Turkana language


Turkana is the language of the Turkana people of Kenya. It is spoken in northwestern Kenya, primarily in Turkana County, which lies west of Lake Turkana. It is one of the Eastern Nilotic languages, and is closely related to Karamojong, Jie and Teso of Uganda, to Toposa spoken in the extreme southeast of South Sudan, and to Nyangatom in the South Sudan/Ethiopia Omo valley borderland; these languages together form the cluster of Ateker Languages.
The collective group name for these related peoples is Ateker.

Vocabulary

EnglishTurkana
singular form
Turkana
plural form
faceereetngiReetin
bodyakwaanngaWat
clotheseworungiWorui
foodakimujngaMuja
tobaccoetabangiTab
goatakinengaKinei
cattleaitengaAtuk
donkeyesikiriangiSikiria
camelekaalngiKaala
waterngakipingaKipi