Abstract:
In his book A Grammar of Kenya Luo (Dholuo) (1993) Tucker explores the
different types of genitives he found in the language. He attempts to differentiate
between alienable and inalienable genitive constructions, basing his argument on the
different forms of genitive head noun in Luo. However, after thorough investigation,
it can be said that Luo does not have the semantic distinction of alienable and
inalienable genitives. It does have two different forms of genitive construction but
these have no difference semantically. The difference between Tucker's findings and
those in this document may be due to recent language change, but this would need
further investigation.