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.

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)

Consonants
This table is based on Spagnolo (1933).


 * // may also be heard as an affricate [] in free variation.
 * // can be heard as a flap [] when in between //.

Vowels
Bari and their kin, the Kakwa, have a cross-height vowel-harmony system.

Orthography
The Bari alphabet is used by the Bari, Kakwa, Pojulu, and Kuku in South Sudan. There are four digraphs, ʼB, ʼD, ʼY and Ny, and the letter eng, Ŋ.

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) Vossen, Rainer. The Eastern Nilotes. (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik, 9.). 1982. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
 * 5) Yokwe, Eluzai. The tonal grammar of Bari.  Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  1987.