Dinka language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dinka
Thuɔŋjäŋ 
Pronunciation: IPA: /θu.ɔŋ.dʒæŋ/
Spoken in: southern Sudan and neighboring areas 
Region: Western Africa
Total speakers: 2-3 million
Language family: Eastern Sudanic
 Western Nilotic
  Dinka-Nuer languages
   Dinka 
Writing system: Latin alphabet 
Official status
Official language of: none
Regulated by: none
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: dik
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The Dinka language, or Thuɔŋjäŋ as it is known in the language itself, is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Dinka, one of the largest and most powerful ethnic groups in Southern Sudan. With 2-3 million speakers, it exists in five major dialect divisions. Jaang is also used as a general term to cover all Dinka languages. The dialect of the Rek of Tonj is considered the "standard" or prestige variety.

It is further classified as part of the Dinka-Nuer subfamily, which is part of Western Nilotic, which in turn is part of Eastern Sudanic, the Nilo-Saharan subfamily with the largest number of member languages (95). Most closely related is Nuer, the language of the Dinka's traditional rivals. Other major languages closely related within Western Nilotic are Shilluk, Luo/Dholuo and Acholi. (SIL Ethnologue, 2005 data)

"Nilotic" indicates that its speakers are found mainly along the Nile, specifically the west bank of the White Nile, a major tributary flowing northwards from Uganda. The Dinka live north and south of the marshy Sudd area in southwestern and south central Sudan in three provinces: Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and Southern Kordofan. (See the Gurtong Peace Trust's Dinka ethnic distribution map.)

Contents

See also: Dinka alphabet

Dinka has a rich vowel system, with 13 phonemically contrastive vowels. The diaeresis/umlaut (¨) indicates "breathy" vowels. (represented in Dinka orthography): a, ä, e, ë, ɛ, ɛ¨, i, ï, o, ö, ɔ ,ɔ¨, u.

It has 20 consonantal phonemes (Dinka orthography): p, b, m, w, t, d, n, l, r, th, dh, nh, c, j, ny, y, k, g, γ, ŋ.

(State Library of Victoria, OpenRoad.net.au)

This language practices vowel ablaut or apophony, the change of internal vowels (compare English goose/geese):

Singular Plural gloss vowel alternation
dom dum 'field/fields' (o-u)
kat kɛt 'frame/frames' (a-ɛ)
(Bauer 2003:35)

Dinka is a tonal language.

Linguists divide Dinka into five main dialects corresponding to their geographic location with respect to each other:

  • Northeastern (Padang) (Dialects: Abiliang, Dongjol, Luac, Ngok-Sobat, Ageer, Rut, Thoi)
  • Northwestern (Ruweng) (Dialects: Alor, Ngok-Kordofan, Pan Aru, Pawany)
  • South Central (Agar) (Dialects: Aliap, Ciec, Gok, Agar)
  • Southeastern (Bor) (Dialects: Bor (Athoc,Gok), Nyarweng, Tuic)
  • Southwestern (Rek) (Dialects: Rek, Abiem, Aguok, Apuk, Awan, Lau, Luac/Luanyang, Malual, Paliet, Palioupiny, Tuic)

(See Ethnologue online map of Sudan for locations of dialects

  • Beltrame, G. (1870). Grammatica della lingua denka. Firenze: G. Civelli.
  • Malou, Job. Dinka Vowel System. Summer Institute of Linguistics and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics. ISBN 0-88312-008-9.
  • Mitterrutzner, J. C. (1866). Die Dinka-Sprache in Central-Afrika; Kurze Grammatik, Text und Worterbuch. Brixen: A. Weger.
  • Nebel, A. (1979). Dinka-English, English-Dinka dictionary. 2nd. ed. Editrice Missionaria Italiana, Bologna.
  • Nebel, A. (1948). Dinka Grammar (Rek-Malual dialect) with texts and vocabulary. Instituto Missioni Africane, Verona.
  • Trudinger. R. (1942-44). English-Dinka Dictionary. Sudan Interior Mission
  • Tuttle. Milet Picture Dictionary English-Dinka. (at WorldLanguage.com)

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