The Eastern Nilotic languages are one of the three primary branches of the Nilotic languages, themselves belonging to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan; they are believed to have begun to diverge about 3,000 years ago, and have spread southwards from an original home in Equatoria in South Sudan. They are spoken across a large area in East Africa, ranging from Equatoria to the highlands of Tanzania. Their speakers are mostly cattle herders living in semi-arid or arid plains.

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According to Vossen (1982), the Eastern Nilotic languages are basically classified as follows by the comparative method. Vossen (1982) also provides a reconstruction of Proto-Eastern Nilotic.

It is generally agreed upon that Bari forms a primary branch, but lower-level splits are less clear.

Gender marking through prefixes (or proclitics) on nouns is an innovation in the Eastern Nilotic languages that is not found in the other branches of Nilotic. However, not every Eastern Nilotic language has this feature: for example, Bari does not have it.^[1]

Sample basic vocabulary of Eastern Nilotic languages from Vossen (1982):

• Languages of Tanzania
• Languages of South Sudan
• Serengeti-Dorobo language, of which at least the numeral system is Eastern or Southern Nilotic
• List of Proto-Eastern Nilotic reconstructions (Wiktionary)