Tooro is unusual among Bantu languages as it lacks lexical tone.
As a result, the inherently long final vowel in obuso "forehead" and the phonetically long final vowel in omutwe "head" are shortened in isolation but are lengthened after a monosyllabic qualifier (obuso bwe [oβusóː βwe] "his/her forehead"; omutwe gwe [omutwéː gwe] "his/her head").
[5]: xiv Tooro has 3 diphthongs, /ai/, /oi/ and /au/, the latter only being attested in 3 words, 2 being English loanwords (autu "vegetable cooking oil", etauni < Eng.
It is worth mentioning that vowels and nasal consonants can have a high tone (e.g. nnywa [ń̩ɲwa] "I drink").
A falling tone appears in two cases: Rising tone is very rare, and only occurs in one case where a monosyllabic noun stem which has no noun prefix is used without an augment word-finally (e.g. enu ka [eːnǔ ka] "this is a house").
Note that since these rules only apply to native Tooro words, loanwords like Kristo "Christ" may break them.
Vowel hiatus resolution between words is not indicated in the orthography, except for some short words like na "and", -a "of" or nka "approximately" (e.g. okusoma ekitabu [okusóm‿eːkitáβu] "to read a book"; ky'abantu [c‿aβáːntu] "of (class 7) the people").
Like most Bantu languages, Tooro has noun classes, shown in the table below (augment vowels in brackets).
(this) (that near you) (that over there, rather near) (that over there, rather far away) Classes 16 and 17 are used as adverbs (i.e. hanu means "here", kunu "this way", hali "there", kuli "that way") Tooro, like all Rutara languages, is a heavily agglutinative language, with verbs needing to agree with the tense, mood, subject and object in class and number.
[12] ti-ba-ka-ki-mu-h-es-er-a-yo-gaNEG-3PL.SM-REM.PST-CL7.DOM-3SG.IOM-give-CAUS-APL-FV-LOC-HABti-ba-ka-ki-mu-h-es-er-a-yo-gaNEG-3PL.SM-REM.PST-CL7.DOM-3SG.IOM-give-CAUS-APL-FV-LOC-HABThey have never caused it (class 7) to be given to him/her over there.The morphological structure of a Tooro verb is: ni-, ti- -ka-, -a-, -(r)aa-, -ri-, -kya-, -ku- -a, -e -mu, -ho, -yo Note the similarity to the subject concord prefixes.
Compare the following examples: Tooro has a lot of derivational affixes for verbs, most of them exhibiting mid vowel harmony.
Reduplication is also used for some verbs (e.g. okutematema "to cut into small pieces using a machete").
Perfective -ir is subject to mid vowel harmony and causes consonant mutation.
Greetings in Tooro differ depending on number (singular or plural):[13][14] bulieverymu-ntuCL1-persona-ina3SG-haveo-bu-gabeAUG-CL14-rightbw-eCL14-3SG.POSShabw-ebecause.of-3SG.POSSrundioro-mu-ki-tebeAUG.DEF-CL18.LOC-CL7-groupna=a-ba-ndiand=AUG-CL2-otherku-twar-aCL15.INF-take-FVo-mu-ma-isoAUG.DEF-CL18.LOC-CL6-eyekandiandna=o-kw-ekamb-aand=AUG-CL15.INF-strive.for-FVku-lind-aCL15.INF-protect-FVna=o-ku-hikir-iz-aand=AUG-CL15.INF-arrive-APPL\CAUS-FVe-by-a=o-bu-gabeAUG.DEF-CL-GEN=AUG-CL14-rightbw-a=a-ba-ntuCL14-GEN=AUG-CL2.PL-personna=o-bu-singeand=AUG-CL14-peacebw-aboCL14-3PL.POSSkw-e-twar-aCL15.INF-REFL-take-FVha-ru-lengoCL16.LOC-CL11-levelrw-a=i-hangaCL11-GEN=CL5-nationna=o-rw-a=e-n-siand=AUG-CL11=AUG-CL9-earthy-oonaCL9-allbuli mu-ntu a-ina o-bu-gabe bw-e habw-e rundi o-mu-ki-tebe na=a-ba-ndi ku-twar-a o-mu-ma-iso kandi na=o-kw-ekamb-a ku-lind-a na=o-ku-hikir-iz-a e-by-a=o-bu-gabe bw-a=a-ba-ntu na=o-bu-singe bw-abo kw-e-twar-a ha-ru-lengo rw-a=i-hanga na=o-rw-a=e-n-si y-oonaevery CL1-person 3SG-have AUG-CL14-right CL14-3SG.POSS because.of-3SG.POSS or AUG.DEF-CL18.LOC-CL7-group and=AUG-CL2-other CL15.INF-take-FV AUG.DEF-CL18.LOC-CL6-eye and and=AUG-CL15.INF-strive.for-FV CL15.INF-protect-FV and=AUG-CL15.INF-arrive-APPL\CAUS-FV AUG.DEF-CL-GEN=AUG-CL14-right CL14-GEN=AUG-CL2.PL-person and=AUG-CL14-peace CL14-3PL.POSS CL15.INF-REFL-take-FV CL16.LOC-CL11-level CL11-GEN=CL5-nation and=AUG-CL11=AUG-CL9-earth CL9-allEveryone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels.