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| Western Nilotic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | southwesternEthiopia,South Sudan,Sudan, northeasternCongo (DRC), northern and easternUganda, southwesternKenya, northernTanzania |
| Linguistic classification | Nilo-Saharan?
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | west2493 |
TheWestern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of theNilotic languages, along with theEastern Nilotic languages andSouthern Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to theEastern Sudanic subfamily ofNilo-Saharan.[1] The about 22 (SIL estimate) Western Nilotic languages are spoken in an area ranging from southwesternEthiopia andSouth Sudan via northeasternDemocratic Republic of the Congo and northernUganda to southwesternKenya (with one of theLuo languages extending into northernTanzania).
According to historian Christopher Ehret, the homeland of proto-Western Nilotic was within the southernBlue Nile State in 2000 BCE. It then diverged into proto-Burun and "proto-Jii" (Dinka–Nuer and Luo). Proto-Burun remained in its current lands while Proto-Jii spread to the southwest, where it eventually broke up into proto-Dinka–Nuer and Proto-Luo, by the end of the second millennium or early last millennium B.C.[2]
The Western Nilotic languages areNilotic languages, which themselves are part of theKir–Abbaian andEastern Sudan subfamilies of the much largerNilo-Saharan language family.
Western Nilotic is divided into three main clusters: Dinka–Nuer,Luo andBurun.[3] The Luo Languages are languages spoken by theLuo peoples. They include but are not fully limited to,Shilluk,Luwo,Thuri,Belanda Bor,Burun,Päri,Anuak, andSouthern Luo. The Luo languages are the most spoken of the three groupings.[4]
