Bari is the
Nilotic language of the Karo people, spoken over large areas of
Central Equatoria state in
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 ...
, across the northwest corner of
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 ...
, and into the
Democratic Republic of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
.
Bari is spoken by several distinct tribes: the
Bari people themselves, the
Pojulu,
Kakwa,
Nyangwara,
Mundari, and
Kuku
Kuku may refer to:
People
* Emir-Usein Kuku (born 1976), Crimean Tatar human rights defender
* John Dean Kuku (born 1963), Solomon Islands politician
* Kuku people, an ethnic group in South Sudan
* Kuku Yulanji, an Aboriginal people of the Dai ...
. Each has its own dialect. The language is therefore sometimes called Karo or Kutuk ('mother tongue') rather than ''Bari''.
Bari is a
tone language. It has
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
, subject–verb–object word order, and agglutinative verbal morphology with some suppletion. A very competent dictionary and grammar were published in the 1930s, but are very difficult to find today. More recently, a dissertation has been published on Bari tonal phonology, and another dissertation on Bari syntax is available.
Dialects
Dialects are:
* Bari proper (Beri)
* Pöjulu (Pajulu, Fadjulu, Fajelu, Madi)
*
Kakwa (Kakua, Kwakwak)
adio broadcasts in Uganda* Nyangbara (Nyangwara, Nyambara)
*
Mandari (Mondari, Mundari, Chir, Kir, Shir)
*
Kuku
Kuku may refer to:
People
* Emir-Usein Kuku (born 1976), Crimean Tatar human rights defender
* John Dean Kuku (born 1963), Solomon Islands politician
* Kuku people, an ethnic group in South Sudan
* Kuku Yulanji, an Aboriginal people of the Dai ...
* Nyepu (Nyefu, Nyepo, Nypho, Ngyepu)
* Ligo (Liggo)
Phonology
Consonants
This table is based on Spagnolo (1933).
* // may also be heard as an affricate [] in free variation.
* // can be heard as a flap [] when in between //.
Vowels
Bari and their kin, the Kakwa, have a cross-height vowel harmony, vowel-harmony system.
Orthography
The Bari alphabet is used by the Bari, Kakwa, Pojulu, and Kuku in
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 ...
. There are four
digraphs, ʼB, ʼD, ʼY and Ny, and the letter
eng, Ŋ.
References
General References
# ''Bari Language, Sudan Primer: Sillabari Ko Kutuk Na Bari''. The Catholic Press Institute. Juba, Sudan.
# Owen, R.C.R.
Bari grammar and vocabulary'' 1908. OCLC: 25040516
# Spagnolo, Lorenzo M. ''Bari grammar.'' 1933. Verona, Missioni Africane. OCLC: 34898784
# Vossen, Rainer. ''The Eastern Nilotes. (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, 9.)''. 1982. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
# Yokwe, Eluzai. ''The tonal grammar of Bari.'' Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1987.
External links
The Book of Common Prayer in Bari (1953)
* https://web.archive.org/web/20090215100524/http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/african/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bari Language
Agglutinative languages
Eastern Nilotic languages
Latin alphabets
Languages of South Sudan
Languages of Uganda
Vowel-harmony languages