Karamojong language
Encyclopedia
The Karamojong Language (ŋaKarimojoŋ, ŋaKaramojoŋ, Karimojong or Ngakarimojong) is a Nilo-Saharan language
spoken mainly in the Karamoja
subregion of north-eastern Uganda
.
The tongue ŋaKarimojoŋ is a Nilotic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family (Encyclopaedia Brittanica) spoken by at least 370,000 people in Uganda – the ŋiKarimojoŋ (or ŋiKaramojoŋ) people. The name approximates to "the old men sat down", dating from a time of migration 300 or more years ago when this group refused to travel further on (to what is now Teso). They are a cattle-keeping people practising transhumance
which is reflected in the language as are their traditional religious beliefs; settled cultivation is relatively recent and thus words associated with this are usually borrowed from neighbouring languages or from languages introduced by, or as a result of, colonialism – English
, Luganda, Swahili
. Modern technical words come from these latter also.
Closely related languages and dialects are spoken by many more peoples including the Jie
, ŋiDodos
, iTeso (Uganda), ŋiTurkana
, iTesyo (Kenya), Jiye
, ŋiToposa, (southern Sudan), also by at least one tribe in Ethiopia.
These peoples are part of the "Karimojong Cluster" of Nilotic tribes (also known by some as the Teso Cluster).
ŊaKarimojoŋ is a verb-initial language. Verb forms differ in aspect rather than tense; first person plural personal and possessive pronouns have both inclusive and exclusive forms (noted from Burningham 1994? in http://www.tyndale.org/TSJ/8/burningham.html). Nouns and pronouns have gender prefixes, which can change meaning, eg ekitoi (m) means tree or medicine obtained from a tree / bush, akitoi (f) means log or firewood, and ikitoi (n) means twigs used for lighting cooking fires. The neuter often implies a diminutive – edia means boy and idia means little boy. There are no articles.
Pronunciation is phonetic (similar to Spanish), except as otherwise noted. There are no letters "F", "H" "Q", "X" or "Z" (but see next paragraph). "Ŋ" (or "ng" – as in "singing") and "Ny" are single consonants in their own right. Sometimes "P" sounds more like "F" in English (so, when learning English, ŋaKarimojoŋ speakers sometimes confuse these sounds). "L" and "R" are NOT confused. There is tendency to mouthe a silent "O" or "U" on the end of some words ending with consonants. Adjacent vowels are usually pronounced without diphthongs.
The Roman alphabet is used, orthography rules were established by Missionaries in the 1960s. These rules varied slightly between the mainly British Anglicans and the mainly Italian Roman Catholics (RC). The most obvious example of this is the sound which is halfway between an "S" as in "sausage" and" th" as in "think". This was tendered by the Anglicans as "th" and the RCs as "z". These days both "s" and "th" are used, "z" rarely.
Rules also varied also between different people writing down different languages in Uganda / East Africa. For example, most Nilotic languages in and around Uganda spell the sound 'ch' as in church "c", whereas in the Bantu languages
, at least in Uganda (and excluding kiSwahili), this sound is spelled "ky" (as in Burmese).
There is some confusion between the use of "I" and "Y" where there is a vowel following. The general tendency is to assume that the "Y" sound comes from the conjunction of the vowels rather than being a separate letter, but not exclusively. But sometimes there are very similar words with different meanings :
'Edia' means 'boy', 'edya' however means 'vegetables' and any difference in pronunciation has more to do with tone and stress than with the "y".
Somewhat differently, 'akimat' means 'old woman', or, 'to drink'. If you say 'acamit ayoŋ akimat' you are saying you want the old woman rather than you want to drink, so in this case the infinitive is rather oddly replaced by the vocative, thus 'acamit ayoŋ tomat' to avoid confusion when you need a drink.
Almost all plural nouns are pre-fixed with 'ŋa' (f) or 'ŋi' (m & n). Special uses of these can be seen above for the language and people. There are generally suffixes on plural nouns which, to the learner at least, have little regularity, for example 'emong / ŋimongin' – 'ox / oxen' and 'akai / ŋakais' - 'house/s', or even removal of last letter, thus 'emoru / ŋimor' – 'mountain/s' and 'aberu / ŋaber(u)' – 'woman / women'.
Most traditionally known liquids such as water (ŋakipi) and milk (ŋakile) are feminine plural (though the eng prefix has been lost in some dialects) whereas more recently introduced liquids such as (bottled) beer – 'ebiya' are masculine singular. Male names mostly begin with "Lo" whilst female names begin with "Na", thus Lokiru and Nakiru are a boy and a girl born at the time of rain. In other Nilotic languages in the region, this rule applies without the "L" and "N".
Some common words and phrases:
The main books written in the language are the New Testament, published in significantly different Anglican and RC versions in the 1960s, and a joint one published in the early 1990s. More recently there have been some educational books and there are various grammars and dictionaries produced mainly by Roman Catholic religious. The Old Testament is in process with a number of books already completed.
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...
spoken mainly in the Karamoja
Karamoja
Karamoja sub-region, commonly known as Karamoja, is a region in Northern Uganda.-Location:The subregion, is located in northeastern Uganda and comprises the following seven districts:* Abim District* Amudat District* Kaabong District...
subregion of north-eastern Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
.
The tongue ŋaKarimojoŋ is a Nilotic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family (Encyclopaedia Brittanica) spoken by at least 370,000 people in Uganda – the ŋiKarimojoŋ (or ŋiKaramojoŋ) people. The name approximates to "the old men sat down", dating from a time of migration 300 or more years ago when this group refused to travel further on (to what is now Teso). They are a cattle-keeping people practising transhumance
Transhumance
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...
which is reflected in the language as are their traditional religious beliefs; settled cultivation is relatively recent and thus words associated with this are usually borrowed from neighbouring languages or from languages introduced by, or as a result of, colonialism – English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Luganda, Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
. Modern technical words come from these latter also.
Closely related languages and dialects are spoken by many more peoples including the Jie
Jie (Uganda)
The Jie are an ethnic group of Uganda. They belong to the Karamojong Cluster, which also includes the Karamojong and Dodoth people.Their country in northeast Uganda lies between the Dodoth to the north and the Karamojong to the south....
, ŋiDodos
Dodoth people
The Dodoth are an ethnic group in north eastern Uganda. They belong to the Karamojong Cluster, which also includes the Karamojong and Jie people.Their language is a dialect of the Karamojong language.-Location:...
, iTeso (Uganda), ŋiTurkana
Turkana people
The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana District in northwest Kenya, a dry and hot region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburuto the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan and Ethiopia to the north...
, iTesyo (Kenya), Jiye
Jiye people
The Jiye are an ethnic group living in the Kathangor Hills in the South Sudanese state of Eastern Equatoria....
, ŋiToposa, (southern Sudan), also by at least one tribe in Ethiopia.
These peoples are part of the "Karimojong Cluster" of Nilotic tribes (also known by some as the Teso Cluster).
ŊaKarimojoŋ is a verb-initial language. Verb forms differ in aspect rather than tense; first person plural personal and possessive pronouns have both inclusive and exclusive forms (noted from Burningham 1994? in http://www.tyndale.org/TSJ/8/burningham.html). Nouns and pronouns have gender prefixes, which can change meaning, eg ekitoi (m) means tree or medicine obtained from a tree / bush, akitoi (f) means log or firewood, and ikitoi (n) means twigs used for lighting cooking fires. The neuter often implies a diminutive – edia means boy and idia means little boy. There are no articles.
Pronunciation is phonetic (similar to Spanish), except as otherwise noted. There are no letters "F", "H" "Q", "X" or "Z" (but see next paragraph). "Ŋ" (or "ng" – as in "singing") and "Ny" are single consonants in their own right. Sometimes "P" sounds more like "F" in English (so, when learning English, ŋaKarimojoŋ speakers sometimes confuse these sounds). "L" and "R" are NOT confused. There is tendency to mouthe a silent "O" or "U" on the end of some words ending with consonants. Adjacent vowels are usually pronounced without diphthongs.
The Roman alphabet is used, orthography rules were established by Missionaries in the 1960s. These rules varied slightly between the mainly British Anglicans and the mainly Italian Roman Catholics (RC). The most obvious example of this is the sound which is halfway between an "S" as in "sausage" and" th" as in "think". This was tendered by the Anglicans as "th" and the RCs as "z". These days both "s" and "th" are used, "z" rarely.
Rules also varied also between different people writing down different languages in Uganda / East Africa. For example, most Nilotic languages in and around Uganda spell the sound 'ch' as in church "c", whereas in the Bantu languages
Bantu languages
The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...
, at least in Uganda (and excluding kiSwahili), this sound is spelled "ky" (as in Burmese).
There is some confusion between the use of "I" and "Y" where there is a vowel following. The general tendency is to assume that the "Y" sound comes from the conjunction of the vowels rather than being a separate letter, but not exclusively. But sometimes there are very similar words with different meanings :
'Edia' means 'boy', 'edya' however means 'vegetables' and any difference in pronunciation has more to do with tone and stress than with the "y".
Somewhat differently, 'akimat' means 'old woman', or, 'to drink'. If you say 'acamit ayoŋ akimat' you are saying you want the old woman rather than you want to drink, so in this case the infinitive is rather oddly replaced by the vocative, thus 'acamit ayoŋ tomat' to avoid confusion when you need a drink.
Almost all plural nouns are pre-fixed with 'ŋa' (f) or 'ŋi' (m & n). Special uses of these can be seen above for the language and people. There are generally suffixes on plural nouns which, to the learner at least, have little regularity, for example 'emong / ŋimongin' – 'ox / oxen' and 'akai / ŋakais' - 'house/s', or even removal of last letter, thus 'emoru / ŋimor' – 'mountain/s' and 'aberu / ŋaber(u)' – 'woman / women'.
Most traditionally known liquids such as water (ŋakipi) and milk (ŋakile) are feminine plural (though the eng prefix has been lost in some dialects) whereas more recently introduced liquids such as (bottled) beer – 'ebiya' are masculine singular. Male names mostly begin with "Lo" whilst female names begin with "Na", thus Lokiru and Nakiru are a boy and a girl born at the time of rain. In other Nilotic languages in the region, this rule applies without the "L" and "N".
Some common words and phrases:
- Hello! Ejoka? - literally "Is it good?"
- Hello! (response): Ejok-nooi
- Thank you (very much): Alakara (nooi) – literally "I am (very) happy"
- How are you (father/mother/child)? Ie-ia? (papa/toto/ikoku)? (lit. are you there?)
- How's it going? Anu ŋace? (lit. which problems?)
- It's going well: Man ŋace (lit. no problems)
- See you! (as "good-bye")ikianyun!
- What is your name? Ŋai ekonikiro?
- My name is Lotiaŋ: Akakiro Lotiaŋ
- Yes: Ee
- No! Mam!
- God: Akuj (yes, apparently feminine - also means "north" and "up")
- Water: Ŋakipi
- Fire: Akim
- Goat: Akine
- Ox: Emoŋin
- White person(s): Emusugut (m sing), amusugut (f sing), ŋimusug (pl)
- Where are you going? Ai ilothi iyoŋ? OR Ai ilosi iyong?
- I am going to Kaaŋole: Alosi ayoŋ Kaaŋole.
The main books written in the language are the New Testament, published in significantly different Anglican and RC versions in the 1960s, and a joint one published in the early 1990s. More recently there have been some educational books and there are various grammars and dictionaries produced mainly by Roman Catholic religious. The Old Testament is in process with a number of books already completed.
External links
- http://wals.info/languoid/lect/wals_code_kmj
- http://www.tyndale.org/TSJ/8/burningham.html
- http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/930-1007/930-1007-0-0.PDF