Grammar Engineering for the Ekegusii Language in Grammatical Framework

Abstract

The knowledge-driven economy uses technology, thereby increasing the demand for language tools and resources to acquire and distribute the knowledge. Such tools and resources are scarce for the under resourced, spoken Bantu languages. This paper develops a computational grammar for the Ekegusii language in the Grammatical Framework (GF) to bridge the gap. The grammar development uses a bottom-up and modular-driven approach. A machine translation experiment was set up to evaluate the grammar resulting in BLEU and PER of 55.95% and 19.49%, respectively. This work contributes by providing computational grammar for an under-resourced language, thus providing a platform for analysis and synthesis, plus a machine translation within the GF ecosystem.

Representation of Young People in Ekegusii Proverbial Metaphors: An Image Schematic Account

“…The native speakers of Ekegusii are referred to as Abagusii. Kituku, Ng'ang'a and Muchemi (2021) posit that Ekegusii is used for inter-ethnic communication and it is closely related to Zanaki, Nata and Ngurimi in Tanzania, and Igikuria in Kenya. Ekegusii has two main dialects namely: Rogoro (Northern) and Maate (Southern) dialects.…”