- Kuku language
"This article is about the language for the ethnic group see
Kuku people ."language
name=Kuku
region=Southern Sudan andUganda
speakers=26,400
familycolor=Nilo-Saharan
fam2=Eastern Sudanic
fam3=Nilotic
fam4=Eastern Nilotic
fam5=Bari languages
fam6=Bari
notice=nonoticeThe Kuku language, also called Kutuk na Kuku (Kuku language) belongs to the Bari language group, of the Southeastern Nilotic branch of the Nilotic language family of the Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. There is no standardized writing system for Kuku; it is sometimes written using the alphabet of a related language such as Bari or Kakwa, with the addition of characters to represent sounds that are not present in the other language. For example, the Bari alphabet can be adjusted for use in Kuku by adding the digraphs "gb" and "kp" to represent the voiced and voiceless labiovelar stops, respectively.
Kuku Alphabets
A E I O U Ö – B D G J K L – M N P R S T – W Y ’B ’D Ý Ŋ – NY GB KP
a e i o ö – b d g j k l – m n p r s t – w y ’b ’d ý ŋ – ny gb kp
...which has two digraphs not found in the
Bari Alphabet .Kuku is a tone language. It has agglutinative verbal morphology, with extensive suppletion. Nouns are divided into two genders. There is a vowel harmony system that primarily involves an ATR distinction. Differences between Kuku and Bari include the phoneme inventory, pronouns, tonal phonology, and tense formation. The most striking difference may be in the function of the qualitative morpheme, which is used to indicate a definite/indefinite contrast in Bari, but indicates an aspectual contrast in Kuku [K. Bretonnel Cohen (2000) Aspects of the grammar of Kukú. LINCOM-EUROPA. ISBN: 3895862762] . Kuku language have a variety of borrowed words. some words are of Kisawahili, and Arabic language that are altered a little to sound different. Today a number of words seem to be derieved from English too by the more educated Kuku people. More educated Kuku people mix the language with some english in it mostly for example if they want to say "you are not serious" they say "Do mb'an sirias".
References
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