Tone languages provide some interesting challenges for the designers of new orthographies. One approach is to omit tone marks, just as stress is not marked in English (zero marking). Another approach is to do phonemic tone analysis, and then make heavy use of diacritic symbols to distinguish the "tonemes" (shallow marking). While orthographies based on either system have been successful, this may be thanks to our ability to manage inadequate orthographies, rather than to any intrinsic advantage which is afforded by one or the other approach. In many cases, practical experience with both kinds of orthography in sub-Saharan Africa has shown that people have not been able to attain the level of reading and writing fluency that we know to be possible for the orthographies of non-tonal languages. In some cases this can be attributed to a socio linguistic setting which does not favour vernacular literacy. In other cases, the orthography itself may be to blame. If the orthography of a tone language is difficult to use or to learn, then a good part of the reason may be that the designer either has not paid enough attention to the FUNCTION of tone in the language, or has not ensured that the information encoded in the orthography is ACCESSIBLE to the ordinary (non-linguist) user of the language. If the writing of tone is not going to continue to be a stumbling block to literacy efforts, then a fresh approach to tone orthography is required — one which assigns high priority to these two factors.
This article describes the problems with orthographies that use too few or too many tone marks, and critically evaluates a wide range of creative intermediate solutions. I review the contributions made by phonology and reading theory, and provide some broad methodological principles to guide those who are seeking to represent tone in a writing system. The tone orthographies of several languages from sub-Saharan Africa are presented throughout the article, with particular emphasis on some tone languages of Cameroon.
Seifart, Frank, Julien Meyer, Sven Grawunder & Laure Dentel
2018. Reducing language to rhythm: Amazonian Bora drummed language exploits speech rhythm for long-distance communication. Royal Society Open Science 5:4 ► pp. 170354 ff.
Roberts, David & Stephen L Walter
2016. Writing morphophonology, reading lexical tone: Linguistic and experimental evidence in favour of morphographic spelling in Kabiye (Togo). Writing Systems Research 8:2 ► pp. 167 ff.
2016. Neither Deep nor Shallow: A Classroom Experiment Testing the Orthographic Depth of Tone Marking in Kabiye (Togo). Language and Speech 59:1 ► pp. 113 ff.
Sproat, Richard
2016. Language typology in speech and language technology. Linguistic Typology 20:3
CUTLER, ANNE
2015. Representation of second language phonology. Applied Psycholinguistics 36:1 ► pp. 115 ff.
Hirshorn, Elizabeth A. & Julie A. Fiez
2014. Using artificial orthographies for studying cross-linguistic differences in the cognitive and neural profiles of reading. Journal of Neurolinguistics 31 ► pp. 69 ff.
Uguru, Joy Oluchi
2014. Interaction and notation of tone, stress and intonation in Ika Igbo. South African Journal of African Languages 34:1 ► pp. 119 ff.
Snider, Keith L.
2012. Orthography. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,
Roberts, David
2010. Exploring written ambiguities can help assess where to mark tone. Writing Systems Research 2:1 ► pp. 25 ff.
Roberts, David
2010. Hidden morpheme boundaries in Kabiye: A source of miscues in a toneless orthography. Writing Systems Research 2:2 ► pp. 139 ff.
2019. Snider, Keith: Tone analysis for field linguists. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 40:2 ► pp. 317 ff.
Roberts, David
2023. Roman Script Orthography Development in Africa: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. In Handbook of Literacy in Africa [Literacy Studies, 24], ► pp. 59 ff.
Grenoble, Lenore A. & Lindsay J. Whaley
2005. Saving Languages,
Peter K. Austin & Julia Sallabank
1999. The Cambridge Handbook of Endangered Languages,
Bird, Steven
1999. When Marking Tone Reduces Fluency: An Orthography Experiment in Cameroon. Language and Speech 42:1 ► pp. 83 ff.
[no author supplied]
2011. References. In The Handbook of Phonological Theory, ► pp. 779 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 29 september 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.