 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2024) |
| Karamojong | |
|---|---|
| Ngakarimojong/N'Karamojong | |
| ŋaKarimojoŋ/ŋaKaramojoŋ | |
| Native to | Uganda |
| Region | Karamoja |
| Ethnicity | Karamojong people |
Native speakers | 691,000 (2014 census)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kdj |
| Glottolog | kara1483 |
The Karamojong language (spelled ŋaKarimojoŋ or ŋaKaramojoŋ in Karamojong; Ngakarimojong or N'Karamojong in English) is a Nilotic language spoken by the Karamojong people in Northeast Uganda.
Ngakarimojong is a Nilotic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family (Encyclopædia Britannica) spoken by at least 370,000 people in Uganda – the Karamojong people, or ŋiKarimojoŋ in their language. 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, Dodoth, Teso (in Uganda), Turkana, Tesyo (in Kenya), Jiye, Toposa in South Sudan (?), and also by at least one tribe in Ethiopia, the Nyangatom.[2] Jie and Dodoth (Dodos) are counted as dialects by Ethnologue 16, but as separate languages by Blench (2012).
These peoples are part of the Karamojong cluster of Nilotic tribes, which is also called the Teso cluster.
- ^ Karamojong at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
- ^ Lamphear, John (1976). The traditional history of the Jie of Uganda. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
