Native to Uganda, South Sudan ISO 639-2 ach | Ethnicity Acholi people | |
Native speakers 1.2 million (2002 census) Language family Nilo-Saharan?
Eastern Sudanic
Nilotic
Western
Luo
Southern Luo
Luo–Acoli
Alur–Acoli
Lango–Acoli
Acoli Dialects Labwor
Nyakwai
Dhopaluo (Chope) | ||
Uganda tag acholi gal edition tabitha laker
Acoli (also Acholi, Akoli, Acooli, Atscholi, Shuli, Gang, Lwoo, Lwo, Lok Acoli, Dok Acoli) is a Southern Luo dialect spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader (a region known as Acholiland) in northern Uganda. It is also spoken in southern Sudan in Magwi County Eastern Equatoria states
Contents
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[2].
Acoli, Alur, and Lango have between 84 and 90 per cent of their vocabulary in common[3] and are mutually intelligible. 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.
Phonology
Acoli 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].
Acoli 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.
The above were the old work of the missionaries Alfered Malandra and Crazzolara published in 1955. However, a more up-to-date Acoli orthography by Janet Lakareber shows that a vowel in Acoli language has more than two pronunciations. A monosyllabic word in Acoli has 14 different pronunciations. This is explained in the nine books of Acoli Accented Orthography.