Acholi dialect
| Acholi | |
|---|---|
| Acoli | |
| Lwo | |
| Native to | Uganda, South Sudan |
| Ethnicity | Acholi |
Native speakers | 1.5 million in Uganda (2014 census)[1] 27,000 in South Sudan (2000)[1] |
Nilo-Saharan?
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ach |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:ach – Acholi/ Acolilth – Thur |
| Glottolog | acol1236 |
Acholi (.
Song of Lawino, well known in African literature, was written in Acholi by Okot p'Bitek, although its sequel, Song of Ocol, was written in English.[1]
Acholi,
Phonology
Acholi has vowel harmony: all vowels in a word have to belong to a single class (e.g. [kojo] the cold vs. [kɔjɔ] to separate). There are two sets of five vowels, distinguished by the feature [+/-ATR].
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | ɑ |
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||
| Plosive/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | pʷ | t
|
tʃ | k |
| voiced | b | bʷ | d
|
dʒ | ɡ | |
| Nasal | m | n
|
ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Rhotic | r
|
|||||
| Approximant | l
|
j | w | |||
/pʷ/ and /bʷ/ sounds may also sound as labial affricates [pf] and [bv].[3]
Acholi is a tonal language. Thus, some words may be distinguished by tone alone, e.g. bèl (low) 'wrinkled' vs. bél (high) 'corn' and kàl (low) 'place enclosed by a palisade' vs. kál (high) 'millet'. Tone furthermore plays a role in verb conjugation.
Recent work
 |
The above were the old work of the missionaries Alfred Malandra and Crazzolara published in 1955. However, a more up-to-date Acholi orthography by Janet Lakareber shows that a vowel in Acholi language has more than two pronunciations.[4] A monosyllabic word in Acholi has 14 different pronunciations. This is explained in the nine books of Acoli Accented Orthography.[5]
Notes and references
Notes
Endnotes
- ^ a b Acholi/ Acoli at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020)
Thur at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020)
- ^ "Registration authority request for change of language code" (PDF).
- ^ Malandra, Alfred (1955). A New Acholi Grammar. Kampala: Eagle Press.
- ^ "Acoli Accented Orthography with diacritical marks". Retrieved 3 May 2019.
- ^ "Acoli Accented Orthography with diacritical marks". Retrieved 3 May 2019.
Bibliography
- Crazzolara, J.P. (1938) A study of the Acooli language. Grammar and Vocabulary. International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. London/New York/Toronto: Oxford University Press.
- Kitching, Arthur Leonard (1932) An outline grammar of the Acholi language (first published 1907). London: Sheldon Press / Kampala: The Uganda Bookshop.
- Ladefoged, Peter; Ruth Glick; Clive Criper; Clifford H. Prator; Livingstone Walusimbi (1972) Language in Uganda (Ford Foundation language surveys vol. 1). London/New York etc. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-436101-2
- Malandra, Alfred (1955) A new Acholi grammar. Kampala: Eagle Press. Hathitrust record
- Okidi, Festo (2000) Acholi for beginners: grammar, Acholi–English, English–Acholi. London: Pilato Books. ISBN 0-9539913-0-X
- p'Bitek, Okot (1985) Acholi proverbs. Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya.
- p'Bitek, Okot (1984) Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. (African Writers Series, 266). London: Heinemann Educational.
- Janet Lakareber (2011) Coono Leb Acoli (intro) Acoli Accented Orthography. London: GBILA. ISBN 978-0954932305
External links
- Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Acholi dialect". World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- Listen to a sample of Acholi from Global Recordings Network
- IRIN Radio – Radio programming from northern Uganda in Luo
| National | |
|---|---|
| Other | |
