Nilotic · ISO 639-3 luo
Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) Language Dholuo
Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) is a Nilotic language spoken by about 5.2 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)
Language family
- Nilotic
- Western Nilotic
- Lwoo
- Southern Lwoo
- Adhola-Alur-Luo
- Adhola-Luo
- Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) language
Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) (Dholuo) is spoken by about 5.2 million people, which makes it the 181st most spoken language in the world — just behind Halh Mongolian (5.2 million) and ahead of Tatar (5.2 million). It belongs to the Nilotic language family and, more precisely, to the Adhola-Luo group within the Lwoo branch.
Where is Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) spoken?
Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Kenya (5.7 million).
Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) 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 Alur, Lango (Uganda), Acoli and Shilluk.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 luo.
Frequently asked questions about Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)
How many people speak Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)?
Where is Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) spoken?
What language family does Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) belong to?
What is Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) called in Luo (Kenya and Tanzania)?
Is Luo (Kenya and Tanzania) 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.