Intensifying Ideophones in Three Luhya Languages

Abstract

Ideophones are typically described as “marked words that depict sensory imagery” (Dingemanse 2011, 25). This paper addresses ideophone data from three Luhya languages: Llogoori, Lunyore, and Lutiriki (Bantu, Kenya). Our primary claim is descriptive: we show that there is a closed class of (previously undescribed) Luhya ideophones. We illustrate how the Luhya data is consistent with what is known about ideophones cross-linguistically, and give a preliminary semantic analysis of the Luhya ideophones as degree intensifiers.