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 Labial Alveolar Palatal VelarPlosive Voiceless Voiced Affricate Voiceless Voiced Fricative Nasal Flap Approximant
All consonants (except, of course, for /w/ and /j/) can occur in labialized and palatalized forms.
Vowels + +ATR Front Central Back Close i u Mid e o Open
+ -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 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.
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