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The Nilotic languages are a group of Eastern Sudanic languages
Eastern Sudanic languages

The Eastern Sudanic languages form a family of languages spoken from Northern Sudan to northern Tanzania, usually considered a subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages, following Joseph Greenberg....
 spoken across a wide area between southern Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
 and Tanzania
Tanzania

Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
 by the Nilotic
Nilotic

Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage, refers to some ethnic groups mainly in southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania, who speak Nilotic languages, a large sub-group of the Nilo-Saharan languages....
 peoples, particularly associated with cattle-herding. They are divided into three subgroups:



Before Greenberg
Joseph Greenberg

Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguistics, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic relationship of languages....
's reclassification, the term was used to refer to Western Nilotic alone (with the other two being grouped as "Nilo-Hamitic languages".)








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The Nilotic languages are a group of Eastern Sudanic languages
Eastern Sudanic languages

The Eastern Sudanic languages form a family of languages spoken from Northern Sudan to northern Tanzania, usually considered a subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages, following Joseph Greenberg....
 spoken across a wide area between southern Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
 and Tanzania
Tanzania

Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
 by the Nilotic
Nilotic

Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage, refers to some ethnic groups mainly in southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania, who speak Nilotic languages, a large sub-group of the Nilo-Saharan languages....
 peoples, particularly associated with cattle-herding. They are divided into three subgroups:

  • Eastern Nilotic languages
    Eastern Nilotic languages

    The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic languages subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in the far south of Sudan....
     such as Turkana
    Turkana language

    Turkana is the language of the Turkana people of Kenya, numbering about 340,000.It is one of the Eastern Nilotic languages, and is closely related to Karamojong language, Jie and Teso language of Uganda, to Toposa language spoken in the extreme southeast of Sudan, and to Nyangatom in the Sudan/Ethiopia Omo valley borderland; these languages...
     and Maasai
    Maasai language

    The Maasai language is an Eastern Nilotic languages language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 800,000....
  • Southern Nilotic languages
    Southern Nilotic languages

    The Southern Nilotic languages are spoken mainly in western Kenya and northern Tanzania . They are generally divided into two groups, Kalenjin languages and Omotik-Datooga languages, although there is some uncertainty as to the internal coherence of the Kalenjin branch....
     such as Kalenjin
    Kalenjin languages

    The Kalenjin languages are a group of twelve related Southern Nilotic languages spoken in Kenya, eastern Uganda and northern Tanzania. The term Kalenjin comes from a Nandi expression meaning 'I say '....
     and Datooga
  • Western Nilotic languages
    Western Nilotic languages

    The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic languages subfamily of Nilo-Saharan languages....
     such as Dinka
    Dinka language

    This article is for the language, for the ethnic group see Dinka.The Dinka language, or as it is known in the language itself, is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Dinka, one of the largest and most powerful ethnic groups in Southern Sudan....
     and Luo
    Luo languages

    The Nilo-Saharan languages Luo languages comprise about 15 languages spoken in an area ranging from southern Sudan via Uganda to southern Kenya, with Dholuo language extending into northern Tanzania and Alur language into the Democratic Republic of the Congo....


Before Greenberg
Joseph Greenberg

Joseph Harold Greenberg was a prominent and controversial American linguistics, principally known for his work in two areas, linguistic typology and the genetic relationship of languages....
's reclassification, the term was used to refer to Western Nilotic alone (with the other two being grouped as "Nilo-Hamitic languages".)

See also

  • Nilotic
    Nilotic

    Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage, refers to some ethnic groups mainly in southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania, who speak Nilotic languages, a large sub-group of the Nilo-Saharan languages....


External links

  • , Michael Cysouw
  • , Doris Payne