Acholi language

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Acholi
Acoli, Shuli, Gang, Lwo
Spoken in: Uganda, Sudan 
Region: Acholi people, Sudan, Uganda
Total speakers: 800,000
Language family: Nilo-Saharan
 Eastern Sudanic
  Nilotic
   Western
    Luo
     Southern
      Luo-Acholi
       Alur Acholi
        Lango Acholi
         Acholi
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: ach
ISO 639-3: ach
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Acholi (also Acoli, Akoli, Acooli, Atscholi, Shuli, Gang, Lwoo, Lwo, Log Acoli, Dok Acoli) is a language primarily spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, a region known as Acholiland in northern Uganda. Acholi is also spoken in the southern part of the Opari District of Sudan. As of 1996 there were reported approximately 773,800 Acholi speakers in the world. However this has gradually grown to over 800,000.Song of Lawino & Song of Ocol, well known among African literature, were written in Acholi by Okot p'Bitek.

Acholi is one of the Luo languages, of the Western Nilotic branch of Nilo-Saharan. Acholi, Alur and Lango have between 84 and 90 per cent of their vocabulary in common[1] and thus are mutually intelligible.

Contents

[edit] Sounds

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].

[-ATR] vowels in Luo
. Front Central Back
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open ɒ
[+ATR] vowels in Luo
. Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open a

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.

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] Notes

  1. ^  Ladefoged et.al., 1972:80.

[edit] References

  • 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.
  • 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) Songo of Lawino and Song of Ocol. (African writers series, 266). London: Heinemann Educational.

[edit] External links

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