Southern Nilotic languages
Subgroup of the Nilotic language family
| Southern Nilotic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | western Kenya, eastern Uganda, northern Tanzania |
| Linguistic classification | Nilo-Saharan?
|
| Subdivisions |
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| Glottolog | sout2830 |
The Southern Nilotic languages are spoken mainly in western Kenya and northern Tanzania (with one of them, Kupsabiny or Sapiny, being spoken on the Ugandan side of Mount Elgon). They form a division of the larger Nilotic language family, along with the Western Nilotic languages and the Eastern Nilotic languages.
Subdivisions
The Southern Nilotic languages are generally divided into two groups, Kalenjin and Tatogoa, although there is some uncertainty as to the internal coherence of the Kalenjin branch. Southern Nilotic languages appear to have been influenced considerably by Cushitic (Afro-Asiatic) languages.[1] The Kalenjin languages are spoken by the Kalenjin people. This family spreads all around Uganda and to some of Kenya. The Tatoga languages consist of the Omotik language and of the larger Datooga language, or more fitting, Datooga dialect cluster.[citation needed]
Languages
- Kalenjin
- Tatogoa
Reconstruction
Proto-Kalenjin has been reconstructed by Franz Rottland (1979).[2]
Cushitic influences
Historically, Southern Nilotic has undergone extensive contact with a "missing" branch of East Cushitic that Heine (1979) refers to as Baz.[3] Proto-Baz reconstructions proposed by Heine (1979):[4]
| Gloss | Proto-Baz |
|---|---|
| bat | *rɛɛrɛɛʕ |
| bell | *kor |
| bovine, male | *aʀ |
| calf | *maʀ |
| claw | *ʕidd |
| cow dung | *zig |
| curse (n.) | *hab- |
| eat, to | *am |
| eight | *siziet |
| ewe, virgin | *subeen |
| feathers | *goro- |
| fifty | *konom |
| fingernail | *ʕidd |
| forty | *afaram |
| fur | *goro- |
| goat, male | *quar- |
| goat/sheep, young | *maqal |
| grass | *ʕaus |
| head | *mɛtɛħ |
| honey | *malab |
| hundred | *boqol |
| lake | *baz |
| look, to | *ilaal |
| lost, to get | *bod |
| louse | *insir |
| lover | *saani |
| mud | *zig |
| nine | *sagaal |
| pot, clay | *ɖeri |
| rain | *roob |
| red | *buri- |
| scratch, to | *quut |
| sea | *baz |
| see, to | *kas |
| seven | *tizzaba |
| six | *lVħ |
| smoke | *iʀi |
| spear | *tor |
| suck, to | *nug |
| ten | *tamman |
| thirty | *sozzom |
See also
- Languages of Kenya
- Languages of Tanzania
- Languages of Uganda
- Serengeti-Dorobo language, of which at least the numeral system is Southern or Eastern Nilotic
- List of Proto-Southern Nilotic reconstructions (Wiktionary)
References
- ^ Rottland, Franz (1982) Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- ^ Rottland, Franz. 1979. The reconstruction of proto-Kalenjin. (Papers from the Inst. of African Studies (IAS), 128.) Nairobi: Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi.
- ^ Güldemann, Tom (2018). "Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa". In Güldemann, Tom (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of Africa. The World of Linguistics series. Vol. 11. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 58–444. doi:10.1515/9783110421668-002. ISBN 978-3-11-042606-9.
- ^ Heine, Bernd, Franz Rottland & Rainer Voßen. 1979. Proto-Baz: Some aspects of early Nilotic-Cushitic contacts. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 1. 75‒92.
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Part of the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family
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Italics indicate extinct languages
