Language: Acholi

The official languages of Uganda are English and Swahili. English is a remnant of British colonialism and Swahili is a Bantu language (dominant sub-branch of Niger-Congo linguistic grouping). Swahili was added as a national language by Idi Amin, retracted in 1995 and reinstated again in 2005. Swahili is also the official language of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, the Comoros and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Never heard of Comoros? Me either, until I did some basic research for this entry. Anyway, the history of Swahili is quite interesting but an entirely different topic and all you really need to know (for this entry anyway) is that it has historically been used as a trade language. Interesting fact; only about 5 million people claim Swahili as their native language but more than 60 million people (some estimates claim  over 150 million) speak it. To give you some context, the number of native speakers isn't even in the top 100 largest languages by native speakers! But I digress...

As you can see from the map above, there are basically three major divisions of languages in Uganda. I am located in the Nilotic region, more specifically in the Acholi. The Nilotic family has somewhere between 29 and 53 languages though I'm uncertain how many of those languages are in the distribution in Uganda. Among the further divisions of the Nilotic family, Acholi falls under the "Western Nelotic" category, which means words tend to be very short and sentences tend to follow a Subject-Verb-Object order (example: I read blog). I know what you're thinking, "Very short words, familiar subject/verb/object...this should be easy!". Well, it's also a tonal language (much like Mandarin Chinese) insuring that I will struggle mightily with it. However, it is also a written language, which makes it easier for me since I've long realized I need a combination of visual and audio cues. Learning Iko in Nigeria (an unwritten language) demonstrated to me how difficult that can be. 

Though I've been really busy with work, I've still found time to start learning the language. Most all of the patients in the hospital are from very rural areas so acknowledging them with a simple Acholi greeting goes a long way. The first greeting to learn was: "Apwoyo", which literally means "thank you" but can be used for hello, good bye and thank you. These are the types of greetings/words/phrases I like, especially when beginning to learn. I was learning a few phrases from coworkers, things like "good morning" and "how are you" but I was writing them phonetically and wished for a guide. After scouring the internet, I found some good workbooks and an especially good guide from my old friend the Peace Corps! Based on my experience, I know Peace Corps takes language seriously and they spend months with their volunteers prepping them before sending them to the field. Here is an excerpt: 

Lok manyen  (New words)

tye odiko kono in? maber ibutu idye ceng irii nining?

to be morning what of you? (and you?) good, well, nice you spent the night noon; afternoon you spent the day how?

Subject Prefixes

I                      a-                       we                   wa- you                  i-                        you all             wu- he/she              o-                       they                 gu- Example: arii (I spent the day)  -  irii (you spent the day).

Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of free time at the moment but any time I am in Kitgum central, dealing with patients, or out on site visits, I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunities to practice. I look forwarded to learning yet another language. And apparently, due to all the displacement from the LRA, there are a fair amount of Acholi speakers scattered abroad, so unlike Iko (the language I learned in Nigeria), this language may serve me beyond my stay!