| Ik | |
| Nativename: | Icé-tód |
| Region: | Uganda |
| Ethnicity: | Ik |
| Speakers: | 14,000 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Nilo-Saharan |
| Fam2: | Kuliak |
| Iso3: | ikx |
| Glotto: | ikkk1242 |
| Glottorefname: | Ik |
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).
The Ik refer to their own language as Icé-tód pronounced as /[ītʃé-tôd̥̚]/.
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.
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.
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.
The Ik phonemic inventory, as documented by Schrock (2014), is given below.
Consonants include ejectives and implosives.
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| implosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Affricate | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| ejective | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Flap | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
Ik displays ATR vowel harmony.
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +ATR | -ATR | +ATR | -ATR | +ATR | -ATR | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
Three additional phonemes, pronounced as //tlʼ, ɬ, ɮ//, were originally in the language but were lost in the early 21st century.
Some Ik names for native plants and animals (which are also found in Kidepo National Park) are:
| Ik name | English name | Scientific name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| asʊnán | African pencil cedar | Juniperus procera | |
| átsʼᵃ | Sycamore fig | Ficus sycomorus | |
| ɓʊkʊ́lá | Vachellia gerrardii | ||
| ɡáʒadᵃ | Terminalia brownii | ||
| ɪtɪt́ ɪ ́ | Flame tree | Erythrina abyssinica | |
| mʊs | Candelabra | Euphorbia candelabrum | |
| tsʊmˊ | Desert date | Balanites aegyptiaca | |
| tsʊ́ʊ́r | Acacia hockii |
Ik crops include:
| Ik name | English name | Scientific name | |
|---|---|---|---|
| borokᵃ | Bushpig | Potamochoerus porcus | |
| ɡasoˊ | Warthog | Phacochoerus aethiopicus | |
| kɔtɔ́r | Oribi | Ourebia ourebi | |
| kʊláɓᵃ | Bushbuck | Tragelaphus scriptus | |
| ŋamurˊ | Common duiker | Sylvicapra grimmia | |
| ŋʊrˊ | Cane rat | Thryonomys swinderianus | |
| ɲól | Günther’s dik-dik | Madoqua guentheri | |
| róɡᵃ | Mountain reedbuck | Redunca fulvorufula | |
| tɔrɔmɪɲ | Crested porcupine | Hystrix cristata | |
| tsɔ́r | Baboon | Papio cynocephalus | |
| alálá | Augur buzzard | Buteo augur | |
| fúluƙurú | White-crested turaco | Tauraco leucolophus | |
| itsókᵃ | Amethyst sunbird | Chalcomitra amethystina | |
| ƙáraƙár | Green wood-hoopoe | Phoeniculus purpureus | |
| kíryooró | Crested helmet shrike | Prionops plumatus | |
| kʊ́rakᵃ | Fan-tailed raven | Corvus rhipidurus | |
| múɗuɗú | Senegal coucal | Centropus senegalensis | |
| tsitsᵃ | Gabar goshawk | Micronisus gabar |
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).
Traditional Ik society also has terms for specific prohibitions and taboos, such as: