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Western Nilotic languages

African Language Families

The Western Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, along with the Eastern Nilotic languages and Southern Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan. The about 22 Western Nilotic languages are spoken in an area ranging from southwestern Ethiopia and South Sudan via northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and northern Uganda to southwestern Kenya.

Facts
Region
Southwestern Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, northern Tanzania 1
Proto-Language Status
Historian Christopher Ehret places the homeland of proto-Western Nilotic in the southern Blue Nile State around 2000 BCE, diverging into proto-Burun and proto-Jii, ancestral to Dinka-Nuer and Luo. 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Western Nilotic Languages
Wikipedia
  • Infobox, region field
    southwestern Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, northeastern Congo (DRC), northern and eastern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, northern Tanzania
  • History section
    the homeland of proto-Western Nilotic was within the southern Blue Nile State in 2000 BCE. It then diverged into proto-Burun and "proto-Jii" (Dinka-Nuer and Luo).
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