Dinka (language)
| Dinka | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Spoken in |
South Sudan | |
| speaker | around 2,740,000 (1997 estimate) | |
| Linguistic classification |
|
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language in | South Sudan (national language) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639 -1 |
- |
|
| ISO 639 -2 |
din |
|
| ISO 639-3 |
din ( macro language ) |
|
Dinka (own name Thuɔŋjäŋ ) is a West Nilotic language spoken by the Dinka people in South Sudan . In 1982, according to the population census of the Republic of Sudan, there were around 1.35 million speakers of Dinka dialects; in 1997 the number was estimated at 2.74 million speakers.
According to Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan (2011), Dinka is recognized as the national language along with all other native languages.
The language consists of five dialects that can be understood among each other:
- Northeast Dinka (Padang)
- Northwest Dinka (Ruweng)
- South-Central Dinka (Agar)
- Southeast Dinka (Bor)
- Southwest Dinka (Rek)
The Dinka language is written using a modified Latin alphabet that was established for the South Sudanese languages at a conference in Rejaf in 1928 .
literature
- JC Mitterrutzner: The Dinka language in Central Africa. Brief grammar, text and dictionary. Weger, Brixen 1866.
- Arthur Nebel: Dinka Grammar (Rek-Malual dialect). With Texts and Vocabulary. Missioni Africane, Verona 1948.
- Arthur Nebel: Dinka-English, English-Dinka Dictionary. Dinka Language, Jang and Jieng Dialects. New edition. EMI, Bologna 1979.
See also
Web links
- Entry: Dinka - A macrolanguage of South Sudan. In: Ethnologue, Languages of the World . 2014, accessed July 9, 2014.
- Hélène Fatima Idris: Modern Developments in the Dinka Language. Department of Oriental and African Languages, University of Gothenburg, 2004, accessed on July 9, 2014 (PDF file; 824 kB).
- Homepage: Dinka Language Institute Australia (DLIA). 2005, archived from the original on January 31, 2013 ; accessed on July 9, 2014 .