Oropom language Totally Explained

Everything about Oropom Language totally explained

Oropom (or Oworopom, Oyoropom, Oropoi) is an almost certainly extinct African language, once spoken in northeastern Uganda and northwestern Kenya between the Turkwel River, Chemorongit Mountains, and Mount Elgon, by the Oropom ethnic group. It is very little-known; there appears to be only one article containing any original research on the language (Wilson 1970), which only a handful of other articles discuss. The Wilson article furnishes only a short word list (though it says that "the process of collection is still going on"), and it was written at a time when the language was nearly extinct. It was based mainly on the limited memories of two very old women, one "a child of one of the residual Oropom families that had remained after the break-up of the Oropom here (Matheniko county)" who "remembered a few words of the language", the other an old lady called Akol "descended from the prisoners taken by the Karimojong on the Turkwel" who was "able to furnish many Oropom words." Under the circumstances, it goes without saying that only the barest details of the language could be ascertained, and indeed some linguists have expressed scepticism as to whether it ever even existed. On this basis, Wilson concluded that it must have had at least two dialects: one spoken around the Turkwel area, containing a significant number of Luo words, and some Bantu words, one around Matheniko county with fewer Luo words. Both contain Kalenjin loanwords.
Wilson ascribes it to the Khoisan group, seemingly based solely on their physical appearance; but this identification is unreliable (Harold Fleming describes it as a "ridiculous suggestion".) Elderkin (1983) says that "The Oropom data of Wilson (1970) shows some resemblances to Kuliak, some of which could well be mediated through Nilotic, with which it seems to have more resemblances (F. Rottland, personal communication)... There are many fewer resemblances worth noting with Hadza and only a minimal number with Sandawe." He quotes 8 potentially similar words between Oropom and Hadza, and 4 between Oropom and Sandawe. Harold Fleming also notes that "initial inspection suggests some possible commonality" between Oropom and the Kuliak languages, a probably Nilo-Saharan relic group found in Northern Uganda among such tribes as the Ik. However, in the absence of further work, Oropom remains an unclassified language.

Bibliography

J. G. Wilson. "Preliminary Observations on the Oropom People of Karamoja, their Ethnic Status, Culture, and Postulated Relation to the Peoples of the Late Stone Age." The Uganda Journal, 34, 2, 1970. pp. 125-145.
Elderkin, E.D. (1983) 'Tanzanian and Ugandan isolates'. In Nilotic studies: proceedings of the international symposium on languages and history of the Nilotic peoples, Cologne, January 4-6, 1982 Vol. 2 / Rainer Vossen, Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst (eds), Vol. 2, pp 499-521.
Harold C. Fleming (1983) 'Kuliak External Relations: Step One'. In Nilotic studies: proceedings of the international symposium on languages and history of the Nilotic peoples, Cologne, January 4-6, 1982 Vol. 2 / Rainer Vossen, Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst (eds), Vol. 2, p. 429.
Blench, Roger M. 1999. "Are the African pygmies an ethnographic fiction?". Central African hunter-gatherers in a multidisciplinary perspective: challenging elusiveness, pp 41-60. Edited by Karen Biesbrouck, Stefan Elders & Gerda Rossel. Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), State University of Leiden. Leiden.

Wordlist

This wordlist, taken from the appendix to Wilson 1970, is based on Akol's memories (and thus is considered by Wilson as belonging to the "Turkwell dialect".) He specifically says that he collected words from the other dialect as well, but apparently never published them. The list consists of less than a hundred words, but is unfortunately quite likely to be all the vocabulary that will ever be known of the language.

man: muren

woman: nakwanta

child: muto

father: mamunyu

mother: iyoo

brother: lukiya

sister: pese

old man: kuko

old woman: kukuye

mother-in-law: yo

warrior: lim

enemy: bu

thief: mokorat

fool: bung

clever person: woth

seer: murwe

wizard: rimirim

witch: ariet

dog: kokuye

cat: ariet

cow: ngobo

bull: losogol

cattle: pange

goat: ngoror

sheep: merek

lion: ru

leopard: meri

gazelle: tuth

eland: ongor

snake: kwolta

crocodile: moro

fish: karu

egg: iken

honey: madik

meat: apintoo

milk: coko

food: araukoo

oil: konoye

fat: moda

cooking pot: kodo

cooking pot (black): kiriente

grooved design on pots: nacipa

eye: kongiye

nose: torom

ear: ki-ito

tooth: ne-et

breast: kisina

penis: oyaa

vagina: kibunte

hand: akeleng

foot: apaukoo

hair: akopito

cowrie shell: pel

mark on forehead: nageran

ear-ring: napiroi

neck bangles: gorom

women's apron: ongor

stone wrist bangle: aurare

spear: ngokit

arrow: motit

bow: terema

soil: nyapid

chalcedony: atunatun

water: lata

fire: emaa

sun: aca

moon: pele

day: awar

night: riono

rain: lat

house: apirgoo

tree: telegai

grass: purung

white: pele

black: timu

red: kopurat

blue: puthia

good: pau

bad: girito

hard: keter

soft: lujuk

dry: de-au

wet: ret

to sleep: sanan

to walk: pauwo

to swim: redik

to dig: chege

to cut: tubo

to sit: paja

to lie down: lura

to give: we

to receive: aruka

to cook: ipo

to burn: mala

to boil water: mak

to speak: dokol

to marry: ritha Further Information

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