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

Nilotic languages

The Nilotic languages are a group of Eastern Sudanic languages spoken across a wide area between southern Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples, particularly associated with cattle-herding...

, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic

Eastern Sudanic languages

Ehret 2001 [1984]Ehret, published in 2001 but circulating in manuscript form since at least 1984, calls the family "Eastern Sahelian", and idiosyncratically adds the Kuliak languages and Berta, which Bender assigns to higher-level branches of Nilo-Saharan, and reassigns Nyima to the southern branch...

 subfamily of Nilo-Saharan

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...

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

Equatoria

Equatoria is a region in the south of present-day South Sudan along the upper reaches of the White Nile. Originally a province of Egypt, it also contained most of Northern part of present day Uganda including Albert Lake...

 in South Sudan

South Sudan

South Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...

. They are spoken across a large area in East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

, ranging from Equatoria to the highlands of Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

. Their speakers are mostly cattle herders

Pastoralism

Pastoralism or pastoral farming is the branch of agriculture concerned with the raising of livestock. It is animal husbandry: the care, tending and use of animals such as camels, goats, cattle, yaks, llamas, and sheep. It may have a mobile aspect, moving the herds in search of fresh pasture and...

 living in semi-arid or arid plains.

According to Vossen, they are classified as follows by the comparative method:

• Bari languages
• Teso–Lotuko–Maa:
  • Teso–Turkana (or Ateker)
    • Teso language
    • Turkana language
      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, Jie and Teso of Uganda, to Toposa spoken in the extreme southeast of Sudan, and to Nyangatom in the Sudan/Ethiopia Omo valley borderland;...
      
      
    • Karimojong language
  • Lotuko–Maa:
    • Lotuko languages
      • Lotuko language
      • Lango language
      • Lopit language
      • Lokoya language
      • Otuho language
        Otuho language
        Otuho is the language of the Lotuko people of Eastern Equatoria, an area in Southern Sudan. It is an Eastern Nilotic language, and has several dialects....
        
        
    • Ongamo–Maa
      • Ongamo language
        Ongamo language
        Ongamo, or Ngasa, is an endangered or extinct Eastern Nilotic language of the Ngasa people of Tanzania. It is related to the Maa languages, but it is more distantly related to them than the Maa languages are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, 59% with Samburu, 58% with...
        
        
      • Maa languages
        Maa languages
        The Maa languages are a group of closely related Eastern Nilotic languages spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania by more than a million speakers altogether. They are subdivided into North and South Maa...
        
        
        • Maasai language
          Maasai language
          The Maasai language is an Eastern Nilotic language spoken in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania by the Maasai people, numbering about 800,000...
          
           (see also Mukogodo-Maasai)
        • Camus language
        • Samburu language
          Samburu language
          Samburu is the Eastern Nilotic, North Maa language spoken by the Samburu in the highlands of northern Kenya. The Samburu number about 128,000 . Samburu is closely related to Camus and to the South Maa language Maasai...
          
           (see also Elmolo-Samburu)

It is generally agreed upon that Bari forms a primary branch, but lower-level splits are less clear.

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