Soo or So is the
Kuliak
The Kuliak languages, also called the Rub languages,Ehret, Christopher (2001) ''A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan'' (SUGIA, Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika: Beihefte 12), Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, . are a group of lan ...
language of the
Tepes people of northeastern
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 ...
. The language is
moribund
Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death.
Moribund may refer to:
* ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann
* " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...
, with most of the population of 5,000 having shifted to
Karamojong, and only a few dozen elderly individuals are still able to speak Soo. Soo is divided into three major dialects: Tepes, Kadam (Katam), and Napak (Yog Toŋi).
There are between 3,000 and 10,000 ethnic Soo people (Carlin 1993). They were historically hunter-gatherers, but have recently shifted to pastoralism and subsistence farming like their Nilotic and Bantu neighbors.
[Beer (2009: 1)] Beer (2009: 2) found that most Soo villages have only one speaker remaining. Thus, the speakers rarely have a chance to active use the Soo language.
Dialects
Soo dialects are spoken on the slopes of the following three mountains in east-central Uganda just to the north of
Mount Elgon.
*Tepes dialect (also called Tepeth), on the slopes of
Mount Moroto
Mount Moroto, also Moroto Mountain (), is a mountain in the Northeastern part of Uganda.
The native name for this mountain was "Moru To" (meaning "the western mountain" derived from the words "Moru" meaning mountain and "To" meaning west). It w ...
in
Moroto District
Moroto District is a district in the Northern Region of Uganda. The town of Moroto is the site of the district headquarters.
Location
Moroto District is bordered by Kaabong District to the north, Kenya to the east, Amudat District to the sout ...
, Uganda. It is spoken in the Kakingol, Lea, and Tapac valleys on the slopes the Mount Moroto.
[Beer (2009: 2)] The dominant language in the area is Karimojong. Most Tepes people have assimilated both linguistically and culturally with the
Karimojong people.
[Carlin (1993: 6)] Villages include Akeme, Nabuin, and Mokora, as well as Naripo Kakole.
*Kadam dialect, on the slopes of
Mount Kadam in
Nakapiripirit District, Uganda. Villages include Nakapeliethe and Nakaapiripirit. Kadam data is primarily available in Heine (m.s.).
[Heine, Bernd. m.s. ''The So Language of Eastern Uganda''.] The dominant language in the area is
Pokot.
According to Carlin (1993), Mount Kadam has the highest concentration of ethnic So people.
*Napak dialect, on the slopes of
Mount Napak Mount Napak is an extinct volcano in the Napak District of Uganda. Located on the northern edge of the Bokora Game Reserve, it reaches an estimated height of 2103m above sea level. An alkaline volcano which erupted carbonatite- nephelinite materia ...
in
Napak District, Uganda (no speakers found as of 1993).
There are fewer than 60 elderly speakers of all three dialects combined.
Carlin (1993: 2-3) notes that there are only minor differences between the Tepes and Kadam dialects, which are mutually intelligible.
Grammar
So grammar has been described by Beer, et al. (2009).
[Beer, Sam, Amber McKinney, Lokiru Kosma 2009. ''The So Language: A Grammar Sketch''. m.s.]
Word order is VSO (
verb–subject–object). So has rich verbal morphology.
Pronouns
So nominative and accusative pronouns are:
Interrogatives
So interrogatives are:
* Who/What: //
* When: //
* Where: //
* Why: //
* How: //
* How Many/How Much: //
Tenses
There are four verb tenses:
*past tense
*present tense
*future tense (general)
*future tense (specific)
Affixes
Some So affixes are:
*/kɔ-/: immediate future
*/-ak/: passivity
*/no-/: relative clause coordinator
*/ɪn-/: general negation
*/lan/: past negation
*/ipa/: imperative negation
*/-tɛz/: inchoative marker
*/-uk/: locative marker
*/-ok/: instrumental marker
*/-a/: goal marker
*/kun-/: dative pronouns
*/-ak/: dative pronouns
Singular suffixes are /-at/, /an/, /-ɛn/, and /-it/.
Plural suffixes are /-in/, /-ɛk/, /-ɛz/, /-an/, /-ɛl/, /-ra/, /-ce/, /-ɔt/, and /-e/.
References
{{Authority control
Kuliak languages
Languages of Uganda
Endangered languages of Africa