Pökoot (also known as ''Pokot'', ''Päkot'', ''Pökot'', and in older literature as ''Suk'') is a language spoken in western

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

and eastern

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

by the

Pokot people The Pokot people (also spelled ''Pökoot'') live in West Pokot County and Baringo County in Kenya and in the Pokot District of the eastern Karamoja region in Uganda. They form a section of the Kalenjin ethnic group and speak the Pökoot language ...

. Pökoot is classified to the northern branch of the

Kalenjin languages The Kalenjin languages are a family of a dozen Southern Nilotic languages spoken in Kenya, eastern Uganda and northern Tanzania. The term Kalenjin comes from an expression meaning "I say (to you)" or "I have told you" (present participle tense). ...

found in Kenya, Uganda, 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 ...

. The Pökoot are usually called "Kimukon" by the other Kalenjin peoples. A 1994 figure of SIL puts the total number of speakers at 264,000, while the only little more recent Schladt (1997:40) gives the more conservative estimate of 150,000 people, presumably based on the figures found in Rottland (1982:26) who puts the number at slightly more than 115,000. The Pökoot area is bordered to the north by the

Eastern Nilotic 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 spre ...

language

Karimojong The Karamojong or Karimojong are a Nilotic ethnic group. They are agro-pastoral herders living mainly in the north-east of Uganda. Their language is also known as ngaKarimojong and is part of the Nilotic language family. History The Karamojon ...

. Turkana, another Eastern Nilotic language, is found to the northeast. To the east, the Maa languages Samburu and Camus (on

Lake Baringo Lake Baringo is, after Lake Turkana, the most northern of the Kenyan Rift Valley lakes, with a surface area of and an elevation of . The lake is fed by several rivers: the Molo, Perkerra and Ol Arabel. It has no obvious outlet; the waters ar ...

) are spoken, and to the south, the other Kalenjin languages Tugen and Markweta are found, which show considerable influence from Pökoot.Rottland, Franz (1982) ''Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion'' (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. ''(esp. pp. 26, 138-139)''

References

* Schladt, Matthias (1997) ''Kognitive Strukturen von Körperteilvokabularien in Kenianischen Sprachen'' (Afrikanistische Monographien vol. 8). Köln: Institut für Afrikanistik / Universität zu Köln. ''(esp. pp. 40–42)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pokoot Language Kalenjin languages Languages of Kenya Languages of Uganda