| Bari | |
|---|---|
| Barian | |
| Karo,Kutuk | |
| Region | South Sudan |
| Ethnicity | Karo peoples |
| Speakers | L1: 770,000 (2017)[1] L2: 180,000 (2013)[1] |
| Dialects | |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bfa |
| Glottolog | bari1283 Barian |
Bari is theNilotic language of the Karo people, spoken over large areas ofCentral Equatoria state inSouth Sudan, across the northwest corner ofUganda, and into theDemocratic Republic of Congo. Bari is spoken by several distinct tribes: theBari people themselves, thePojulu,Kakwa,Nyangwara,Mundari, andKuku. Each has its own dialect. The language is therefore sometimes calledKaro orKutuk ('mother tongue') rather thanBari.
Bari is atone language. It hasvowel harmony, subject–verb–object word order, and agglutinative verbal morphology with some suppletion. A very competent dictionary and grammar were published in the 1930s, but are very difficult to find today. More recently, a dissertation has been published on Bari tonal phonology, and another dissertation on Bari syntax is available.
Dialects are:
This table is based on Spagnolo (1933).[2]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | g | ||
| Implosive | ɓ | ɗ | ʄ | |||
| Fricative | s | (h) | ||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Bari and their kin, the Kakwa, have a cross-height[clarification needed]vowel-harmony system.[3][4]
| +ATR | -ATR | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i | u | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Mid | e | o | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | ɑ̘ | a | ||||
The Bari alphabet is used by the Bari, Kakwa, Pojulu, and Kuku inSouth Sudan. There are fourdigraphs, ʼB, ʼD, ʼY and Ny, and the lettereng, Ŋ.
| Uppercase | A | B | ʼB | D | ʼD | E | G | J | I | Y | ʼY | K | L | M | N | Ŋ | Ny | O | Ö | P | R | S | T | U | W |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowercase | a | b | ʼb | d | ʼd | e | g | j | i | y | ʼy | k | l | m | n | ŋ | ny | o | ö | p | r | s | t | u | w |
| Uppercase | Ŋ | Ö |
|---|---|---|
| Lowercase | ŋ | ö |
| Alternatives | ng | o |
| Uppercase Unicode (hexadecimal) | 014A | 00D6 |
| Lowercase Unicode (hexadecimal) | 014B | 00F6 |
| Unicode Character Code Chart | Latin Extended A | Latin-1 |
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