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Eastern Nilotic Languages
The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in South Sudan. They are spoken across a large area in East Africa, ranging from Equatoria to the highlands of Tanzania. Their speakers are mostly cattle herders living in semi-arid or arid plains. Classification According to Vossen (1982), the Eastern Nilotic languages are basically classified as follows by the comparative method. Vossen (1982) also provides a reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Nilotic. ;Eastern Nilotic * Bari languages * Teso–Lotuko–Maa: ** Teso–Turkana (or Ateker; incl. Karimojong) **Lotuko–Maa: ***Lotuko languages ****Lango language ****Lopit language ****Lokoya language **** Lotuko language ****Dongotono language ***Ongamo–Maa **** Ongamo language **** Maa la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and northeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of . As of 2022, it is home to around 113.5 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-most populous country in the world and the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates. Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out to the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lango Language (South Sudan)
Lango (or Langgo) is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken an estimated 38,000 people in South Sudan. Classification Lango/Lokwa is listed as a member of the Eastern Nilotic branch of Nilotic, in the Eastern Sudanic sub-grouping of Nilo-Saharan. Within Eastern Nilotic, Lango/Lokwa is considered part of the Lotuko language group, in the Lotuko-Maa branch of Teso-Lotuko-Maa (also referred to as the non-Bari languages). Other members of the Lotuko language group include Lotuko, Lopit, Dongotono and Lokoya, all spoken in nearby regions of in South Sudan. There has been virtually no description of the Lango language, and its relationship to other languages in the Lotuko cluster is unclear, as are the relationships between different dialects of Lango. Lokwa dialects is not listed in the Ethnologue. However, it is also noted that "It is uncertain whether or not the Lokwa dialect is separate language". Geographic distribution The Lango language is spoken by the Lango people, who li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nyangatom Language
Nyangatom (also Inyangatom, Donyiro, Dongiro, Idongiro) is a Nilotic language spoken in Ethiopia by the Nyangatom people The Nyangatom also known as Donyiro and pejoratively as Bumé are Nilotic agro-pastoralists inhabiting the border of southwestern Ethiopia, southeastern South Sudan, and the Ilemi Triangle. They speak the Nyangatom language. Overview The Nyangat .... It is an oral language only, having no working orthography at present. Related languages include Toposa and Turkana, both of which have a level of mutual intelligibility; Blench (2012) counts it as a dialect of Turkana. Phonology Consonants Vowels *Vowel length is contrastive in Nyangatom, as in ''dʒík'' 'completely' vs. ''dʒíík'' 'always' *Before a pause, short vowels carrying a single, simple tone are devoiced. Bibliography *Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2007. "Ñaŋatom language" in Siegbert Uhlig (ed.) ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol 3''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. pp. 1131–1132. References {{E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turkana Language
Turkana Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh is the language of the Turkana people of Kenya and Ethiopia. It is spoken in northwestern Kenya, primarily in Turkana County, which lies west of Lake Turkana. It is one of the Eastern Nilotic languages, and is closely related to Karamojong language, Karamojong, Jie and Teso language, Teso of Uganda, to Toposa language, Toposa spoken in the extreme southeast of South Sudan, and to Nyangatom language, Nyangatom in the South Sudan/Ethiopia Omo River (Ethiopia), Omo valley borderland; these languages together form the cluster of Teso–Turkana languages, Ateker Languages. The collective group name for these related peoples is Ateker. Phonology Consonants * /p/ can also occur as affricated [Voiceless bilabial affricate, pɸ] when in syllable-initial positions. * Affricate sounds /tʃ dʒ/ can also be heard as palatal stops [c ɟ]. * Voiced stops /b d dʒ ɡ/ may also occur glottalized as implosives [ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teso Language
Teso (natively ''Ateso'') is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken by the Iteso people of Uganda and Kenya and some speakers are in South Sudan. It is part of the Teso–Turkana language cluster. According to the 2002 Uganda population and housing census, over 1.57 million people in Uganda (6.7 percent of the total Uganda population) spoke Ateso. Also, an estimated 279,000 people in Kenya speak the language. Its SIL code is TEO. Ateso is spoken in the Teso sub-region. Ateso is also known as Bakedi, Bakidi, Elgumi, Etossio, Ikumama, Iteso, Teso or Wamia. It is closely related to Turkana and Karamojong. Alphabet There are 22 letters in the Ateso alphabet F,H,Q,V,H,X and Z are not used and ŋ and NY are added. F,H,Q,V,H,X,Z only appear in loan words. The pronunciation guides that follow are for practice only; the correct sounds can only be learned by practice from a teacher or an audio media. There are five vowels in Ateso A, E, I, O, U. These five letters, however, represent mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bari Language
Bari is the Nilotic language of the Karo people, spoken over large areas of Central Equatoria state in South Sudan, across the northwest corner of Uganda, and into the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bari is spoken by several distinct tribes: the Bari people themselves, the Pojulu, Kakwa, Nyangwara, Mundari, and Kuku. Each has its own dialect. The language is therefore sometimes called Karo or Kutuk ('mother tongue') rather than ''Bari''. Bari is a tone language. It has vowel harmony, subject–verb–object word order, and agglutinative verbal morphology with some suppletion. A very competent dictionary and grammar were published in the 1930s, but are very difficult to find today. More recently, a dissertation has been published on Bari tonal phonology, and another dissertation on Bari syntax is available. Dialects Dialects are: * Bari proper (Beri) * Pöjulu (Pajulu, Fadjulu, Fajelu, Madi) * Kakwa (Kakua, Kwakwak) adio broadcasts in Uganda* Nyangbara (Nyangwara, Nyam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El Molo Language
El Molo is a possibly extinct language belonging to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It was spoken by the El Molo people on the southeastern shore of Lake Turkana, in northern Kenya. Alternate names to El Molo are Dehes, Elmolo, Fura-Pawa, and Ldes. It was thought to be extinct in the middle part of the 20th century, but a few speakers were found in the later 20th century. However, it may now be truly extinct, as the eight speakers found in a survey published in 1994 were over 50. Most of the El Molo population have shifted to the neighboring Samburu language. El Molo also has no known dialects but it is similar to Daasanach Oral tradition sees the El Molo people as an offshoot of the Arbore people in South Ethiopia. This seems to be confirmed by El Molo's linguistic proximity to the Arbore language. Classification The possibly extinct El Molo language belonged to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic classification. The Cushitic languages are only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samburu Language
Samburu is a Maa language dialect spoken by Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya. The Samburu number about 128,000 (or 147,000 including the Camus/Chamus). The Samburu dialect is closely related to Camus dialect (88% to 94% lexical similarity) and to the South Maasai dialects (77% to 89% lexical similarity). The word "Samburu" itself may derive from the Maa word ''saamburr'' for a leather bag the Samburu use. References Further reading * Rainer Vossen Rainer Vossen (German: Rainer Voßen; born December 6, 1951 in Düsseldorf, Germany) is a German linguist and Africanist. His research interests include the historical linguistics of Nilotic languages and Khoisan languages. Biography From 1972 to .... ''The Eastern Nilotes: Linguistic and Historical Reconstructions''. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag 1982. . External linksMaa Language Project [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camus Language
The Ilchamus (sometimes spelled Iltiamus, also known as Njemps), are a Maa-speaking people living south and southeast of Lake Baringo, Kenya. They numbered approximately 32,949 people in 2019 and are closely related to the Samburu living more to the north-east in the Rift Valley Province. They are one of the smallest ethnic groups in Kenya. In their oral traditions, the Ilchamus economy underwent a succession of elaborations: from foraging and fishing to a sophisticated system of irrigation, and then this was mixed with pastoralism under the influence of Samburu immigrants and neighbouring Maasai. These changes involved a series of embellishments in their culture and social organization. However, this evolving system did not survive the challenges of the capitalist economy in post-colonial Kenya, leading to a more polarized society with diminishing prospects for the majority of Ilchamus. Language Camus or Chamus (autonym: il-Chamus) is classified under the Maa languages i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mukogodo-Maasai
The Yaaku are a people who are said to have lived in regions of southern Ethiopia and central Kenya, possibly through to the 18th century. The language they spoke is today called Yaakunte. The Yaaku assimilated a hunter-gathering population, whom they called Mukogodo, when they first settled in their place of origin and the Mukogodo adopted the Yaakunte language. However, the Yaaku were later assimilated by a food producing population and they lost their way of life. The Yaakunte language was kept alive for sometime by the Mukogodo who maintained their own hunter-gathering way of life, but they were later immersed in Maasai culture and adopted the Maa language and way of life. The Yaakunte language is today facing extinction but is undergoing a revival movement. In the present time, the terms Yaaku and Mukogodo (sometimes Mukogodo Maasai), are used to refer to a population living in Mukogodo forest west of Mount Kenya. Etymology The name Yaaku is said to be a Southern Nilotic term ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maasai Language
Maasai (previously spelled ''Masai'') or Maa (; autonym: ''ɔl Maa'') is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 800,000. It is closely related to the other Maa varieties: Samburu (or Sampur), the language of the Samburu people of central Kenya, Chamus, spoken south and southeast of Lake Baringo (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Samburu); and Parakuyu of Tanzania. The Maasai, Samburu, il-Chamus and Parakuyu peoples are historically related and all refer to their language as ''ɔl Maa''. Properly speaking, "Maa" refers to the language and the culture and "Maasai" refers to the people "who speak Maa." Phonology The Maasai variety of ''ɔl Maa'' as spoken in southern Kenya and Tanzania has 30 contrasting sounds, which can be represented and alphabetized as follows: ''a'', ''b'', ''ch'' (a variant of ''sh''), ''d'', ''e'', ''ɛ'', ''g'', ''h'', ''i'', ''ɨ'', ''j'', ''k'', ''l'', ''m'', ''n'', ''ny'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ongamo Language
Ongamo, or Ngas, is a probably extinct Eastern Nilotic languages, Eastern Nilotic language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Maa languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai language, Maasai, Samburu language, Samburu, and Camus language, Camus. Speakers have shifted to Chaga languages, Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu languages, Bantu language. History An expansion of Ngasa speakers onto the plains north of Mount Kilimanjaro occurred in the 12th century. The language was mutually intelligible with Proto-Maasai during that period. Vocabulary retention from this time attests to the cultivation of sorghum and elusine by the Ngas. Subsequent immigration of Bantu-speaking Chagga over the next five centuries considerably reduced the extent and viability of the Ngasa language.Leeman, Bernard and informants. (1994). 'Ongamoi (KiNgassa): a Nilotic remnant of Kilimanjaro'. Cymru UK: Cyhoeddwr Joseph Biddulph Publisher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
