Maʼdi Language

Madi (pronounced ) is a Central Sudanic language spoken in Uganda and South Sudan. It is one of the Moru–Madi languages. The Madi people refer to their language as ''Madi ti'', literally "Madi mouth".

The Madi people are found in Magwi County in South Sudan, and in Adjumani and Moyo districts in Uganda. Their population is about 390,000 (90,000 in South Sudan).

Madi is mutually intelligible with Olubo, Lugbara, Moru, Avokaya, Kaliko and Logo, all of which are also Moru–Madi languages.

Sociolinguistics

Most Madi people are bilingual. In Uganda, the educated class speaks English as the second language and some also speak Swahili. In South Sudan, the educated Madis speak English and/or Arabic. The South Sudanese Madi also speak Juba Arabic, spoken in South Sudan and not understood in the North. The form of Juba Arabic spoken by the Madi is influenced by the Nubi language spoken in Uganda among Muslims who are mainly descendants of Gordons troops. Loanwords in Ugandan Madi are therefore mainly of English and/or Swahili origin and in Sudanese Madi of English and/or Juba Arabic origin.

There is an interesting linguistic interaction between the Madi, the Acholi and the Kuku. Most Madis speak Acholi but hardly any Acholi speak Madi. This is possibly because during the first civil war in the Sudan, most Sudanese Madi were settled among the Acholi in Uganda. Possibly for the same reasons, most Kukus speak fluent Ugandan Madi, but hardly any Madi speak Kuku. It is still possible even today to find among the Sudanese Madi people who can trace their ancestry to the neighbouring tribes – Bari, Kuku, Pajulu, Acholi, etc. Hardly any of them can now speak their ancestral languages; they speak Madi only and have become fully absorbed into the Madi community.

Crazzolara claims that there are linguistic traces of Madi found in Nilotic languages like Dinka (especially Atwot), Nuer and Lwo (Acholi, Alur and Lango) and among the Bantu ( Nyoro and Ganda). There are also some claims which maintain that there are Acholi speaking clans in Pakele in Adjumani (in Adjumani District), whose Madi accent is said to be completely different from that of the other Madi in the area. In Adjumani itself, the Oyuwi (ojuwt) clans are said to speak three languages: Madi, Kakwa and Lugbara.

Phonology

Madi is a tonal language, which means that meanings of words depend on the pitch. There are three tone levels (high, mid and low). The language has a number of implosives: (b), (d), (j), (gb). There are a number of secondarily () and doubly articulated sounds () in addition to the singularly articulated sounds (). The language also has glottal stops (), which can be found word medially and initially.

Consonants

Vowels

There are ten vowels in the language, conveniently though inaccurately transcribed as +ATR and −ATR . This convention was chosen for "visual clarity" and only approximates the phonetic values.

Orthography

Currently there are two systems used in writing Madi, categorised as the old and the new system. The old system completely ignores tones, making reading more difficult. The old system also uses only five vowels (a, e, i, o, u).
The new systems employs ten vowels (see the tables on the previous section). It also identifies four tones: high (close), mid, low and falling.

Works in Madi

Printed material in Madi is scarce. The only general published works in Madi are missionary publications such as the translation of the New Testament, and prayer and song booklets by the Catholic missionaries. The Madi Ethnic and Heritage Welfare Association in Britain publishes a quarterly bilingual (English and Madi) paper called ''Madi Lelego''.

In the spring of 1998, Radio Uganda began regular broadcasts in Madi.

References

Bibliography

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Madi Language (Sudan And Uganda)
Moru-Madi languages