TOWARDS AN OPTIMAL REPRESENTATION OF TONES IN THE ORTHOGRAPHIES OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES

Tone is a conundrum for linguists attempting to reduce African languages to writing. Anecdotal, empirical, and experimental data indicate that not marking tone at all leads to reading difficulties. The converse is also true, namely marking tone exhaustively reduces fluency, leads to false starts, and repairs. This article proposes an elegant but simple solution to get out of this catch twenty-two situation. First, a historical overview of various tone marking schemes is discussed. Second, the concept of Tone Optimality Model (TOM) is introduced and exemplified. The proposed model succeeds in reducing tonal density in texts without affecting readability. The main advantage of TOM over other tone marking schemes is that it draws insights from well-established phonological theories, from the Interactive Reading Model, and from research on tone universals. As a result, tone can be written minimally with maximum benefits for readers. RÉSUMÉ EN FRANÇAIS L’orthographe du ton représente un véritable casse-tête chinois pour les linguistes travaillant sur les langues africaines. Les études expérimentales, les observations