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Toposa language

{{Short description|Eastern Nilotic language of South Sudan}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Toposa

|altname=Toposa–Jiye

|pronunciation=

|states=South Sudan

|region=Eastern Africa

|ethnicity=Toposa

| speakers = {{sigfig|315000|2}}

| date = 2017

| ref = e25

| speakers2 =

| speakers_label = Speakers

|familycolor=Nilo-Saharan

|fam2= Eastern Sudanic?

|fam3=Southern Eastern?

|fam4= Nilotic

|fam5= Eastern

|fam6=Ateker–Lotuko–Maa

|fam7=Ateker

|fam8=Turkanic

|iso3=toq

|glotto=topo1242

|glottorefname=Toposa

|script=none

|notice=IPA

}}

Toposa (also Akara, Kare, Kumi, Taposa, Topotha) is a Nilo-Saharan language (Eastern Sudanic, Nilotic) spoken in South Sudan by the Toposa people. Mutually intelligible language varieties include Jiye of South Sudan, Nyangatom of Ethiopia, Karimojong, JieJiye and Jie are the same name, but refer to different varieties and Dodos of Uganda and Turkana of Kenya. Teso (spoken in both Kenya and Uganda) is lexically more distant.

Phonology

=Consonants=

class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Alveolar

! Palatal

! Velar

align="center"

! rowspan="2"|Plosive

! Voiceless

| {{IPA link|p}}

| {{IPA link|t}}

|

| {{IPA link|k}}

align="center"

! Voiced

| {{IPA link|b}}

| {{IPA link|d}}

|

| {{IPA link|ɡ}}

align="center"

! rowspan="2" | Affricate

! Voiceless

|

|

| {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}

|

align="center"

! Voiced

|

|

| {{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}

|

align="center"

! colspan="2" | Fricative

|

| {{IPA link|s}}

|

|

align="center"

! colspan="2" | Nasal

| {{IPA link|m}}

| {{IPA link|n}}

| {{IPA link|ɲ}}

| {{IPA link|ŋ}}

align="center"

! colspan="2" | Flap

|

| {{IPA link|r}}

|

|

align="center"

! colspan="2" | Approximant

| {{IPA link|w}}

| {{IPA link|l}}

| {{IPA link|j}}

|

  • All consonants (except, of course, for /w/ and /j/) can occur in labialized and palatalized forms.

=Vowels=

class="IPA wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+ +ATR

! Front

! Central

! Back

Close

| i

|

| u

Mid

| e

|

| o

Open

|

|

|

class="IPA wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+ -ATR

! Front

! Central

! Back

Close

| ɪ

|

| ʊ

Mid

| ɛ

|

| ɔ

Open

|

| a

|

  • Toposa, like many Nilotic languages, has vowel harmony with two sets of vowels: a set with the tongue root advanced (+ATR) and a −ATR set. +ATR is marked. The vowel {{IPA|/a/}} is neutral with respect to vowel harmony.Schröder & Schröder 1987b, p. 27
  • All nine vowels also occur as devoiced, contrasting with their voiced counterparts. These voiceless vowels occur primarily in prepause contexts. Some Toposa morphemes consist only of a high voiceless vowel; the functional load appears to be much greater with the high vowels than with the lower.Schröder & Schröder 1987a, p. 17
  • Toposa has tone, which is grammatical rather than lexical. Tone is used to mark case in nouns and tense in verbs.

Bibliography

  • {{Cite journal

| volume = 20

| pages = 129–142

| last = Schröder

| first = Martin C.

| title = The Toposa Verb in Narrative Structure

| journal = Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere

| year = 1989

}}

  • {{Cite journal

| volume = 12

| pages = 17–26

| last = Schröder

| first = Martin C.

|author2=Helga Schröder

| title = Voiceless Vowels in Toposa

| journal = Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere

| date = 1987a

}}

  • {{Cite journal

| volume = 12

| pages = 27–36

| last = Schröder

| first = Martin C.

|author2=Helga Schröder

| title = Vowel Harmony in Toposa

| journal = Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere

| date = 1987b

}}

References

{{Reflist}}

{{Languages of South Sudan}}

{{Eastern Sudanic languages}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Languages of South Sudan

Category:Eastern Nilotic languages