?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=When+marking+tone+reduces+fluency%3A+an+orthography+experiment+in+Cameroon&rft.creator=Bird%2C+Steven&rft.subject=Phonology&rft.subject=Psycholinguistics&rft.description=Should+an+alphabetic+orthography+for+a+tone+language+include+tone+marks%3F+Opinion+and%0Apractice+are+divided+along+three+lines%3A+zero+marking%2C+phonemic+marking+and+various+reduced%0Amarking+schemes.+This+paper+examines+the+success+of+phonemic+tone+marking+for+Dschang%2C+a%0AGrassfields+Bantu+language+which+uses+tone+to+distinguish+lexical+items+and+some+grammatical%0Aconstructions.+Participants+with+a+variety+of+ages+and+educational+backgrounds%2C+and+having%0Adifferent+levels+of+exposure+to+the+orthography+were+tested+on+location+in+the+Western%0AProvince+of+Cameroon.+All+but+one+had+attended+classes+on+tone+marking.+Participants+read%0Atexts+which+were+marked+and+unmarked+for+tone%2C+then+added+tone+marks+to+the+unmarked%0Atexts.+Analysis+shows+that+tone+marking+degrades+reading+fluency+and+does+not+help+to+resolve%0Atonally+ambiguous+words.+Experienced+writers+attain+an+accuracy+score+of+83.5%25+in+adding%0Atone+marks+to+a+text%2C+while+inexperienced+writers+score+a+mere+53%25%2C+which+is+not+much+better%0Athan+chance.+The+experiment+raises+serious+doubts+about+the+suitability+of+the+phonemic%0Amethod+of+marking+tone+for+languages+having+widespread+tone+sandhi+effects%2C+and+lends%0Asupport+to+the+notion+that+a+writing+system+should+have+%60fixed+word+images'.+A+critical+review%0Aof+other+experimental+work+on+African+tone+orthography+lays+the+groundwork+for+the%0Aexperiment%2C+and+contributes+to+the+establishment+of+a+uniform+experimental+paradigm.+&rft.publisher=Kingston+Press&rft.date=1999&rft.type=Journal+(Paginated)&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=application%2Fpdf&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2173%2F3%2Flgsp42.pdf&rft.identifier=++Bird%2C+Steven++(1999)+When+marking+tone+reduces+fluency%3A+an+orthography+experiment+in+Cameroon.++%5BJournal+(Paginated)%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2173%2F