The language is moribund, with most of the population of 5,000 having shifted to Karamojong, and only a few dozen elderly individuals are still able to speak Soo.

Soo is divided into three major dialects: Tepes, Kadam (Katam), and Napak (Yog Toŋi).

They were historically hunter-gatherers, but have recently shifted to pastoralism and subsistence farming like their Nilotic and Bantu neighbors.

Soo dialects are spoken on the slopes of the following three mountains in east-central Uganda just to the north of Mount Elgon.

[2] Carlin (1993: 2-3) notes that there are only minor differences between the Tepes and Kadam dialects, which are mutually intelligible.