View source for Social:Nubian languages

{{Short description|Branch of Eastern Sudanic languages}}
{{Infobox language family
|name = Nubian Languages
|ethnicity = Nubian
|region = [[Place:Egypt|Egypt]], Sudan
|speakers = 200,000–1 million 
(cited 1977)<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30027494#:~:text=The%20Nubian%20language%20is%20used,(Adams%201977%3A%202) | last1=Rouchdy | first1=Aleya | title=Languages in Contact: Arabic-Nubian | journal=Anthropological Linguistics | year=1980 | volume=22 | issue=8 | pages=334–344 }}</ref>
|familycolor = Nilo-Saharan
|fam2 = [[Social:Eastern Sudanic languages|Eastern Sudanic]]
|fam3 = [[Social:Northern Eastern Sudanic languages|Northern Eastern Sudanic]]
|child1 = Central
|child2 = Northern
|child3 = Western
|iso2 = nub
|iso5 = nub
|glotto = nubi1251
|glottorefname = Nubian
}}

The '''Nubian languages''' ({{lang-ar|لُغَات نُوبِيّة|lughāt nūbiyyah}}) are a group of related languages spoken by the Nubians. In the past, Nubian languages were spoken throughout much of Sudan, but as a result of [[Social:Arabization|Arabization]] they are today mostly limited to the Nile Valley between [[Place:Aswan|Aswan]] (southern [[Place:Egypt|Egypt]]) and Al Dabbah. In the 1956 Census of Sudan there were 167,831 speakers of Nubian languages.<ref name="Miller 27-04-2017.pdf">{{cite web|title=Language and ethnic statistics in 20th century Sudanese censuses and surveys|url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01544597/document|access-date=13 September 2023}}</ref> Nubian is not to be confused with the various Nuba languages spoken in villages in the Nuba mountains and Darfur.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thelwall |first1=Robin |date=3 February 2002 |title=Nuba Language and History |url=http://nubasurvival.org/Nuba%20Vision/Vol%201%20Issue%203/7%20Language%20and%20history.htm |journal=Nuba Survival |volume=1 |issue=3 |access-date=17 August 2022}}</ref>

More recent classifications, such as those in [[Social:Glottolog|Glottolog]], consider that Nubian languages form a primary [[Social:Language family|language family]]. Older classifications consider Nubian to be a branch of the [[Social:Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan phylum]], a proposal that has been losing support among [[Social:Linguistics|linguists]] due to a lack of supporting data.

==History==
[[Social:Old Nubian language|Old Nubian]] is preserved in at least a hundred pages of documents, comprising both texts of a [[Religion:Christianity|Christian]] religious nature and documentary texts dealing with state and legal affairs. Old Nubian was written with a slanted uncial variety of the [[Social:Coptic alphabet|Coptic alphabet]], with the addition of characters derived from [[Social:Meroitic script|Meroitic]]. These documents range in date from the 8th to the 15th century AD. Old Nubian is currently considered ancestral to modern Nobiin, even though it shows signs of extensive contact with Dongolawi. Another, as yet undeciphered, Nubian language has been preserved in a few inscriptions found in Soba, the capital of Alodia. Since their publication by Adolf Ermann in 1881, they have been referred to as 'Alwan inscriptions' or 'Alwan Nubian.'

A reconstruction of Proto-Nubian has been proposed by Claude Rilly (2010: 272–273).<ref>Rilly, Claude. 2010. ''Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique''. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. {{ISBN|978-9042922372}}</ref>

==Present-day languages==
[[File:Old Nubian manuscript.jpg|thumb|A page from an [[Social:Old Nubian|Old Nubian]] translation of the ''Investiture of the Archangel Michael'', from the 9th–10th century, found at Qasr Ibrim, now at the British Museum. Michael's name appears in red: Nubians during the period frequently used Greek personal names, often with a terminal ‑ⲓ added.]][[File:Marble stone with southern-Nubian inscription, Soba.jpg|thumb|Marble Monument found in Soba with an as yet undeciphered inscription in Alwan Nubian]]

Rilly (2010) distinguishes the following Nubian languages, spoken by in total about 900,000 speakers:
# '''Nobiin''', is the second largest Nubian language with 545,000 speakers in [[Place:Egypt|Egypt]], Sudan, and the Nubian diaspora. Previously known by the geographic terms Mahas and Fadicca/Fiadicca. As late as 1863 this language, or a closely related dialect, was known to have been spoken by the [[Social:Arabization|arabized]] Nubian Shaigiya tribe.{{sfn|Bechhaus-Gerst|1996|pp=25–26}}
# '''Kenzi''' (endonym: Mattokki) with 865,000 speakers in [[Place:Egypt|Egypt]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://people.umass.edu/nconstan/representatives/ | title=Language Representative Counts }}</ref> and '''Dongolawi''' (endonym: Andaandi) with 180,000 speakers in Sudan. They are no longer considered a single language, but closely related. The split between Kenzi and Dongolawi is dated relatively recently to the 21st century.
# '''Midob''' (Meidob) with 50,000 speakers.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://people.umass.edu/nconstan/representatives/ | title=Language Representative Counts }}</ref> The language is spoken primarily in and around the Malha volcanic crater in North Darfur.
# '''Birgid''', now extinct, was spoken north of [[Place:Nyala, Sudan|Nyala]] around Menawashei, with the last known speakers alive in the 1970s. It was the predominant language between the corridor of Nyala and [[Place:Al-Fashir|al-Fashir]] in the north and the Bahr al-Arab in the south as recently as 1860.{{sfn|Spaulding|2006|p=396}}
# '''Hill Nubian''' or Kordofan Nubian, a group of closely related languages or dialects spoken in various villages in the northern Nuba Mountains; in particular by the Dilling, Debri, and Kadaru. An extinct language, Haraza, is known only from a few dozen words recalled by village elders in 1923.<ref>Herman Bell (1975) "[http://www.africabib.org/rec.php?RID=191308412&DB=p Documentary Evidence on the Haraza Nubian Language]"</ref><ref>{{glotto|hara1258|Haraza Nubian}}</ref>

Synchronic research on the Nubian languages began in the last decades of the nineteenth century, first focusing on the Nile Nubian languages Nobiin and Kenzi-Dongolawi. Several well-known Africanists have occupied themselves with Nubian, most notably Lepsius (1880), Reinisch (1879) and Meinhof (1918); other early Nubian scholars include Almkvist and Schäfer. Additionally, important comparative work on the Nubian languages has been carried out by Thelwall, Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst in the second half of the twentieth century and Claude Rilly and George Starostin in the twenty-first.

==Classification==
[[File:Nubian-tree3.png|thumb|500px|Relations between the Nubian languages. Lines indicate genealogical relations, dotted lines linguistic influence; asterisks (*) mark languages unattested in writing, daggers (†) mark dead languages.]]
Traditionally, the Nubian languages are divided into three branches: Northern (Nile), Western (Darfur), and Central. ''Ethnologue's'' classifies the Nubian languages as follows:.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroups/nubian|title=Nubian|work=Ethnologue|access-date=2017-06-24}}</ref>

{{tree list}}
* Nubian
** Northern (Nile)
*** [[Social:Old Nubian language|Old Nubian]]
**** Nobiin
** Western (Darfur)
*** Midob
** Central
*** Kenzi
*** Birgid
*** Dongolawi
*** Hill (Kordofan)
**** Kadaru-Ghulfan
***** Ghulfan
***** Kadaru
**** Unclassified
***** [[Social:Dair language|Dair]]
***** Dilling
***** [[Social:El Hugeirat language|El Hugeirat]]
***** Karko
***** Wali
{{tree list/end}}

[[Social:Glottolog|Glottolog]] groups all non-Northern Nubian branches in a single group named West-Central Nubian. Additionally, within Hill Nubian, Glottolog places Dair in the same branch as Kadaru.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/kord1246|title=Glottolog 3.0&nbsp;– Kordofan Nubian|website=glottolog.org|language=en|access-date=2017-06-24}}</ref>

The relation between Dongolawi and Nobiin remains a matter of debate within Nubian Studies. Ethnologue's classification is based on glotto-chronological research of Thelwall (1982) and Bechhaus-Gerst (1996), which considers Nobiin the earliest branching from Proto-Nubian. They attribute the current syntactical and phonological proximity between Nobiin and Dongolawi to extensive language contact. Arguing that there is no archeological evidence for a separate migration to the Nile of Dongolawi speakers, Rilly (2010) provides evidence that the difference in vocabulary between Nobiin and Dongolawi is mainly due to a pre-Nubian substrate underneath Nobiin, which he relates to the [[Social:Meroitic language|Meroitic]]. Approaching the inherited proto-Nubian vocabulary in all Nubian languages systematically through a comparative linguistic approach, Rilly arrives at the following classification:<ref>{{Cite book|title=Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique|last=Rilly|first=Claude|publisher=Peeters|year=2010|isbn=978-90-429-2237-2|pages=401|language=fr}}</ref>

{{tree list}}
* Nubian
** Nile Nubian
*** [[Social:Old Nubian language|Old Nubian]]
**** Nobiin
*** Kenzi-Dongolawi
**** Dongolawi
**** Kenzi
** Western Nubian
*** Birgid
*** Midob-Kordofan
**** Midob
**** Kordofan
{{tree list/end}}

==Orthography==
There are three currently active proposals for a Nubian alphabet: based on the Arabic script, the Greek script, the Latin script and the [[Social:Old Nubian language#Writing|Old Nubian alphabet]]. In the publication of various books of proverbs, dictionaries, and textbooks since the 1950s, Latin has been used by four authors, Arabic by two authors, and Old Nubian by three authors. For Arabic, the extended ISESCO system may be used to indicate vowels and consonants not found in the Arabic alphabet itself.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Character
| <big>{{script|Copt|ⲁ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲃ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲅ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲇ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲉ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲍ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲏ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲑ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲓ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲓ̈}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲕ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲗ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲙ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲛ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲟ}}</big>
|-
! Romanized
| {{transl|fia|a}} || {{transl|fia|b}} || {{transl|fia|g}} || {{transl|fia|d}} || {{transl|fia|e}} || {{transl|fia|z}} || {{transl|fia|ē}} || {{transl|fia|th}} || {{transl|fia|i}} || {{transl|fia|ï}} || {{transl|fia|k}} || {{transl|fia|l}} || {{transl|fia|m}} || {{transl|fia|n}} || {{transl|fia|o}}
|-
! Arabized
| <big>{{Script/Arabic|ا}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ب}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ج}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|د}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ز}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ي}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ي}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ك}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ل}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|م}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ن}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|و}}</big>
|-
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|Phonetic value]]
| {{IPA|/a,&nbsp;aː/}} || {{IPA|/b/}} || {{IPA|/ɡ/}} || {{IPA|/d/}} || {{IPA|/e,&nbsp;eː/}} || {{IPA|/z/}} || {{IPA|/ə,&nbsp;əː/}} || {{IPA|/θ/}} || {{IPA|/i, iː/}} || {{IPA|/j/}} || {{IPA|/k/}} || {{IPA|/l/}} || {{IPA|/m/}} || {{IPA|/n/}} || {{IPA|/o/}}
|-
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! Character
|<big>{{script|Copt|ⲡ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲣ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲥ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲧ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲩ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲫ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲱ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ϣ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ϩ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⳝ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲇⳝ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⲧⳝ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⳟ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⳡ}}</big> || <big>{{script|Copt|ⳣ}}</big>
|-
! Romanized
| {{transl|fia|p}} || {{transl|fia|r}} || {{transl|fia|s}} || {{transl|fia|t}} || {{transl|fia|u}} || {{transl|fia|f}} || {{transl|fia|ō}} || {{transl|fia|š}} || {{transl|fia|h}} || {{transl|fia|c}} || {{transl|fia|j}} || {{transl|fia|ç}} || {{transl|fia|ŋ}} || {{transl|fia|ñ}} || {{transl|fia|w}}
|-
! Arabized
| <big>{{Script/Arabic|پ}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ر}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|س}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ت}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|و}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ف}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|و}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ش}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|ه}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|}}</big> || <big>{{Script/Arabic|و}}</big>
|-
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|Phonetic value]]
| {{IPA|/p/}} || {{IPA|/r/}} || {{IPA|/s/}} || {{IPA|/t/}} || {{IPA|/u, uː/}} || {{IPA|/f/}} || {{IPA|/oː/}} || {{IPA|/ʃ/}} || {{IPA|/h/}} || {{IPA|/ç/}} || {{IPA|/ɟʝ/}} || {{IPA|/cç/}} || {{IPA|/ŋ/}} || {{IPA|/ɲ/}} || {{IPA|/w/}}
|}

==See also==
*List of Proto-Nubian reconstructions (Wiktionary)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
* Abdel-Hafiz, A. (1988). ''A Reference Grammar of Kunuz Nubian.'' PhD Thesis, SUNY, Buffalo, NY.
* Adams, W. Y. (1982). "The coming of Nubian speakers to the Nile Valley", in ''The Archeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History.'' Edited by C. Ehret & M. Posnansky. Berkeley / Los Angeles, 11–38.
* Armbruster, Charles Hubert (1960). ''Dongolese Nubian: A Grammar''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Armbruster, Charles Hubert (1965). ''Dongolese Nubian: A Lexicon''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Asmaa M. I. Ahmed, "Suggestions for Writing Modern Nubian Languages", and Muhammad J. A. Hashim, "Competing Orthographies for Writing Nobiin Nubian", in ''Occasional Papers in the Study of Sudanese Languages No.9'', [[Organization:SIL International|SIL]]/Sudan, Entebbe, 2004.
* Ayoub, A. (1968). ''The Verbal System in a Dialect of Nubian.'' Khartoum: University of Khartoum.
* Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne (1989). "Nile-Nubian Reconsidered", in ''Topics in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics''. Edited by M. Lionel Bender. Hamburg: Heinrich Buske.
* {{cite book |last=Bechhaus-Gerst |first=Marianne |title=Sprachwandel durch Sprachkontakt am Beispiel des Nubischen im Niltal |year=1996 |publisher=Köppe |place=Cologne |isbn=3-927620-26-2 |language=de}}
* Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne (2011). ''The (Hi)story of Nobiin: 1000 Years of Language Change.'' Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
* Erman, Adolf (1881). "Die Aloa-Inschriften." ''Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 19, no. 4.'' 112–15.
* Jakobi, Angelika & Tanja Kümmerle (1993). ''The Nubian Languages: An Annotated Bibliography.'' Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
* Khalil, Mokhtar (1996). ''Wörterbuch der nubischen Sprache.'' Warsaw: Nubica.
* Rilly, Claude (2010). ''Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique.'' Leuven: Peeters.
* {{cite journal |last=Spaulding |first=Jay |title=The Old Shaiqi Language in Historical Perspective |journal=History in Africa |volume=17 |year=1990 |pages=283–292 |publisher=Cambridge University |doi=10.2307/3171817 |jstor=3171817 |s2cid=153767706 }}
*{{cite journal |last=Spaulding |first=Jay |year=2006 |journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies |volume=39| issue = 3 |title=Pastoralism, Slavery, Commerce, Culture and the Fate of the Nubians of Northern and Central Kordofan Under Dar Fur Rule, ca. 1750-ca. 1850 |publisher=Boston University African Studies Center |issn=0361-7882 }}
* Starostin, George (2011). ''Explaining a Lexicostatistical Anomaly for Nubian Languages'' (lecture) May 25, 2011. [https://www.academia.edu/839576/Explaining_a_Lexicostatistical_Anomaly_for_Nubian_languages Online version.]
* Thelwall, Robin (1982). "Linguistic Aspects of Greater Nubian History", in ''The Archeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History.'' Edited by C. Ehret & M. Posnansky. Berkeley/Los Angeles, 39–56. [https://web.archive.org/web/20050403072826/http://thenubian.net/aspect.php Online version.]
* Werner, Roland (1987). Grammatik des Nobiin (Nilnubisch). Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
* Werner, Roland (1993). Tìdn-Àal: A Study of Midoob (Darfur Nubian). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/new100/nub.pdf Swadesh List comparing basic words of the Nubian languages]
* [http://www.panafril10n.org/wikidoc/pmwiki.php/PanAfrLoc/Nubian Panafrican localization page on Nubian] (summaries of information, links)
* [http://zeroblue2.tripod.com/lango.htm Nubian alphabet examples] {{in lang|ar}}
*[http://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/3812/Final%20chronciled%20THESIS%2009-12-2013.pdf?sequence=1 The Lucky Bilingual: Ethnography of Factors Influencing Code-switching Among the Nubian Community in Southern Egypt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117162900/http://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/3812/Final%20chronciled%20THESIS%2009-12-2013.pdf?sequence=1 |date=2021-01-17 }}
*Music video by Sudanese women's group Al Balabil, featuring the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WknfIVt2_d4 Nubian song "The Boat Set Sail" ("بابور كسونا")] with English translation
*Music video featuring Nubian musician Hamza El Din's song ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuBe8Xjud6E&list=OLAK5uy_m6TNZvvidxOKIoALsdTaTdK79fK-Ku_fM Helalisa]''


[[Category:Language families]]

{{Sourceattribution|Nubian languages}}