| Acholi | |
|---|---|
| Acoli | |
| Lwo | |
| Native to | Uganda,South Sudan |
| Region | Acholi sub-region,Kiryandongo District andMagwi county |
| Ethnicity | Acholi |
Native speakers | 1.5 million in Uganda (2014 census)[1] 27,000 in South Sudan (2000)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | ach |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:ach – Acholi/ Acolilth – Thur |
| Glottolog | acol1236 |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Acholi (/əˈtʃoʊ.li/ə-CHOH-li, also Leb Acoli, or Leb Lwo) is aSouthern Luo dialect spoken by theAcholi people in the districts ofGulu,Kitgum,Amuru,Lamwo,Agago,Nwoya,Omoro andPader (a region known asAcholiland) in northernUganda. The Dhopaluo (Chope) sub-dialect of Acholi is spoken in theKiryandongo District in the kingdom ofBunyoro. It is also spoken inSouth Sudan inMagwi County,Eastern Equatoria.
Song of Lawino, well known in African literature, was written in Acholi byOkot p'Bitek, although its sequel,Song of Ocol, was written in English.[1]
Acholi,Alur, and Jo Padola have between 84 and 90 per cent of their vocabulary in common[2] and aremutually intelligible.[dubious –discuss] However, they are often counted as separate languages because their speakers are ethnically distinct. Labwor (Thur), once considered a dialect of Acholi, may not be intelligible with it.[2]
Acholi hasvowel 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 | ɟ | 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].[4]
Acholi is atonal language. It has high, low, downstep high and double downstep high tones, but also twocontour tones: one rising and one falling.[3] Thus, some words may be distinguished by tone alone, e.g.bèl (low) 'wrinkled' vs.bél (high) 'corn' andkàl (low) 'place enclosed by a palisade' vs.kál (high) 'millet'. Tone furthermore plays a role in verb conjugation.
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.[5] A monosyllabic word in Acholi has 14 different pronunciations. This is explained in the nine books of Acoli Accented Orthography.[5]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
