Toposa
A language of Sudan
| Population | 100,000 (2000 M. Schroeder). |
| Region | South, Singaita and Lokalyen rivers’ sides. Ritual center at Loyooro River. Migrate to Moruangipi, and farther east for seasonal grazing into Ilemi Triangle at Ethiopia border, but no permanent settlements there. |
| Language map |
Sudan |
| Alternate names | Akara, Kare, Kumi, Taposa, Topotha |
| Dialects | Eastern Toposa, Western Toposa, Jiye. |
| Classification | Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic, Nilotic, Eastern, Lotuxo-Teso, Teso-Turkana, Turkana |
| Language use | Vigorous. Neighboring groups use it in trade (Didinga, Murle, Boya-Longarim, Tennet). All domains. All ages. Positive attitude. |
| Language development | Literacy rate in L1: Fewer than 5%. Perhaps 2,000 can read. Taught in primary schools. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible portions: 2002. |
| Writing system | Latin script. |
| Comments | VSA (morphologically ergative); highly inflectional; grammatical tone (tense, case); vowel harmony; voiceless vowels; questions: yes and no sentence final, content questions sentence initial and final. |
Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:
Academic Publications
ARENSEN, Jonathan E., author. 1983. Sticks and Straw: Comparative House Forms in Southern Sudan and Northern Kenya.
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SCHRÖDER, Helga, author. 2002. Word order in Toposa: an aspect of multiple feature-checking.
SCHRÖDER, Helga, author. 2008. Word Order in Toposa: An Aspect of Multiple Feature-Checking.
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SCHRÖDER, Helga; SCHRÖDER, Martin, authors. 1984. "The Toposa verb."
SCHRÖDER, Helga; SCHRÖDER, Martin, authors. 1987. "Voiceless vowels in Toposa."
SCHRÖDER, Helga; SCHRÖDER, Martin, authors. 1987. "Vowel harmony in Toposa."
SCHRÖDER, Martin, author. 1987. Nyekinwomor: An age-set ceremony among the Toposa of Sudan.
SCHRÖDER, Martin, author. 1989. "The Toposa verb in narrative discourse."
SCHRÖDER, Martin, author. 2004. "Issues in Toposa orthography."
WATSON, Richard L.; WISE, Mary Ruth, editors. 1984. Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No. 5.
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Vernacular Publications
Nyabuku̱ ka ŋieemuto kalu itatamere ŋaletera ka ŋatoposa. 2004.
Nyekokoro̱ ka nyakoloŋo̱ "The chicken and the sun", Toposa reader 1. 2002.

