Nuer orthography

The Nuer language is written using an alphabet based on the Latin script. Many of the letters found in Nuer orthography are also found in languages like English, but there are also a few letters that may be less familiar. Nuer orthography is based on the Jikany dialect spoken in the east of South Sudan. It is also known as the Nasir dialect after a major town of the region.

Nuer is a tonal language, but tone is not usually marked in the writing system. Another important (and unusual) property of Nuer is that it makes a three-way distinction between short, long and overlong vowels. This is only partially reflected in the writing system.

Nuer alphabet

The Nuer alphabet has 37 letters, or or ba̱ni̱. There are 20 consonant letters and 17 vowel letters. Four of the consonants are digraphs, which means they are written using two symbols. These are dh, nh, ny and th. Vowels are distinguished by special symbols called diacritics which mark differences in the sound they represent, as with a, a̱ and ä. In Nuer orthography, sequences of the same vowel letter (e.g. ää) indicate that the vowel is long or overlong (i.e. it isn't a short vowel). A single vowel letter (e.g. ä) indicates that the vowel is either short or long (i.e. it isn't an overlong vowel). Sequences of different vowel letters usually indicate a diphthong (e.g. ɔa), but can also indicate a glide vowel sequence (e.g. ue).

Two main different alphabet sort orders have been used in literacy work. One based on the sort order of Latin based scripts (the Latin order). The other order is roughly based on the place of articulation of the consonant sounds of Nuer (the Nuer order).

Upper case letters (also known as capital letters or majuscules) are used at the beginning of a sentence, and for proper nouns, such as the names of people (e.g. Biɛl), places (e.g. Juba) and languages (e.g. Thok Nath). Lower case letters (or minuscules) are used elsewhere. When a digraph is used at the beginning of a sentence or proper noun, only the first symbol of the digraph is upper case, e.g. Dh not DH. Most Nuer words start with a consonant.

Table 1. Upper and lower case letters in Nuer.

Upper case	Lower case	Example
A	a	tac ‘sweet potato’
A̱	a̱	ka̱p ‘canine tooth’
Ä	ä	thäk ‘ox’
B	b	bul ‘drum’
C	c	cak ‘milk’
D	d	dit ‘bird’
Dh	dh	dhɔl ‘boy’
E	e	rec ‘fish’
E̱	e̱	le̱y ‘animal’
Ë	ë	kërkër ‘lizard (sp.)’
Ɛ	ɛ	lɛp ‘tongue’
Ɛ̈	ɛ̈	yɛ̈t ‘finger’
Ɛ̱̈	ɛ̱̈	tɛ̱̈ɣ ‘to hide’
G	g	gat ‘child’
Ɣ	ɣ	ɣäm ‘thigh’
I	i	jic ‘stomach’
I̱	i̱	ji̱th ‘ear’
J	j	jo̱p ‘axe’
K	k	kun ‘rat’
L	l	lo̱c ‘peg’
M	m	mo̱k ‘buffalo’
N	n	nac ‘heifer’
Nh	nh	nhiam ‘face’
Ny	ny	nyal ‘girl’
Ŋ	ŋ	ŋith ‘brain’
O	o	tol ‘smoke’
O̱	o̱	bo̱l ‘flame’
Ö	ö	köm ‘eggshell’
Ɔ	ɔ	jɔk ‘back’
Ɔ̱	ɔ̱	kɔ̱m ‘insect’
P	p	pi̱w ‘water’
R	r	rɛk ‘town’
T	t	tet ‘hand’
Th	th	thɔ̱l ‘snake’
U	u	bun ‘coffee’
W	w	wum ‘nose’
Y	y	yaŋ ‘cow’

Nuer speakers often find it difficult to decide whether a word should be spelled with e, ë or e̱. In the Nuer bible, ë is only ever used for for the modal vowel /e/ and e̱ is only ever used for the breathy vowel /e̤/. However, e is used in different words to represent modal /e/ and breathy /ë/. It is also used for /ɛ̈/. For instance, we see the character e in tet /tět/ ‘hand’, rec /ré̤c/ ‘fish’ and neen /nɛ̤̀ɛ̤ɛ̤n/ ‘mirror’.

IPA transcriptions

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a special alphabet used to represent the sounds of the world's spoken languages. The IPA transcription of Nuer allows linguists to represent sounds that are not distinguished in the Nuer writing system. IPA transcriptions of Nuer words appear in slanted brackets in each entry in the dictionary, e.g. bäär ‘arrow’ has the IPA transcription /bʌ̤̀ʌ̤ʌ̤r/. The IPA symbols are used to represent consonants, vowels, and tone.

Consonants

Nuer has 20 consonant phonemes. In some varieties there is a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ while in others this is a voiced velar approximant /ɰ/. The glides /w/ and /j/ are represented as u and i when they follow a consonant.

Table 2. Nuer consonants.

IPA symbol	Nuer orthography	Example
b	b	bul ‘drum’
p	p	pi̱w ‘water’
t	t	tac ‘sweet potato’
d	d	dit ‘bird’
t̪	th	thok ‘mouth’
d̪	dh	dhɔl ‘boy’
c	c	cak ‘milk’
ɟ	j	jo̱p ‘axe’
k	k	kun ‘rat’
g	g	gat ‘child’
m	m	mo̱k ‘buffalo’
n	n	nac ‘heifer’
n̪	nh	nhiam ‘face’
ɲ	ny	nyal ‘girl’
ŋ	ŋ	ŋith ‘brain’
r	r	rɛk ‘town’
l	l	lo̱c ‘peg’
w	w (word-initially or after a vowel)	wum ‘nose’
	u (after a consonant)	cue̱ny ‘liver’
j	y (word-initially or after a vowel)	yaŋ ‘cow’
	i (after a consonant)	cie̱k ‘woman’
ɰ	ɣ	ɣɔɣ ‘push’
ɣ	ɣ	ɣäm ‘thigh’

Across Nuer varieties, (morpho)phonologically conditioned alternations between consonants are typical. This is not reflected in the writing system. The main alternations observed in Western varieties are listed below.

Table 3. Consonant alternations in Western Nuer.

Phoneme	Allophone	Nuer orthography
p	f	p
t	r̥	t
t̪	θ	th
d̪	ð	dh
c	ç	c
k	x	k

Vowels

Nuer has 14 or 15 monophthongs and 8 diphthongs. Vowels may be modal or breathy. There is a three-way length contrast between short, long and overlong vowels. The description of the vowels presented here is based on Reid (2019).

There are seven modal monophthongs. In the IPA transcriptions of monophthongs, short vowels are represented by a single symbol (e.g. a), long vowels by two symbols (e.g. aa), and overlong vowels by three symbols (e.g. aaa).

Table 4. Modal monophthongs in Nuer.

IPA symbol	Nuer orthography	Example
ɪ	i	ŋith /ŋɪ̌t̪/ ‘brain’
e	ë, e	kërkër ‘lizard (sp.)’, tet /tět/ ‘hand’
ɛ	ɛ	lɛp /lɛ̂p/ ‘tongue’
a	a	tac /tâc/ ‘sweet potato’
ɔ	ɔ	jɔk /ɟɔ̌k/ ‘back;
o	ö	köm /kôm/ ‘eggshell’
ʊ	o	thok /t̪ʊ̌k/ ‘mouth’

There are either seven or eight breathy monophthongs, depending on the variety. In the writing system, breathiness is signalled by an underscore, except with /ṳ/ and /ʌ̤/ which are represented by u and ä respectively. The breathy vowel /e̤/ is sometimes written as e̱ and sometimes as e, but this does not appear to be phonologically motivated.

/ɛ̤/ appears to be highly restricted in its distribution, and is not phonemic in some Eastern varieties (see Reid 2019: 46-7). It is usually written with the symbol e. Some speakers use the symbol ɛ̱ to represent /ɛ̤/ when writing, even though it isn't in the official alphabet.

Table 5. Breathy monophthongs in Nuer.

IPA symbol	Nuer orthography	Example
i̤	i̱	ji̱th /ɟí̤t̪/ ‘ear’
e̤	e, e̱	rec /ré̤c/ ‘fish’, le̱y ‘animal’,
ɛ̤	e	neen /nɛ̤̀ɛ̤ɛ̤n/ ‘mirror’
a̤	a̱	ka̱p /kà̤p/ ‘canine tooth’
ʌ̤	ä	ɣäm /ɣʌ̤́m/ ‘thigh’
ɔ̤	ɔ̱	kɔ̱m /kɔ̤́m/ ‘insect’
o̤	o̱	bo̱l /bó̤l/ ‘flame’
ṳ	u	kun /kṳ̀n/ ‘rat’

In the IPA transcriptions of diphthongs, short diphthongs are represented by a two-graph sequence of different vowel symbols (e.g. /ɛa/). Rather than using length marks, long dipthongs are signified by the repetition of the second vowel in the sequence (e.g. /ɛaa/), while the second vowel in the sequence is repeated twice to indicate overlong dipthongs (e.g. /ɛaaa/). In the writing system ɛ̈ is used for the diphthong /ɛa/, and ɛ̱̈ is used for the diphthong /e̤a̤/, but all other diphthongs are represented by sequences of vowel graphs.

There are four modal dipthongs.

Table 6. Modal diphthongs in Nuer.

IPA symbol	Nuer orthography	Example
ɪɛ	iɛ	kiɛl /kɪ̌ɛl/ ‘rhinocerous’
ɛa	ɛ̈	yɛ̈t /jɛ̀at/ ‘finger’
ɔa	ɔa	kɔaŋ /kɔ̂aŋ/ ‘alcohol’
ʊɔ	uo	ŋuɔlkɛ /ŋʊ́ɔɔlkɛ̄/ ‘(they) spit ’

There are four breathy dipthongs.

Table 7. Breathy diphthongs in Nuer.

IPA symbol	Nuer orthography	Example
i̤e̤	i̱e	ci̱el /cí̤e̤l/ ‘elbow’
e̤a̤	ɛ̱̈	tɛ̱̈ɣ /té̤a̤a̤ɰ/ ‘to hide’
ɔ̤a̤	ɔ̱a̱	kɔ̱a̱l /kɔ̤́a̤l/ ‘calf’
ṳɔ̤	uo̱	buɔ̱t /bṳ̀ɔ̤t/ ‘wound’

Vowels in Nuer fall into different classes known as vowel grades. Alternations between vowels of different grades signal important grammatical information, e.g. indicating the person (1/2/3) and number (SG/PL) of the subject.

Tone

Tone in Nuer is subject to ongoing analysis.

Reid (2019) proposes that in Lou Nuer there are three tonemes: High (á), Mid (ā) and Low (à), with complex allotony. High tone has two allotones: high (á) on breathy vowels, and falling (â) on modal vowels. Mid tone is high with short breathy vowels, high or raising on long and overlong breathy vowels and low with modal vowels. The data on verbs on this site reflects this analysis (i.e. tonemes not surface allotones forms are indicated in the IPA transcrition of verbs).

Based on data from Western and Eastern varieties, Monich (2020) also proposes that there are three tonemes in Nuer, albeit with slighly different labels. She suggests there are High (á), Low (à) and Rising tonemes (ǎ), again with various allotones. Under her analysis the High tone has two allotones: high (á) on breathy vowels, and falling (â) on modal vowels. Rising tone has four allotones: rising (ǎ), mid (ā), low (à) and falling (â) allotones. The transcription of tone on the noun paradigms on this site is surface tone rather than tonemic.

References

Monich, Irina. 2020. Nuer tonal inventory. Studies in African Linguistics 49(1), 1-42.

Reid, Tatiana. 2019. The phonology and morphology of the Nuer verb . PhD dissertation: University of Surrey.