LANGUAGES 887 



to the west and south-west of Mount Elgon, also in some particulars offers 

 a resemblance to the Masai. Turkana and Karamojo come next in their 

 affinities. Turkana has a few more words in it betraying Hamitic 

 (Somali) affinities than the other languages of the same group. On the 

 other hand, the Karamojo people in their physical type are closely related 

 to the Bantu, and in the dialects they speak they use a few words which 

 are obviously survivals of some totally different language spoken by them 

 before they were conquered by the Masai race that imposed on them a 

 variant of the Turkana dialect. The Suk people, as might be imagined 

 from their geographical position, speak a language which is closely allied 

 to Turkana on the one hand and on the other to Nandi. The sub-group 

 of Nandi languages (all of which are merely dialectal variations of one 

 common speech) is a very well marked one, but is sufficiently near to 

 Masai in its grammar and vocabulary to be classed as a sub-group and not 

 as an independent stock. Besides marked affinities in numerals (which may 

 be due to direct borrowing) and in some pronouns, most of the Masai languages 

 share with the Hamitic the same negative prefix " Ma-." There are two 

 •exceptions to this rule — Turkana, where the negative prefix is "Nye-," 

 and Bari, which uses the negative suffix " -ti " that is also characteristic 

 ■of Makarka, and of some of the Bantu tongues. One Nilotic language, 

 the Larigo, would appear to have borrowed from the Masai or Hamitic 

 families both the negative particle "Ma-"' and also some of its numerals, 

 such as the word for " ten " (" tomon "). This word for "ten" ('' tomon," 

 " tama." " toban," " taman ") is widespread amongst all, or nearly all, 

 the Hamitic languages and the tongues of the Masai group. Bari, it is 

 true, departs from its allies and retains an old word for ten (" puok "), 

 which no doubt comes from the Negro tongues to the west. There is an 

 ■obvious relationship between the Masai and the Nilotic tongues — Dinkn* 

 Shiluk (Shivolo), Dyur, Shangala, Acholi, Aluru (or Aluo), Lango, and 

 Ja-luo. This resemblance can be seen by consulting my vocabularies. It 

 is particularly noticeable in some of the numerals, such as the word for 

 " four," a numeral not as likely to have been borrowed as ten. The 

 geographical range of the Nilotic family is considerable (as has been 

 described in Chapter XVIII.), but the different languages or dialects do 

 not vary as widely one from the other as is the case with the component 

 members of the Masai group. There is a constant prevalence, too, of 

 "Luo" as a tribal name. The Dyur, far up in the direction of the Bahr- 

 al-Grhazal, call themselves " Luo." The Alum of the Albert Nyanza more 

 often pronounce their name "A-luo," and this form appears again in the 

 north of Unyoro and among the Ja-luo of Kavirondo. Acholi is also related 

 as a tribal name to Shiooli (Shiluk). A marked phonetic peculiarity shared 



* The real pronunciation of the tribal name of this people is "Dyange." 

 VOL. II. 27 



