SIL International Publications

ꞌBëlï Phonology, Tone and Orthography

Relation Text: 
Charis SIL and Doulos SIL fonts
SIL Electronic Working Papers 2014-002
Statement of Responsibility: 
Stirtz, Timothy M
Issue Date: 
2014
Abstract: 
ꞌBëlï, a Nilo-Saharan Language of South Sudan, uses tone as the only distinctive feature to differentiate meaning in nearly 20% of words. The functional load of grammatical tone is also very high in that at least seven prepositions are in tone minimal pairs with body part nouns, and three relative clause connectors are in tone minimal pairs with demonstratives. Even so, with four simple spelling rules, the ꞌBëlï are able to disambiguate 75% of lexical tone distinctions and all grammatical tone distinctions in writing. These rules essentially mark grammatical category rather than tone, and involve doubled vowels, underlined vowels, hyphens and commas.
Extent: 
34 pages
Subject: 
Orthography Description
Phonological Description
Tone Minimal Pairs
Tone Functional Load
Orthographic Representation of Tone
Orthographical Marking of Grammatical Category
Morphophonology
Lexical Tone
Grammatical Tone
Advanced Tongue Root
Country: 
South Sudan
Field: 
Subject Languages: 
Content Language: 
Nature of Work: 
Requires: 
Charis SIL and Doulos SIL fonts