Atwot people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (approx. 50,000 (1998)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 South Sudan (Eastern Lakes State) |
|
| Languages | |
| Atuot language and Dinka language | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional African religion and Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Nilotic peoples, esp. the Nuer and the Dinka |
The Atuot (Reel) are a Nilotic ethnic group of South Sudan who live near Yirol in Eastern Lakes State. They comprise a majority of the population in the payam of Yirol West.
The Atuot people speak the Atuot language (Atuot: Thok Reel), which was first recognized as a separate language from Dinka by anthropologist John Burton in 1987. It is a Western Nilotic language of the Dinka-Nuer group, closely related to the Nuer language and more distantly to the Luo languages. SIL International estimate that the number of Atuot speakers is 50,000.
Atuot speakers distinguish two dialects to their language, Thok Reel Cieng Luai and Thok Reel Cieng Nhyam with Thok Reel Cieng Nhyam being the more lexically conservative of the two. Most Atuot are bilingual in Dinka and Atuot.
A distinctive feature of the language is its having of three contrastive vowel lengths.
The Atuot share much of their culture with their neighbours. Like the Dinka and Nuer, they are also semi-sedentary cattle-herding pastoralists, meaning that while the travel with their herds to grazing grounds, they don't go far from where they had started. There are six subsections of the Atuot: Jilek, Luac, Jikeyi (Rorkec), Kuek, Apak and Akot. Jikeyi and Kuek speak Thok Reel Cieng Nhyam. The Luac, Jilek, and Akot speak Thok Reel Cieng Luai. The Apak speak Thong Apak which is dialect of South Central Dinka.
The territory of the Atuot consists of the forests east and south of Yirol, and a small part of Bahr el Ghazal, generally following the river Payii from Lake Yirol. The region is mainly contained within the old Sudanese state of Lakes.
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