The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the

Nilotic languages The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples. Etymology The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile river, Nile River or to the Nile region of A ...

, themselves belonging to the

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. N ...

subfamily of

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributari ...

; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in

Equatoria Equatoria is the southernmost region of South Sudan, along the upper reaches of the White Nile and the border between South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Juba, the national capital is the largest city in South S ...

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 ...

. They are spoken across a large area in

East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...

, ranging from Equatoria to the highlands of

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

. Their speakers are mostly cattle herders living in semi-arid or arid plains.

Classification

According to Vossen (1982), the Eastern Nilotic languages are basically classified as follows by the

comparative method In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards ...

. Vossen (1982) also provides a reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Nilotic. *Eastern Nilotic ** Bari languages **Teso–Lotuko–Maa: *** Teso–Turkana (or Ateker; incl. Karimojong) ***Lotuko–Maa: ****Lotuko languages ***** Lango language *****

Lopit language The Lopit language is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken by around 117,000 people in Eastern Equatoria State, South Sudan. Lopit is part of the Lotuko-Teso subfamily and is related to Lotuko, Turkana and Maasai. Lopit is a VSO language and has ...

***** Lokoya language *****

Lotuko language Otuho, also known as Lotuko (Lotuxo), is the language of the Otuho people. It is an Eastern Nilotic language, and has several other Otuho speaking dialect groups. Language varieties Dongotono is related. Other related varieties may be: *Logir ...

*****

Dongotono language Dongotono () is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken by an estimated 5,000 people in South Sudan. Classification Dongotono has been classified as a member of the Eastern Nilotic branch of Nilotic, in the Eastern Sudanic sub-grouping of Nilo-Sa ...

****Ongamo–Maa *****

Ongamo language Ongamo, or Ngas, is an extinct Eastern Nilotic language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Maa languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, Samburu, and Camus. Speakers hav ...

*****

Maa languages The Maa languages are a group of closely related Eastern Nilotic languages (or from a linguistic perspective, dialects, as they appear to be mutually intelligible) spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania by more than a million speakers. They are s ...

******

Maasai language Maasai (previously spelled ''Masai'') or Maa ( ; autonym: ''ɔl Maa'') is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 1.5 million. It is closely related to the other Maa va ...

(see also

Mukogodo-Maasai The Yaaku are a people who are said to have lived in regions of southern Ethiopia and central Kenya, possibly through to the 18th century. The language they spoke is today called Yaakunte. The Yaaku assimilated a hunter-gathering population, whom t ...

) ******

Camus language The Ilchamus (sometimes spelled Iltiamus, also known as Njemps), are a Maa-speaking people living south and southeast of Lake Baringo, Kenya. They numbered approximately 32,949 people in 2019 and are closely related to the Samburu living more ...

******

Samburu language Samburu is a Maa language dialect spoken by Samburu pastoralists in northern 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 ...

(see also Elmolo-Samburu) It is generally agreed upon that Bari forms a primary branch, but lower-level splits are less clear.

Swadesh approach (Vossen 1982)

Vossen's classification using the Swadesh approach is as follows (Vossen 1982:114). *Eastern Nilotic **Bari languages ***Mondari ***Kakwa ***Nyanggwara ***Kuku ***Pöjulu ***Ngyepu ***Bari **Lotuko–Maa languages ***Lotuko languages ****Lopit, Dongotono ****Lotuko, Lokoya ***Ongamo–Maa languages ****Ongamo *****Maasai ******Camus, Samburu **Teso–Turkana languages ***Teso ****Nyangatom *****Turkana, Karimojong

Gleason approach (Vossen 1982)

Vossen's classification using the Gleason approach is as follows (Vossen 1982:119). *Eastern Nilotic **Bari languages ***Kuku, Ngyepu ***Pöjulu ***Kakwa ***Bari ***Nyanggwara, Mondari **Lotuko languages ***Lopit, Dongotono ***Lotuko, Lokoya **Teso–Turkana languages ***Nyangatom ****Teso *****Turkana, Karimojong ***Ongamo–Maa languages ****Ongamo *****Maasai ******Camus, Samburu

Gender Marking

Gender marking through prefixes (or proclitics) on nouns is an innovation in the Eastern Nilotic languages that is not found in the other branches of Nilotic. However, not every Eastern Nilotic language has this feature: for example,

Bari Bari ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia Regions of Italy, region, on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy. It is the first most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy. It is a port and ...

does not have it.

Comparative vocabulary

Sample basic vocabulary of Eastern Nilotic languages from Vossen (1982):

Footnotes

Bibliography

* Vossen, Rainer. 1982. ''The Eastern Nilotes: Linguistic and Historical Reconstructions''. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag. .

External links

A Classified Vocabulary of the Turkana in Northwestern Kenya
by Itaru Ohta, 1989.
Vowel Harmony and Cyclicity in Eastern Nilotic
Eric Bakovic
The Consequences of Microvariation in Eastern Nilotic
Eric Bakovic {{Eastern Sudanic languages