Geographic
distribution: northeast Uganda Glottolog: kuli1252 | Linguistic classification: Nilo-Saharan?
Kuliak | |
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The Kuliak languages are a group of language spoken by small relict communities in the mountains of northeastern Uganda. Bender (1989) had classified them within the Eastern Sudanic languages, but by Bender (2000) he had separated them out as a peripheral isolate within Nilo-Saharan. Significant influence from Cushitic languages, and more recently Nilotic languages, is observable in the vocabulary and phonology. Bernd Heine proposed a reconstruction of Proto-Kuliak. Soo and Nyang'i form a subgroup, Western Kuliak, against Ik. Blench notes that Kuliak appears to retain a core of non-Nilo-Saharan vocabulary, suggesting language shift from an indigenous language like that seen in Dahalo.
Nyang'i is close to extinct (there is one remaining speaker with reasonable fluency), and Soo is moribund. However, Ik is vigorous, and growing.