Toposa (also Akara, Kare, Kumi, Taposa, Topotha) is a
Nilo-Saharan language
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 and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...
(
Eastern Sudanic
In most classifications, the Eastern Sudanic languages are a group of nine families of languages that may constitute a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Eastern Sudanic languages are spoken from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania.
Nub ...
,
Nilotic
The Nilotic peoples are people 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. Among these are the Burun-sp ...
) spoken in
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 ...
by the
Toposa people
The Toposa are an ethnic group in South Sudan, living in the Greater Kapoeta region of the erstwhile Eastern Equatoria state.
They have traditionally lived by herding cattle, sheep and goats, and in the past were involved in the ivory trade. They ...
. Mutually intelligible language varieties include Jiye of South Sudan,
Nyangatom of Ethiopia,
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 ...
, Jie and Dodos of Uganda and
Turkana of Kenya.
Teso (spoken in both Kenya and Uganda) is lexically more distant.
Phonology
Consonants
*All consonants (except, of course, for /w/ and /j/) can occur in labialized and palatalized forms.
Vowels
*Toposa, like many Nilotic languages, has vowel harmony with two sets of vowels: a set with the tongue root advanced (+ATR) and a −ATR set. +ATR is marked. The vowel is neutral with respect to vowel harmony.
*All nine vowels also occur as devoiced, contrasting with their voiced counterparts. These voiceless vowels occur primarily in prepause contexts. Some Toposa morphemes consist only of a high voiceless vowel; the functional load appears to be much greater with the high vowels than with the lower.
[Schröder & Schröder 1987a, p. 17]
*Toposa has tone, which is grammatical rather than lexical. Tone is used to mark case in nouns and tense in verbs.
Bibliography
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References
{{Authority control
Languages of South Sudan
Eastern Nilotic languages