Tooro nouns, like other Bantu languages, have a system of semantically based classing, which not only affects nouns but also modifiers of nouns (adjectives, demonstratives, numbers) and verbs. Just as gender accord is required in many Indo-European languages, the modifiers and verbs associated with a given noun must show class agreement with the noun by using certain prefixes. This results in marked alliteration:
This class is exclusively used to refer to a person. These prefixes may be added to adjective, noun, or verb stems to express the idea that a person has that characteristic, like ramaga (“to go to war”) → omuramagi (“soldier”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 1 nouns.
This is a subclass of class 1 that does not take a noun prefix. It is often used for kinship terms, like nyoko (“your mother”), and for professions borrowed from other languages, like makanika (“mechanic”) < mechanic.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 1a nouns.
This class is always the plural of Class 1.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 2 nouns.
This class is always the plural of Class 1a.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 2a nouns.
This class is exclusively used to refer to inanimates. Natural phenomena and active body parts also belong in this category, as well as anything inanimate that has a connection to one of the concepts listed above, like an object made from a plant or shaped like one.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 3 nouns.
This class is often the plural of Class 3.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 4 nouns.
This class is used to refer to a wide variety of items, especially the names of fruits (and other round things), and collectives, inanimate objects that are usually found in groups, like eriino (“tooth”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 5 nouns.
This class is normally the plural of Class 5, as well as Class 14 and Class 15, however some of these collectives may only exist in the plural forms, and these usually refer to liquids or small things that can literally or metaphorically cover wide expanses, like amatemba (“north”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 6 nouns.
This class is chiefly used to refer to artifacts and tools, which are inanimate objects manufactured by humans that do not belong in another class. These prefixes may be added to noun stems to express an augmentative, like enju (“house”) → ekiju (“big house”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 7 nouns.
This class is almost always used as the plural of Class 7.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 8 nouns.
This class is used to refer to a wide variety of items, both animate and inanimate, including most names of animals. This class is usually used for foreign loanwords referring to inanimates that do not fit easily into the noun class system, because the singular does not necessarily require a prefix and the plural form is the same as the singular form.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 9 nouns.
This class is used as the plural of Class 9 or Class 11. If this class is used as the plural of Class 11, the en-, em- or eny- prefixes are always used.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 10 nouns.
This class is used for a variety of different things. It may be used to form augmentatives, albeit less often than Class 7, like enju (“house”) → oruju (“big house”). This class is also used to form language names because orulimi (“tongue, language”) belongs to this class, like Oruswahiri (“Swahili”). Additionally, this class may be used, without an augment, to derive relative forms from verbs as proper nouns, like hanga (“to create”) → Ruhanga (“God, the one who creates”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 11 nouns.
This class is often used for diminutives, like ekintu (“thing”) → akantu (“small thing”), although it also includes non-diminutive nouns, like akahumbi (“billion”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 12 nouns.
This class is a plural class and is exclusively used to form diminutives from nouns, like akame (“rabbit”) → otume (“small rabbits”) or amaizi (“water”) → otwizi (“small amount of water”). Some Class 12 diminutive nouns can use this class as a plural class.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 13 nouns.
This class is usually used as the plural of class 12. These prefixes may be added to adjective, verb or noun stems to express -ness or -hood, like -bi (“bad”) → obubi (“evilness”). They are also added to stems to form the names of religions (from obusomi (“belief”)), like -siraamu (“Muslim”) → Obusiraamu (“Islam”), or names of countries (from obukama (“kingdom”)), like -hindi (“Indian”) → Buhindi (“India”), although country names drop the augment vowel. Two nouns use this class in the singular and Class 6 in the plural, namely obuhyo (“big herd”) and obugenyi (“preparation of a party”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 14 nouns.
This class is almost always used to form verbal nouns, equivalent to an infinitive or a gerund in a European language. It is prefixed to the verbal stem, like -soma (“read”) → okusoma (“reading; to read”). Only 4 non-verbal nouns, okutu (“ear”), okuju (“knee”), okuguru (“leg”) and okwezi (“moon; month”) are in this class, and they all take the plural of Class 6.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro verbal nouns or Category:Tooro class 15 nouns.
This is used to denote a superessive locative, and the only noun that belongs in and of itself to this class is ahantu (“place”). Other nouns are given the prefix ha-, which makes an adverbial noun.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro noun superessive forms or Category:Tooro class 16 nouns.
This class is sparsely used to denote a pregressive locative, a way or a path from something, and the only noun that belongs in and of itself to this class is okuzimu (“the underworld, the path of spirits”). This class is no longer productive, and is only found in kunu (“this way”), kuli (“that way”), oku (“over there”), kurungi (“well, in a good way”) and kubi (“badly, in a bad way”).
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 17 nouns.
This class is used to denote an inessive locative. Nouns are given the prefixes mu- or omu- for definite and indefinite nouns respectively.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro noun inessive forms.
This class is a questionable class: the only two nouns supposedly in this class are enyuma (“back, behind”) and ifo (“down, rear”), which themselves are more commonly used as adverbs.
For a list of Wiktionary entries for nouns in this class, see Category:Tooro class 19 nouns.