ABSTRACT
Gisu appears to be distinguished from the languages of the Inter-Lacustrine Bantu group by the absence of an initial vowel in all but one of the noun forms.3 Guthrie4 classifies it, together with the languages spoken in the north Nyanza area of Kenya and those of the Inter-Lacustrine Bantu, in category E 31a. Johnston5 puts Gisu in Group 5 of his Class A, which is the Nyanza group. His book also includes a small vocabulary. A bibliography of works on these languages can be found in Doke.6 A small Grammar of the Lumasaba Language, by the Rev. E. Purvis, was published by the S.P.G. in 1904. The author deals with the main southern dialect and his work is often rendered inaccurate by the use of Luganda idioms which have no counterpart in Gisu. Purvis also published a translation of the four Gospels and a Service Book with Occasional Prayers, but these, like the grammar, are out of print and difficult to obtain.
