Acholi (also Leb Acoli, or Leb Lwo) is a

Southern Luo Southern Luo is a dialect cluster of Uganda and neighboring countries. Although Southern Luo dialects are mutually intelligible, there are six ethnically and culturally distinct varieties which are considered to be separate languages socially. P ...

dialect spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of

Gulu Gulu is a city in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the commercial and administrative centre of Gulu District. The coordinates of the city of Gulu are 2°46'54.0"N 32°17'57.0"E. The distance from Gulu to Kampala, Uganda's capital and larg ...

Kitgum Kitgum is a municipality in Kitgum District in the Northern Region of Uganda. The town is administered by Kitgum Municipality Council, an urban local government. It is the largest metropolitan area in the district and the site of the district ...

and Pader (a region known as

Acholiland The Acholi people (also spelled Acoli) are a Nilotic ethnic group of Luo peoples (also spelled Lwo), found in Magwi County in South Sudan and Northern Uganda (an area commonly referred to as Acholiland), including the districts of Agago, Amuru ...

) in northern

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

. It is also spoken in

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

Magwi County Magwi County, also Magwe County, is a county in Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan. Location The county is located in Eastern Equatoria. It was earlier located in Eastern Equatoria State, in southern South Sudan. It is bordered to the west and no ...

Eastern Equatoria Eastern Equatoria is a state in South Sudan. It has an area of 73,472 km². The capital is Torit. On October 1, 1972, the state was divided into Imatong and Namorunyang states and was re-established by a peace agreement signed on 22 Febr ...

. '' Song of Lawino'', well known in African literature, was written in Acholi by

Okot p'Bitek Okot p'Bitek (7 June 1931 – 19 July 1982) was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for '' Song of Lawino'', a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wis ...

, although its sequel, ''Song of Ocol'', was written in English. Acholi, Alur, and Jo Padola have between 84 and 90 per cent of their vocabulary in common 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

Acholi has

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...

: all vowels in a word have to belong to a single class (e.g. ''the cold'' vs. ''to separate''). There are two sets of five vowels, distinguished by the feature /-ATR /pʷ/ and /bʷ/ sounds may also sound as labial affricates fand v Acholi is a

tonal language Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

. 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. A monosyllabic word in Acholi has 14 different pronunciations. This is explained in the nine books of Acoli Accented Orthography.

Notes and references

Notes

# Heron, G.A., 1972, Introduction p. 8 in p'Bitek, Okot, 1984. # Ladefoged et al., 1972:80.

Endnotes

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. *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. *p'Bitek, Okot (1985) ''Acholi proverbs''. Nairobi: Heinemann Kenya. *p'Bitek, Okot (1984) ''Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol''. (

African Writers Series The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003. The series has provided an international audience fo ...

, 266). London: Heinemann Educational. *Janet Lakareber (2011) ''Coono Leb Acoli (intro) Acoli Accented Orthography''. London: GBILA.

External links

*
Listen to a sample of Acholi from Global Recordings NetworkIRIN Radio
– Radio programming from northern Uganda in Luo {{Authority control Acholi Languages of Uganda Languages of South Sudan Luo languages