to drop its initial vowel (augment), e.g.
- mu umujyi → mu mujyi - in town
- ku umugoroba → ku mugoroba - in the afternoon
However if the noun is class 5 (i-, iri-) then the initial vowel is retained, e.g.
- mu ijuru (pronounced mw ijuru) - in Heaven
- ku isoko (pronounced kw isoko) - at the market
Common variations
- Sometimes ku+u is written as kwu rather than ku. Likewise ku+o is sometimes written as kwo rather than ko. This is most commonly seen in verb infinitives like kumva or koga which are sometimes spelled kwumva and kwoga.
- A few words commonly occur without their final syllable, such as ikizamini (ikizami) and imodokari (imodoka)
