Karamojong language
| Karamojong | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Uganda |
| Region | Karamoja, Moroto District |
|
Native speakers
|
740,000 (2002 census) |
|
Nilo-Saharan?
|
|
| Dialects |
|
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | kara1483 |
The Karamojong language (spelled ŋaKarimojoŋ or ŋaKaramojoŋ in Karamojong; Ngakarimojong or N'Karamojong in English) is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken mainly in the Karamoja subregion of north-eastern 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. 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.
In Ngakarimojong grammar, verbs come first. Verb forms differ in aspect rather than tense; first person plural personal and possessive pronouns have both inclusive and exclusive forms (noted from Burningham 1994?) .
Word order can change to clarify words that can be nouns or verbs. For example, 'akimat' means 'old woman', or, 'to drink'. If you say 'acamit ayoŋ akimat' you are saying you want the old woman rather than you want to drink, so in this case the infinitive is rather oddly replaced by the vocative, thus 'acamit ayoŋ tomat' to avoid confusion when you need a drink.
Nouns and pronouns have gender prefixes, which can change meaning, e.g. ekitoi (masculine) means tree or medicine obtained from a tree or bush, akitoi (feminine) means log or firewood, and ikitoi (neuter) means twigs used to light cooking fires. The neuter often implies a diminutive – edia (masculine) means boy and idia (neuter) means little boy.
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