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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Sudan > Toposa

Toposa

A language of Sudan

ISO 639-3toq

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.  Available for purchase

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.  Available for purchase

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.  Available for purchase

Vernacular Publications

Kimar ŋatoposa. 1988.

Kisyau nyakimar. 1988.

Nyabuku̱ ka ŋieemuto kalu itatamere ŋaletera ka ŋatoposa. 2004.

Nyekokor ka nyakoloŋ. 1988.

Nyekokoro̱ ka nyakoloŋo̱ "The chicken and the sun", Toposa reader 1. 2002.

ŋiemuto lukaalak. 1992.