Bari language

Bari is spoken by several distinct tribes: the Bari people themselves, the Pojulu, Kakwa, Nyangwara, Mundari, and Kuku. Each has its own dialect. The language is therefore sometimes called Karo or Kutuk ('mother tongue') rather than Bari.

Bari is a tone language. It has vowel harmony, subject–verb–object word order, and agglutinative verbal morphology with some suppletion. A very competent dictionary and grammar were published in the 1930s, but are very difficult to find today. More recently, a dissertation has been published on Bari tonal phonology, and another dissertation on Bari syntax is available.

Dialects

Dialects are:

• Bari proper (Beri)
• Pöjulu (Pajulu, Fadjulu, Fajelu, Madi)
• Kakwa (Kakua, Kwakwak) [radio broadcasts in Uganda]
• Nyangbara (Nyangwara, Nyambara)
• Mandari (Mondari, Mundari, Chir, Kir, Shir)
• Kuku
• Nyepu (Nyefu, Nyepo, Nypho, Ngyepu)
• Ligo (Liggo)