Karko (also Garko, Kaak, Karme, Kithonirishe; autonym: ''Kakenbi'') is a
Hill Nubian language spoken in the northwestern
Nuba Mountains
The Nuba Mountains ( ar, جبال النوبة), also referred to as the Nuba Hills, is an area located in South Kordofan, Sudan. The area is home to a group of indigenous ethnic groups known collectively as the Nuba peoples. In the Middle Ages ...
in the south of
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
. It is spoken by around 7,000 people in the Karko hills, 35 km west of Dilling, including Dulman. ''Ethnologue'' reports that speakers of Karko are shifting to
Sudanese Arabic.
Dialects
Karko has three dialects: Karko, Kasha and Shifir. Additionally, varieties spoken by the Ilaki on Abu Junuk to the west (by 1,000 people) and by the Tamang at El Tabaq southwest of
Katla (by 800 people) may be dialects or separate languages.
References
Definitely endangered languages
Nubian languages
Languages of Sudan
{{NiloSaharan-lang-stub