Teso Language - Orthography

Orthography

(i) The spelling used in most of the first published Ateso books is in accordance with the official orthography agreed upon by the Ateso Orthography Committee in 1947. It was then accepted as a general principle that all words should be written in full even though normally contacted in speech. It should be particularly noted that a short -a or -e at the end of a word is dropped in speech when the word is followed by a word beginning with a vowel.

e.g. ekitabo loka etelepat ----- the book of the boy

is pronounced ekitabo lok' etelepat.

(ii) Recently, it is evident that the spoken language is continuing to move away from the written language especially in most parts of Uganda. This means that some aspects of orthography may well need revision soon.

(iii)While the Iteso of Tororo district in Uganda and Teso district in Kenya retain the letter k in the spoken language, the Iteso in most other areas of Uganda tend to omit it in most of the words.

E.g.

Ateso in Teso, Kenya & Tororo, Uganda	Ateso in Amuria district, Uganda	English meaning
Akilip lok'asuban	ailip loasuban	to pray to the creator
akinyam atap	ainyam atap	to eat bread
akimat akile	aimat akile	to drink milk
ekitabo lok'alaunan	eitabo loalaunan	a holy book
akimo inyamen	aimo ainyamat	to look for food