spoken by the Tutsi have many Sog Eastern Sahelian loanwords, such as the word for cow (inka), which originally meant "cattle camp" in the Sog language, demonstrating their contribution to Tutsi pastoralism.

Central Sudanic peoples likely form another part of the ancestry of the Tutsi. Central Sudanic farmers and herders entered Rwanda and Burundi in 3000 BC, and some of their cultural practices