Bari language

Bari is the Nilotic language of the Karo people, spoken over large areas of Central Equatoria state in South Sudan, across the northwest corner of Uganda, and into the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Not to be confused with Barí language or Bari language (Ubangian).
Bari
Karo, Kutuk
RegionSouth Sudan
EthnicityBari people
Native speakers
750,000 (2000–2014)[1]
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3Variously:
bfa – Bari
keo – Kakwa
mqu – Mandari
Glottologbari1283

Bari is spoken by several distinct tribes: the Bari people themselves, the Pojulu, Kakwa, Nyangwara, Mundari, and Kuku. Each has its own dialect. The language is therefore sometimes called Karo or Kutuk ('mother tongue') rather than Bari.

Bari is a tone language. It has vowel harmony, subject–verb–object word order, and agglutinative verbal morphology with some suppletion. A very competent dictionary and grammar were published in the 1930s, but are very difficult to find today. More recently, a dissertation has been published on Bari tonal phonology, and another dissertation on Bari syntax is available.

Dialects

Dialects are:

  • Bari proper (Beri)
  • Pöjulu (Pajulu, Fadjulu, Fajelu, Madi)
  • Kakwa (Kakua, Kwakwak) [radio broadcasts in Uganda]
  • Nyangbara (Nyangwara, Nyambara)
  • Mandari (Mondari, Mundari, Chir, Kir, Shir)
  • Kuku
  • Nyepu (Nyefu, Nyepo, Nypho, Ngyepu)
  • Ligo (Liggo)

Phonology

Bari has a cross-height vowel-harmony system.[2]

Orthography

The Bari alphabet is used by the Bari and Kuku in South Sudan. There are four digraphs, 'B, 'D, 'Y and Ny, and the letter eng, Ŋ.

Bari alphabet
Uppercase AB'BD'DEGJIY'YKLMNŊNyOÖPRSTUW
Lowercase ab'bd'degjiy'yklmnŋnyoöprstuw
Bari special characters
Uppercase ŊÖ
Lowercase ŋö
Alternatives ngo
Uppercase Unicode (hexadecimal) 014A 00D6
Lowercase Unicode (hexadecimal) 014B 00F6
Unicode Character Code Chart Latin Extended A Latin-1

References
  1. Bari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Kakwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Mandari at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. SIL Bibliography: Yokwe and Hall 1981

General References
  1. Bari Language, Sudan Primer: Sillabari Ko Kutuk Na Bari. The Catholic Press Institute. Juba, Sudan.
  2. Owen, R.C.R. Bari grammar and vocabulary. 1908. OCLC: 25040516
  3. Spagnolo, Lorenzo M. Bari grammar. 1933. Verona, Missioni Africane.. OCLC: 34898784
  4. Yokwe, Eluzai. The tonal grammar of Bari. Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1987.
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