Kianuak

Anuak (Anywaa, autonymously Dha-Anywaa) is a Western Nilotic Lwoo language of the lower Sobat River basin straddling South Sudan (Upper Nile State, Pochalla County) and Ethiopia (Gambela Region). The Anuak community of approximately 250,000 people are traditionally cattle-keeping floodplain agriculturalists, distinguished from neighbouring Nuer (nus) by their settled-village social organisation around hereditary chiefs (kwaaro). Linguistically, Anuak shares Lwoo Western Nilotic features with sister languages Acholi (ach), Lango (laj), and Luo (luo) — including ATR vowel harmony with two harmonic sets, a complex tone system (typically 3-4 tone register), and verbal aspect-mood morphology. Reh's 1996 Anywa Language: Description and Internal Reconstructions is the major modern academic documentation. The Anuak community of Gambela Region was severely affected by the 2003 Gambela massacre and ongoing tensions with the Ethiopian state.