The Teso–Turkana (or Ateker) languages are a group of closely related

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 spre ...

spoken in southeastern

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

, northeastern

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It 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 ...

, northwestern

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

, and southwestern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. In effect they form a

dialect cluster A dialect is a variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standardized varieties as well as vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardized varieties, such as those used in developing countries or iso ...

consisting of c.2 million people. According to

Gerrit Dimmendaal Gerrit Jan Dimmendaal (born 1955) is a Dutch linguist and Africanist. His research interests focused mainly on the Nilo-Saharan languages.Gerrit Dimmendaal, Colleen Ahland & Angelika Jakobi (2019) "Linguistic features and typologies in languages c ...

, most of these languages –

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. Their population is est ...

, Jie, Toposa, Turkana, and Nyangatom – are mutually intelligible, and for the most part differ only in regard to

tone Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

.Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (1983) ''The Turkana language''. Dordrecht: Foris.

Teso Teso or TESO may refer to: Places * Têso, a Portuguese hamlet * Teso District, Kenya, a defunct administrative district in the former Western Province of Kenya * Teso District, Uganda, a district in Uganda now known as Teso sub-region Language ...

belongs to the same broad group but is not described as being as closely related to Turkana as the others. The languages are: *Teso–Turkana ** Teso (Ateso) ** Turkanic *** Turkana ***

(incl. Jie, Dodoth) *** Toposa (incl. Jiye) *** Nyangatom

References

External links

''Webbook'' page on Teso–TurkanaPanAfrican L10n page on Teso–Turkana
Agglutinative languages Eastern Nilotic languages {{ns-lang-stub

See also

References

External links