The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples .
5-605: The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages , along with the Eastern Nilotic languages and Southern Nilotic languages ; Themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan . The about 22 ( SIL estimate) Western Nilotic languages are spoken in an area ranging from southwestern Ethiopia and South Sudan via northeastern Democratic Republic of
10-524: The Democratic Republic of the Congo , Ethiopia , Kenya , Sudan , South Sudan , Tanzania and Uganda . According to linguist Joseph Greenberg , the language family is divided up into three subgroups: Before Greenberg 's reclassification, Nilotic was used to refer to Western Nilotic alone, with the other two being grouped as related " Nilo-Hamitic " languages. Blench (2012) treats
15-681: The Dinka language , Nuer , and Atuot . It is also popular belief of linguists that Burun is a third subgroup of Western Nilotic. Nilotic languages The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile River or to the Nile region of Africa. Nilotic peoples , who are the native speakers of the languages, originally migrated from the Gezira area in Sudan. Nilotic language speakers live in parts of
20-630: The Luo peoples . They include but are not fully limited to, Shilluk , Luwo , Thuri , Belanda Bor , Burun , Päri , Anuak , and Southern Luo . Although mostly being considered a Western Nilotic language and part of the Luo language group , the Burun languages are thought by linguist Roger Blench as a fourth subgroup of Nilotic . The Dinka-Nuer Languages are the larger of the two subgroups and are spoken primarily in South Sudan . These languages include
25-483: The Congo and northern Uganda to southwestern Kenya (with one of the Luo languages extending into northern Tanzania ). The Western Nilotic languages are Nilotic languages , which themselves are part of the Kir–Abbaian and Eastern Sudan subfamilies of the much larger Nilo-Saharan language family . Western Nilotic is divided into two main clusters: Dinka–Nuer and Luo . The Luo Languages are languages spoken by
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