David Roberts

List of John Benjamins publications for which David Roberts plays a role.

Titles

Subjects Other African languages | Phonology | Writing and literacy

Units of Language – Units of Writing

Edited by Terry Joyce and David Roberts

Special issue of Written Language & Literacy 15:2 (2012) v, 140 pp.
Subjects Discourse studies | Language teaching | Pragmatics | Writing and literacy
Roberts, David, Matthew Harley and Stephen L. Walter 2022 The contribution of full tone marking to oral reading fluency and comprehension in Yoruba and IfeWritten Language & Literacy 25:2, pp. 253–282 | Article
Orthographic depth is a key concept in literacy acquisition and can be measured separately for completeness, simplicity and consistency. The first of these is pertinent to discussions about whether tone should be marked in African orthographies, because a zero tone representation is relatively… read more
Roberts, David and JeDene Reeder 2021 Chapter 3. NateniTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 43–60 | Chapter
Roberts, David and JeDene Reeder 2021 Chapter 8. IfeTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 143–156 | Chapter
Roberts, David and JeDene Reeder 2021 Chapter 7. IdaashaTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 127–142 | Chapter
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 15. Tone orthography and tone writing accuracyTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 265–278 | Chapter
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 14. Tone orthography and oral reading comprehensionTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 249–264 | Chapter
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 13. Tone orthography and tonal oral reading accuracyTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 235–248 | Chapter
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 12. Tone orthography and general oral reading accuracyTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 221–234 | Chapter
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 11. Tone orthography and oral reading speedTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 207–220 | Chapter
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 10. The tone orthography experiment designTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 189–206 | Chapter
Roberts, David, Ginger Boyd and JeDene Reeder 2021 Chapter 9. Elip, Mmala and YangbenTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 157–186 | Chapter
Roberts, David, JeDene Reeder and Andy Weathers 2021 Chapter 2. TemTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 27–42 | Chapter
Roberts, David, JeDene Reeder and Stephen L. Walter 2021 Chapter 16. EpilogueTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 279–304 | Chapter
Roberts, David, JeDene Reeder and Valentin Vydrin 2021 Chapter 5. Eastern DanTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 85–106 | Chapter
Roberts, David, Johannes Merz and JeDene Reeder 2021 Chapter 1. IntroductionTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 3–24 | Chapter
Roberts, David, Johannes Merz and JeDene Reeder 2021 Chapter 4. MbelimeTone Orthography and Literacy: The voice of evidence in ten Niger-Congo languages, Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter (eds.), pp. 61–84 | Chapter
Roberts, David 2014 Review of Mumin & Versteegh (2014): The Arabic script in Africa: Studies in the use of a writing systemThe architecture of writing systems, Berg, Kristian, Franziska Buchmann and Nanna Fuhrhop (eds.), pp. 308–314 | Review
Roberts, David 2013 A tone orthography typologyTypology of Writing Systems, Borgwaldt, S. and Terry Joyce (eds.), pp. 85–112 | Article
Discussions about tone orthography have long been hampered by imprecise terminology. This article aims to bring clarity by means of an explicit typology composed of six parameters. Each parameter is defined by a choice: domain, target, symbol, position, density, and depth. The orthographer assesses… read more
Roberts, David and Stephen L. Walter 2012 Writing grammar rather than tone: An orthography experiment in TogoUnits of Language – Units of Writing, Joyce, Terry and David Roberts (eds.), pp. 226–253 | Article
Some orthographies represent tone phonemically by means of diacritics; others favor zero marking. Neither solution is entirely satisfactory. The former leads to graphic overload; the latter to a profusion of homographs; both may reduce fluency. But there is a ‘third way’: to highlight the grammar… read more
Roberts, David 2011 A tone orthography typologyTypology of writing systems, Borgwaldt, S. and Terry Joyce (eds.), pp. 82–108 | Article
Discussions about tone orthography have long been hampered by imprecise terminology. This article aims to bring clarity by means of an explicit typology composed of six parameters. Each parameter is defined by a choice: domain, target, symbol, position, density, and depth. The orthographer… read more
The effect of Crowding has long been recognised by cognitive psychologists engaged in examining the reading process. Yet it is not generally taken into account by most field linguists involved in the development of tone orthographies for emerging African languages. True, there is a general… read more
Two orthographies have been developed for Kabiye, a Gur language spoken mainly in Togo. The first aim of this paper is to provide an accurate historical summary concerning their development, teasing out some of the sociolinguistic issues which led to their separate evolution. Following this, I… read more