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. Acholiland, Uganda Children in an IDP camp in Kitgum The Acholi are an ethnolinguistic group of the upper Nile valley dwelling on the east bank of the White Nile, about a hundred miles north of Lake Albert. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Nilotic languages are a group of Eastern Sudanic languages spoken across a wide area betweensjd;vkNNNDfjsa[fafdasfdscv southern Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples, particularly associated with cattle-herding. ... The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan. ... The Luo languages comprise about 15 languages spoken in an area ranging from Southern Sudan via Uganda to Southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into Northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... Not to be confused with the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... This chart shows concisely the most common way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is applied to represent the English language. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Acholiland, Uganda Children in an IDP camp in Kitgum The Acholi are an ethnolinguistic group of the upper Nile valley dwelling on the east bank of the White Nile, about a hundred miles north of Lake Albert. ... Gulu is a district in northern Uganda, taking its name from its commercial centre, the town of Gulu. ... Kitgum is a district in northern Uganda of 9,773. ... Pader is a district in northern Uganda with a population of 325,885 (2002 census). ... Categories: Stub | Uganda ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Okot pBitek Okot pBitek (1931 – July 20, 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 wishes everything to be westernised. ...

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. The Luo languages comprise about 15 languages spoken in an area ranging from Southern Sudan via Uganda to Southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into Northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ... The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan. ... Map showing the distribution of the Nilo-Saharan languages. ... A pair of languages is said to be mutually intelligible if speakers of one language can readily understand the other language. ...

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]. Vowel harmony (also metaphony) is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels. ...

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. Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... -1... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ... It has been suggested that Tonal language be merged into this article or section. ...

Notes and references

Notes

1. ^  Ladefoged et.al., 1972:80.

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.

External links

• Acholinet.comAcholi People website with News, Forums, market Place, Downloads etc
• Ethnologue report on Acholi
• Rupiny — online news in Acholi and Lango (Luo)
• Audio recordings of Acholi
• PanAfrican L10n page on Acholi