Morokodo language

Morokodo is a dialect continuum of Central Sudanic language spoken in South Sudan.

Central Sudanic languages, is an assembly of over 30 languages that form a subbranch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.The Nilo-Saharan languages are speculated to be descended from a common ancestral language therefore, genetically related. Meaning the language can be passed down from ones ancestors through multiple generations of families.

Although there is 50,000 speakers of Morokodo there is only 3,400 native speakers world wide. There is a scarce amount of printed material of the endangered language and the only published works are missionary publications, such as the translation of the New Testament and song/prayer booklets by the Catholic missionaries, are the only collection of texts present.

This language group has both Advanced Tongue Root [+ATR] and retracted tongue root [-ATR] vowels. The most common number of phonemic vowels in the language family is nine. The retracted tongue root set is the basic set of vowels. Phonetically, in regards to vowel harmony, the Advanced Tongue Root set is more dominant. The [+ATR] vowel changes the pronunciation of a neighbouring and the [-ATR] vowel is to correspond to the [+ATR] vowel.

There are three tones in the Morokodo language: mid, low and high tones. Ma'di has compounds and some poor deducing processes. Differentiation of the noun, verb, adjective, postposition, as well as recognizing the existence of words that’s categories are not as easily found as any of these, and is possibly best called adverbs. Lexical word classes can show the different inflectional behaviour, and are differentiated by characteristic tonal patterns. Loanwords also have a distinctive tonal pattern. All language processes and factors of the language are commonly found.

There is no signs of revitalization of the Morokodo language, and other languages such as English are Arabic are becoming more dominant in Sudan due to the growing diversity of people and the expansion of property productions in the area.

Other names the language Morokodo can be referred to:

Kodo- Kodo is used as a short form for morokodo, a slang used by the south sudanese people

Ma’di- ma’di people use this as the second representative for morokodo. Often people say the term “Ma’di Mouth” Several of the related language groups still recognize themselves as Ma’Di and class themselves Ma’di people.

Moru: Kodo- Third name commonly used.