Toposa | Ethnologue

A language of South Sudan

ISO 639: toq
Alternate Names: Akara, Kare, Kumi, Taposa, Topotha
Autonym: ŋatoposa
Population: 312,000 in South Sudan (2017). Most are monolingual. Total users in all countries: 315,000.
Location:: Eastern Equatoria state: Kapoeta North, Kapoeta South and Kapoeta East counties; along Singaita and Lokalyen rivers.
Language Status: 5 (Developing).
Classification: Nilo-Saharan, Satellite-Core, Core, Eastern Sudanic, Southern (n languages), Nilotic, Eastern, Lotuxo-Teso, Teso-Turkana, Turkana
Dialects: Eastern Toposa, Western Toposa, Jiye. Inherently intelligible with Nyangatom [nnj], Karamojong [kdj], and Turkana [tuv], but each has strong ethnic attitudes. Limited intelligibility of Ateso [teo].
Typology: VSO (morphologically ergative); vowel harmony; questions: yes and no sentence final, content questions sentence initial and final; grammatical tone (tense, case).
Language Use: Vigorous. All domains. Used by all. Positive attitudes. Used as L2 by Tennet [tex].
Language Development: Literacy rate in L1: Below 5%. Perhaps 2,000 can read. Taught in primary schools. Literature. Dictionary. Bible portions: 2002–2006.
Language Resources: OLAC resources in and about Toposa
Writing: Latin script [Latn].