Turkana language
Encyclopedia
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; these languages together form the cluster of Teso–Turkana languages.
The collective group name for these related group is Ateker
.
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...
of Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, numbering about 340,000.
It is one of the 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 subfamily of Nilo-Saharan; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in...
, and is closely related to Karamojong
Karamojong language
The Karamojong Language is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken mainly in the Karamoja subregion of north-eastern Uganda....
, Jie and Teso of Uganda, to Toposa
Toposa language
-External links:*...
spoken in the extreme southeast of Sudan, and to Nyangatom
Nyangatom
The Nyangatom are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting southwestern Ethiopia and southeastern South Sudan...
in the Sudan/Ethiopia Omo valley borderland; these languages together form the cluster of Teso–Turkana languages.
The collective group name for these related group is Ateker
Ateker
Ateker or Atekerin is a common name for the closely related Jie, Karamojong, Turkana, Toposa, Nyangatom and Teso peoples and their languages. Itung'a and Teso have been used among ethnographers, while the term Teso-Turkana is sometimes used for the languages, which are of Eastern Nilotic stock....
.
Selected Vocabulary
| English | Turkana singular form |
Turkana plural form |
|---|---|---|
| face | ereet | ngireetin |
| body | akwaan | ngawat |
| clothes | eworu | ngiworui |
| food | akimuj | ngamuja |
| tobacco | etaba | |
| goat | akine | ngakinei |
| cattle | aite | ngaatuk |
| donkey | esikiria | ngisikiria |
| camel | ekaal | ngikaala |
| water | (no sing.) | ngakipi |