The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...
and
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
by the
Nilotic peoples
The Nilotic peoples are people Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. ...
.
Etymology
The word Nilotic means of or relating to the
Nile River
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
or to the Nile region of Africa.
Demographics
Nilotic peoples
The Nilotic peoples are people Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. ...
, who are the native speakers of the languages, originally migrated from the
Gezira area in Sudan. Nilotic language speakers live in parts of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
,
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 ...
,
Kenya
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, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
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, capital = Nairobi
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,
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
,
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the C ...
,
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
and
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa
East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...
.
Subdivisions
According to linguist
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.
Life Early life and education
Joseph Greenberg was born on ...
, the language family is divided up into three subgroups:
*
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 sprea ...
such as
Turkana and
Maasai Maasai may refer to:
* Maasai people
*Maasai language
* Maasai mythology
* MAASAI (band)
See also
* Masai (disambiguation)
* Massai
Massai (also known as: Masai, Massey, Massi, Mah–sii, Massa, Wasse, Wassil or by the nickname "Big Foot" Mas ...
*
Southern Nilotic languages
The Southern Nilotic languages are spoken mainly in western Kenya and northern Tanzania (with one of them, Kupsabiny or Sapiny, being spoken on the Ugandan side of Mount Elgon). They form a division of the larger Nilotic language family, along ...
such as
Kalenjin Kalenjin may refer to:
* Kalenjin people
The Kalenjin are a group of tribes designated as Highland Nilotes and are descended from Maliri people ''(thus related to Daasanach of Ethiopia.)'' The Kalenjin are cousins with Datooga people of Tan ...
and
Datooga
*
Western Nilotic languages
The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, along with the Eastern Nilotic languages and Southern Nilotic languages; Themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan. The abo ...
such as
Luo Luo may refer to:
Luo peoples and languages
*Luo peoples, an ethno-linguistic group of eastern and central Africa
**Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania or Joluo, an ethnic group in western Kenya, eastern Uganda, and northern Tanzania.
*** Luoland, th ...
,
Nuer Nuer may refer to:
* Nuer people
* Nuer language
The Nuer language (Thok Naath) ("people's language") is a Nilotic language of the Western Nilotic group. It is spoken by the Nuer people of South Sudan and in western Ethiopia (region of Gamb ...
and
Dinka
The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out ...
Before
Greenberg's reclassification, Nilotic was used to refer to Western Nilotic alone, with the other two being grouped as related "
Nilo-Hamitic" languages.
Blench (2012) treats the
Burun languages
The Burun languages are a branch of the Nilotic languages. They include:
* North Burun (Maiak, Kurmuk, Burun proper)
* South Burun (Mabaan, Ulu, Jumjum)
The languages were first described by Edward E. Evans-Pritchard in 1932. They are a dial ...
as a fourth subgroup of Nilotic. In previous classifications, the languages were included within the
Luo languages
The dozen Luo, Lwo or Lwoian languages are spoken by the Luo peoples in an area ranging from southern Sudan to western Ethiopia to southern Kenya, with Dholuo extending into northern Tanzania and Alur into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...
.
Starostin (2015) treats the Mabaan-Burun languages as "West Nilotic" but outside the Luo level.
Reconstruction
Over 200 Proto-Nilotic lexical roots have been reconstructed by Dimmendaal (1988).
[Dimmendaal, Gerrit Jan. 1988. "The lexical reconstruction of proto-Nilotic: a first reconnaissance." ''Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere'' (AAP) 16: 5-67.]
Dimmendaal reconstructs the proto Nilotic consonants as follows:
Numerals
Comparison of numerals in individual languages:
See also
*
Nilotic peoples
The Nilotic peoples are people Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. ...
*
Paranilotic languages Paranilotic is a group of languages proposed by Carl Meinhof. Karl Lepsius had established the Nilotic languages as a family, with Western, Eastern, and Southern branches. Meinhof proposed that only Western were truly Nilotic, and that Eastern and ...
*
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari River, Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the ...
*
Kir–Abbaian languages
The Southern Eastern Sudanic, Eastern ''n'' Sudanic, En Sudanic or Kir–Abbaian languages form one of two primary divisions of the Eastern Sudanic languages in the classification of Bender (2000). It is rejected as an established group in Staro ...
*
Proto-Nilotic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
Further reading
*Starostin, George. 2017.
On the issue of areal-genetic entanglement in the basic lexicon: the fate of ʽmoonʼ in the Macro-Sudanic region'. 12th Annual Sergei Starostin Memorial Conference on Comparative-Historical Linguistics (RSUH, March 23-24, 2017).
References
*
External links
Nilotic Michael Cysouw
Doris Payne
{{Authority control
Language families
Southern Eastern Sudanic languages
Languages of Ethiopia
Languages of Sudan
Languages of South Sudan
Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Languages of Uganda
Languages of Kenya
Languages of Tanzania