Ik language

Ik (also known as Icetot, Icietot, Ngulak or (derogatory) Teuso, Teuth) is one of the Kuliak languages of northeastern Uganda. The Kuliak languages form their own branch of the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. With the other two Kuliak languages being moribund, Ik may soon be the sole remaining language of its family.

A comprehensive dictionary and grammar of Ik has been published in Schrock (2017).

Names The Ik refer to their own language as .

According to Schrock (2015), as a spurious language, Dorobo does not actually exist as a fourth Kuliak language, and may at most be a dialect of Ik.

Distribution Ik speakers have traditionally resided in Kamion Subcounty, Kaabong District, Uganda, with the Kamion Subcounty consisting of the five parishes Kapalu, Timu, Kamion, Lokwakaramoe, and Morungole. Their traditional homeland is a 50 kilometer-long narrow strip of territory along the Kenya-Uganda border, stretching from Mount Morungole and Kidepo National Park in the north to Mount Lopokok and Timu Forest in the south. Some Ik-speaking villages in Kaabong District are Pirre, Morungole, and Oropoi.

Within the past few decades, Ik-speaking communities have also sprouted up in the following locations. Several hundred Ik in New Site, South Sudan (in Eastern Equatoria state, South Sudan) Approximately 100 Ik across towns and cities northwestern Kenya, including Kakuma A small Ik community in Masindi District, western Uganda

Sociolinguistics Today, Ik is a highly vital language, although many speakers are also fluent in the local Teso–Turkana languages (such as the Dodoth dialect of Karimojong), Swahili, and to a lesser extent, English.

The Ik language is still stable, as young children still learn the language and remain monolingual until they go to school, and Ik is spoken in all domains of life. Although the community subtly pressures its children to learn more widely spoken languages like Turkana, they see this multilingualism as good without being detrimental to the vitality of their own language. The community sees the language as vital to maintaining their ethnic identity and wants their children to learn Ik in school.

Phonology The Ik phonemic inventory, as documented by Schrock (2014), is given below.

Consonants include ejectives and implosives.

+ConsonantsBilabialLabiodentalAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarStopvoicelessvoicedimplosive ~ Affricatevoiceless ejective voiced Fricativevoiceless voicedNasalApproximant Flap

Ik displays ATR vowel harmony.

+VowelsFrontCentralBack+ATR-ATR+ATR-ATR+ATR-ATRClose MidOpen

Three additional phonemes, , were originally in the language but were lost in the early 21st century.

Lexicon Some Ik names for native plants and animals (which are also found in Kidepo National Park) are:

Flora Ik name English name Scientific name African pencil cedar Juniperus procera Sycamore fig Ficus sycomorus Gerrard’s acacia Vachellia gerrardi Red-pod terminalia Terminalia brownii Flame tree Erythrina abyssinica Candelabra Euphorbia candelabrum Desert date Balanites aegyptiaca White-thorn acacia Acacia hockii

Ik crops include: sorghum () finger millet () maize () (introduced New World crop) pumpkins () (introduced New World crop) beans () vegetable greens ()

Fauna Ik name English name Scientific name Bushpig Potamochoerus porcus Warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus Oribi Ourebia ourebi Bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus Common duiker Sylvicapra grimmia Cane rat Thryonomys swinderianus Günther’s dik-dik Madoqua guentheri Mountain reedbuck Redunca fulvorufula Crested porcupine Hystrix cristata Baboon Papio cynocephalus Augur buzzard Buteo augur White-crested turaco Tauraco leucolophus Amethyst sunbird Chalcomitra amethystina Green wood-hoopoe Phoeniculus purpureus Crested helmet shrike Prionops plumatus Fan-tailed raven Corvus rhipidurus Senegal coucal Centropus senegalensis Gabar goshawk Micronisus gabar

Society Like the neighboring Nilotic peoples, the Ik people have age-groups (cohorts), each with its own assigned totem. Nowadays, the traditional Ik age-group system is mostly obsolete (Heine 1999).

'eland' 'buffalo' 'giraffe' 'vervet monkey' 'gazelle' 'ostrich' 'ox'

Traditional Ik society also has terms for specific prohibitions and taboos, such as: 'prohibition against fining children or youth' 'prohibition against failing to give water to elders first' 'prohibition against failing to give leg-meat to elders' 'prohibition against eating the first harvest secretly' 'prohibition against seeing your mother-in-law'

Ik language

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