Product Code Database
The Kuliak languages, also called the Rub languages,Ehret, Christopher (2001) A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan (SUGIA, Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika: Beihefte 12), Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, . or Nyangiyan languages are a group of languages spoken by small relict communities in the mountainous Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda.
Nyang'i and Soo language are moribund, with a handful of elderly speakers. However, Ik language is vigorous and growing.
Word order in Kuliak languages is verb-initial.Beer, Sam, Amber McKinney, Lokiru Kosma 2009. The So Language: A Grammar Sketch. m.s.
According to Schrock (2015), "Dorobo" is a spurious language, is not a fourth Kuliak language, and may at most be a dialect of Ik.Schrock, Terrill. 2015. On Whether 'Dorobo' was a Fourth Kuliak Language. Studies in African Linguistics 44: 47-58.
Heine finds the following numbers of correspondences between the languages on the 200-word Swadesh list:
An early suggestion for Ik as a member of Afroasiatic was made by Archibald Tucker in the 1960s; this was criticized as weak and abandoned by the 1980s.
| + Kuliak consonant correspondences |
| *b |
| *ɓ |
| *d |
| Initially. Fricative z in Dorobo. |
| Medially. No reflexes known in Nyang'i. |
| *ɟ |
| Initially, before back vowels |
| Initially, before front vowels |
| Medially |
| *p |
| *t |
| *c |
| Initially and medially |
| Finally |
| *k |
| Word-initially |
| *kʰ |
| Initially |
| Medially |
| *kʼ |
| Initially |
| Medially |
| Initially |
| Finally |
| Initially |
| Finally |
| No reflex known in Tepes |
| *m |
| *n |
| *ɲ |
| Initially, by default |
| Initially, before *ɛ |
| Medially and finally |
| Finally, a plosive /t/ in Dorobo. |
| Initially and at the end of monosyllabic words |
| Elsewhere |
| Medially |
| Initially and finally |
| Medially |
| Default |
| Finally after *k, *g |
| + Kuliak vowel correspondences |
| Default |
| Preceded by any non-open vowel |
| Followed by a high vowel *i, *u |
| Unstressed, when followed by a semivowel *j, *w |
| In Tepes and Nyang'i, /e/ and /ɛ/ can alternate morphophonologically. |
| *e |
| *ẹ |
| *I |
| *i |
| In Tepes and Nyang'i, /o/ and /ɔ/ can alternate morphophonologically. |
| *o |
| *ọ |
| *U |
| *u |
Heine reconstructs two classes of stress in Proto-Kuliak: "primary", which could occur in any position and remains in place in all Kuliak languages, and "secondary", which always occurred on the 2nd syllable of a word, and remains there in Ik and Nyang'i, but shifts to the first syllable in Tepes.
BlenchBlench, Roger. Segment reversal in Kuliak and its relationship to Nilo-Saharan. notes that Kuliak languages do not have extensive internal diversity and clearly had a relatively recent common ancestor. There are many monosyllabic VC (vowel + consonant) lexical roots in Kuliak languages, which is typologically unusual among Nilo-Saharan languages and is more typical of some Australian languages such as Kunjen. Blench considers these VC roots to have cognates in other Nilo-Saharan languages, and suggests that the VC roots may have been eroded from earlier Nilo-Saharan roots that had initial consonants.
Significant influences from Cushitic languages,Lamberti, Marcello. 1988. Kuliak and Cushitic: A Comparative Study. (Studia linguarum africae orientalis, 3.) Heidelberg: Carl Winter. and more recently Eastern Nilotic languages, are observable in the vocabulary and phonology of Kuliak languages. Blench notes that Kuliak appears to retain a core of non-Nilo-Saharan vocabulary, suggesting language shift from an indigenous language like that seen in Dahalo language.
| tomín |
| tomín |
| mɔk tomin |
| mì'míɾínìk |
| tuɗ en-ek iɠe (hand-PL all) |
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