Jur language
Language spoken by the Luo people of South Sudan's Bahr El Ghazal region
title: "Jur language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["luo-languages", "languages-of-south-sudan"] description: "Language spoken by the Luo people of South Sudan's Bahr El Ghazal region" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jur_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Language spoken by the Luo people of South Sudan's Bahr El Ghazal region ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Luwo |
| altname | Jur |
| states | South Sudan |
| region | Bahr el Ghazal |
| ethnicity | Luwo people |
| speakers | |
| date | 2017 |
| ref | e25 |
| familycolor | Nilo-Saharan |
| fam2 | Eastern Sudanic? |
| fam3 | Southern Eastern |
| fam4 | Nilotic |
| fam5 | Western |
| fam6 | Luo |
| fam7 | Northern |
| iso3 | lwo |
| glotto | luwo1239 |
| glottorefname | Luwo |
| :: |
|name=Luwo |altname=Jur |states=South Sudan |region=Bahr el Ghazal |ethnicity= Luwo people |speakers= |date=2017 |ref=e25 |familycolor=Nilo-Saharan | fam2 = Eastern Sudanic? | fam3 = Southern Eastern | fam4 = Nilotic | fam5 = Western | fam6 = Luo | fam7 = Northern |iso3=lwo |glotto=luwo1239 |glottorefname=Luwo
Luwo (Luo, Dheluwo), is a language spoken by the Luo people of Bahr el Ghazal region in South Sudan. The language is predominantly spoken in the western and northern parts of Bahr el Ghazal. The Luwo form a majority in the Jur River County.
The language is part of the Luo languages of East Africa and is especially related to the languages of South Sudan such as Anyuak and Päri with whom it forms a dialect cluster.
Etymology
The Luwo language is spoken by the Luwo (or Jur Col), an ethnic group in South Sudan. Jur is exonym adopted from the local Dinka language whose speakers are the Luwo's northern and eastern neighbours. Its original Dinka usage, non-cattle-holding non-Dinka, was not particular to the Jur. Jur Col ("black Jur") is today used to disambiguate Luwo from other Jur groups.
Status
Dhe Luwo is currently a developing language. Meaning that the language is developing its written language, standard dialect and undergoing modernization.
Phonology
Consonants
::data[format=table]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | Plosive | voiceless | voiced | Trill | Lateral | Approximant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m | n̪ | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||||||
| p | t̪ | t | c | k | ʔ | |||||||
| b | d̪ | d | ɟ | g | ||||||||
| r | ||||||||||||
| l | ||||||||||||
| w | j | |||||||||||
| :: |
- /k/ can sometimes be heard as [ɣ] in intervocalic position.
- /ŋ/ can sometimes be heard as [h] in intervocalic position among speakers of the eastern dialects.
- /r/ can be heard as a tap [ɾ] in word-final position.
- All consonant sounds except the voiced stops /b, d̪, d, ɟ, ɡ/ and the two glides /w, j/ can occur as geminated [Cː].
- Labialization [Cʷ] may occur among all consonants except /d̪, ɟ, n̪, n, r, w, j/.
- Palatalization [Cʲ] may occur among consonants /t, c, d̪, ɡ, m, l/.
Vowels
::data[format=table title="Oral vowels"]
| +ATR | -ATR | Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | Close | Mid | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i iː | u uː | ɪ ɪː | ʊ ʊː | |||||||
| e eː | ʌ̈ ʌ̈ː | o oː | ɛ ɛː | ɔ ɔː | ||||||
| a aː | ||||||||||
| :: |
::data[format=table title="Breathy vowels"]
| +ATR | -ATR | Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | Close | Mid | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i̤ i̤ː | ṳ ṳː | ɪ̤ ɪ̤ː | ʊ̤ ʊ̤ː | |||||||
| e̤ e̤ː | ʌ̤̈ ʌ̤̈ː | o̤ o̤ː | ɛ̤ ɛ̤ː | ɔ̤ ɔ̤ː | ||||||
| a̤ a̤ː | ||||||||||
| :: |
Sample phrases
::data[format=table]
| English | Luwo |
|---|---|
| Hello (How are you?) | Mahdhia (Ni dih)? |
| I am fine (nothing bad) | Gihn me raaj tooro. |
| What is your name? | Nyingi nga'a? |
| My name is Dimo. | Nyinga Dimo. |
| Child | Nyithiin |
| Boy | Nyidhohg |
| Girl | Nyakuo |
| God is great. | Juag Duohng. |
| Good | Ber |
| Thank you! | Kori! |
| I am happy. | Ciwnya med. |
| :: |
References
References
- Reh, Mechthild (1996): Anywa Language: Description and Internal Reconstructions. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. p.5
- Santandrea, Stefano. (1968). "The Luo of the Bahr el Ghazal (Sudan)". Editrice Nigrizia.
- (2012-11-20). "Language Development". Ethnologue.
- Storch, Anne. (2014). "A Grammar of Luwo: An anthropological approach". Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::