Dongolawi is a
Nubian language
The Nubian languages ( ar, لُغَات نُوبِيّة, lughāt nūbiyyah) are a group of related languages spoken by the Nubians. They form a branch of the Eastern Sudanic languages, which is part of the wider Nilo-Saharan phylum. Initially, ...
of northern
Sudan. It is spoken by a minority of the
Danagla The Danagla (, "People of Dongola") are a tribe in northern Sudan of partial Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Ar ...
in the
Nile Valley, from roughly (south of
Kerma
Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture, which was located in present-day Sudan at least 5,500 years ago. Kerma is one of the largest archaeological sites in ancient Nubia. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, i ...
) upstream to the bend in the Nile near
ed Debba.
''Dongolawi'' is an Arabic term based on the town of
Old Dongola
Old Dongola (Old Nubian: ⲧⲩⲛⲅⲩⲗ, ''Tungul''; ar, دنقلا العجوز, ''Dunqulā al-ʿAjūz'') is a deserted town in what is now Northern State, Sudan, located on the east bank of the Nile opposite the Wadi Howar. An important c ...
, the centre of the historic Christian kingdom of
Makuria (6th to 14th century). Today's
Dongola
Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...
was founded during the 19th century on the western side of the Nile. The Dongolawi call their language Andaandi "(the language) of our home".
Nearly all Dongolawi speakers are also speakers of
Sudanese Arabic, the lingua franca of Sudan. Arabic–Dongolawi bilingualism is replacive in the sense that Dongolawi is threatened by complete replacement by Arabic (Jakobi 2008).
Dongolawi is closely related to
Kenzi (Mattokki), spoken in southern Egypt. They were once considered dialects of a single language, ''Kenzi-Dongolawi''. More recent research recognises them as distinct languages without a "particularly close genetic relationship."
[Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne. ''The (Hi)story of Nobiin — 1000 Years of Language Change''. Peter Lang, 2011, p. 22.] Apart from these two languages spoken along the Nile, three extinct varieties were included under Kenzi-Dongolawi.
References
External links
Dongolawi basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Nubian languages
Languages of Egypt
Nubians in Sudan
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