The Atwot (Reel) are a Nilotic ethnic group of South Sudan who live near Yirol in Lakes State. They comprise a majority of the population in the payam of Yirol West.[4]
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| approx. 116,000 (2017)[1][2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 South Sudan (Lakes State[3]) | |
| Languages | |
| Atwot and Dinka[1][2] | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional African religion and Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Dinka and Nuer |
Language
editThe Atwot people speak the Atwot language (Atwot: Thok Reel), which was first recognized as a separate language from Dinka by anthropologist John Burton in 1987. It is a Western Nilotic language of the Dinka-Nuer group, closely related to the Nuer language and more distantly to the Luo languages. SIL International estimate that the number of Atuot speakers is 50,000.[1][3]
Atwot speakers distinguish two dialects to their language, Thok Reel Cieng Luai and Thok Reel Cieng Nhyam with Thok Reel Cieng Nhyam being the more lexically conservative of the two.[5] Most Atwot are bilingual in Dinka and Atwot.[2][6]
A distinctive feature of the language is its having of three contrastive vowel lengths.[7]
Culture
editThe Atwot share much of their culture with their neighbours. Like the Dinka and Nuer, they are also semi-sedentary cattle-herding pastoralists, meaning that while the travel with their herds to grazing grounds, they do not go far from where they had started.[3] There are seven subsections of the Atuot: Jilek, Luac, Jikeyi (Rorkec), Kuek, Apak, Akot and Ajong. The Ajong subsection claims to speak their own dialect known as Thok-ajong, a hard version of Thok Reel. Jikeyi and Kuek speak Thok Reel Cieng Nhyam. The Luac, Jilek, and Akot speak Thok Reel Cieng Luai.[1] The Apak speak Thong Apak which is dialect of South Central Dinka.[5]
Atwot country
editThere were approximately 24,700 Atwot at the time of the local dialect survey in 1987.[8] SIL estimates that there were over 50,000 Atwot in 1998.[1] The population of Yirol West in the 2008 Sudanese census was 103,190 although not all inhabitants of the municipality are Atwot.[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e "Reel Ethnologue". Ethnologue. 19. Ethnologue. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
- ^ a b c "Dinka, South Central Ethnologue". 19. Ethnologue. Retrieved 23 September 2023.
- ^ a b c Trust, Gurtong. "Atuot (Reel)". www.gurtong.net. Retrieved 2016-10-25.
- ^ Reid, p. 18
- ^ a b Reid, pp. 20-21
- ^ Reid, p. 22
- ^ Reid, pp. 196
- ^ Roettger, p. 24
- ^ "5th Sudan Population and Housing Census 2008: Priority Results". South Sudan National Bureau of Statistics. South Sudan Commission for Census, Statistics and Evaluation. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
Bibliography
edit- Burton, John W. (1987). A Nilotic World: the Atuot-Speaking Peoples of the Southern Sudan. London: Greenwood. ISBN 0313255016.
- Burton, John W. (1981). God's Ants: a Study of Atuot Religion. St. Augustin, West Germany: Anthropos Institute. ISBN 3921389410.
- Reid, Tatiana (2010). Aspects of phonetics, phonology and morphophonology of Thok Reel (M.Sc.). University of Edinburgh. hdl:1842/5312.
- Roettger, Larry and Lisa (1989). "A Dinka Dialect Study". Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages (6). Dallas: SIL publication.