Nilotic · ISO 639-3 ach
Acoli Language Acholi
Acoli is a Nilotic language spoken by about 1.6 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Acoli is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Acoli
Language family
- Nilotic
- Western Nilotic
- Lwoo
- Southern Lwoo
- Acoli
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Acoli language
Acoli (Acholi) is spoken by about 1.6 million people, which makes it the 350th most spoken language in the world — just behind Afar (1.6 million) and ahead of Dimli (1.6 million). It belongs to the Nilotic language family and, more precisely, to the Southern Lwoo group within the Lwoo branch.
Where is Acoli spoken?
Acoli is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Uganda (1.8 million).
Acoli is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Acoli is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Luo (Kenya and Tanzania), Lango (Uganda), Alur and Shilluk.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 ach.
Frequently asked questions about Acoli
How many people speak Acoli?
Where is Acoli spoken?
What language family does Acoli belong to?
What is Acoli called in Acoli?
Is Acoli an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.