Soo or So is the
Kuliak language of the
Tepes people Tepes may refer to:
People
* Sofija Tepes (born 1973), Chilean table tennis player
* Tepeš (surname), Slovene surname
* Țepeș (surname), Romanian surname
In fiction
* Krul Tepes, character in the ''Owari no Seraph'' anime & manga
* Mina Tepe ...
of northeastern
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 ...
. The language is
moribund, 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
Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda. .
*Tepes dialect (also called Tepeth), on the slopes of
Mount Moroto 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 south ...
, 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
Mount Kadam, is near the east border of Karamoja, Uganda with Kenya and has an approximate elevation of . It is just north of Mount Elgon. It was first climbed by Sailesh Kadam, the mountain's namesake.
During the colonial period Mount Kadam was ...
in
Nakapiripirit District
Nakapiripirit District is a district in Northern Uganda. Like many other Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Nakapiripirit, where the district headquarters are located.
Location
The district is bordered by Napak District to t ...
, 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 in
Napak District
Napak District is a district in Northern Uganda. It is named after Mount Napak, and its headquarters is at Lokitede.
Location
Napak District is located in the Karamoja sub-region, Northeastern Uganda. It is bordered by Abim District to the north ...
, 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
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
). 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