Southern Nilotic languages
{{short description|Subgroup of the Nilotic language family}}
{{Infobox language family
|name=Southern Nilotic
|region=western Kenya, eastern Uganda, northern Tanzania
|familycolor=Nilo-Saharan
|fam2=Eastern Sudanic
|fam3=Southern Eastern
|fam4=Nilotic
|child1=Kalenjin
|glotto=sout2830
|glottorefname=Southern Nilotic
}}
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.Rottland, Franz (1982) Die Südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik vol. 7). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer. 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|date=October 2016}}
Languages
- Kalenjin
- Elgon languages
- Kupsabiny
- Sabaot
- Nandi–Markweta
- Kipsigis
- Okiek
- Pökoot
- Tatogoa
- Datooga
- Omotik
Reconstruction
Proto-Kalenjin has been reconstructed by Franz Rottland (1979).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.
Cushitic influences
Historically, Southern Nilotic has undergone extensive contact with a "missing" branch of East Cushitic that Heine (1979) refers to as Baz.{{Cite book|title=The Languages and Linguistics of Africa|last=Güldemann|first=Tom|editor-last=Güldemann|editor-first=Tom|publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|chapter=Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa|year=2018|isbn=978-3-11-042606-9|doi=10.1515/9783110421668-002|location=Berlin|pages=58–444|series=The World of Linguistics series|volume=11}} Proto-Baz reconstructions proposed by Heine (1979),Heine, Bernd, Franz Rottland & Rainer Voßen. 1979. Proto-Baz: Some aspects of early Nilotic-Cushitic contacts. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 1. 75‒92. with notes about corresponding East Cushitic and Proto-East Cushitic forms from Sasse (1979):{{cite journal |last1=Sasse |first1=Hans-Jürgen |title=Consonant Phonemes of Proto East Cushitic |journal=Afro-Asiatic Linguistics |date=1979 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=1–57}}
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Gloss !! Proto-Baz !! Proto-East Cushitic !! Example cognates | |||
| bat | *rɛɛrɛɛʕ | ||
| bell | *kor | ||
| bovine, male | *aʀ | *ʔawr- 'large male animal' | Saho and Somali awr, Oromo ooroo |
| calf | *maʀ | ||
| cow dung, mud | *zig | ||
| curse (n.) | *hab- | *hab-aar- 'to curse' | Saho and Oromo abaar, Somali habaar |
| eat, to | *am | ||
| eight | *siziet | ||
| ewe, virgin | *subeen | ||
| feathers, fur | *goro- | ||
| fifty | *konom | *ken- 'five' | Konso ken, Oromo shani, Somali shan |
| fingernail, claw | *ʕidd | ||
| forty | *afaram | *ʔafar- 'four' | Afar affara, Somali afar, Oromo afur |
| goat, male | *quar- | ||
| goat/sheep, young | *maqal | ||
| grass | *ʕaus | *ʕawš- ~ *ʕayš- | Afar qayso, Somali caws, Oromo ees |
| head | *mɛtɛħ | *matħ- | Arbore mete, Somali madax, Oromo mataa |
| honey | *malab | *malab- | Afar–Saho and Somali malab |
| hundred | *boqol | *bokʼl- | Saho bool, Somali boqol |
| lake, sea | *baz | *baz- | Afar–Saho and Somali bad, Daasanach baz |
| look, to | *ilaal | *ʔil-aal-, derivative from *ʔil- 'eye' | Saho and Oromo ilaal |
| lost, to get | *bod | *bad- | Afar–Saho, Somali and Oromo bad- |
| louse | *insir | ||
| lover | *saani | ||
| nine | *sagaal | Afar and Somali sagaal, Oromo sagal | |
| pot, clay | *ɖeri | ||
| rain | *roob | *roob- | Oromo rooba, Somali roob |
| red | *buri- | ||
| scratch, to | *quut | ||
| see, to | *kas | ||
| seven | *tizzaba | Arbore tuzba | |
| six | *lVħ | *liħ | Daasanach li, Oromo jaha, Somali lix |
| smoke | *iʀi | ||
| spear | *tor | ||
| suck, to | *nug | *nuug- | Oromo luug, Rendille nug, Somali nuug |
| ten | *tamman | *tomman | Arbore tomon, Saho tamman, Somali toban |
| thirty | *sozzom | *sezħ- 'three' | Arbore sezze, Oromo sadii', Somali saddex'' |
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)