Ma'di (pronounced ) is a
Central Sudanic
Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria an ...
language found in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The ...
and
South Sudan
South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of th ...
. It is one of the
Moru–Madi languages. The
Madi people refer to their language as ''Ma'di ti'', literally "Ma'di mouth".
The Ma'di people are found in
Magwi County
Magwi County, also Magwe County, is a county in Eastern Equatoria, South Sudan.
Location
The county is located in Eastern Equatoria. It was earlier located in Eastern Equatoria State, in southern South Sudan. It is bordered to the west and nort ...
in South Sudan, and in
Adjumani
Adjumani is a town in the Northern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial centre of Adjumani District. The district is named after the town.
Location
Adjumani is located in the West Nile sub-region, appro ...
and
Moyo districts in Uganda. Their population is about 390,000 (90,000 in South Sudan).
Ma'di is
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...
with
Olu'bo,
Lugbara,
Moru,
Avokaya,
Kaliko and
Logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...
, all of which are also Moru–Madi languages.
Sociolinguistics
Most Ma'di people are
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all ...
. In Uganda, the educated class speaks
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
as the second language and some also speak
Swahili. In South Sudan, the educated Ma'dis speak English and/or
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
. The South Sudanese Ma'di also speak
Juba Arabic
Juba Arabic (, ; ar, عربية جوبا, ‘Arabīyat Jūbā), also known since 2011 as South Sudanese Arabic, is a lingua franca spoken mainly in Equatoria Province in South Sudan, and derives its name from the South Sudanese capital, Juba ...
, spoken in South Sudan and not understood in the North. The form of Juba Arabic spoken by the Ma'di is influenced by the
Nubi language spoken in Uganda among Muslims who are mainly descendants of Gordon's troops. Loanwords in Ugandan Ma'di are therefore mainly of English and/or Swahili origin and in Sudanese Ma'di of English and/or Juba Arabic origin.
There is an interesting linguistic interaction between the Ma'di, the
Acholi Acholi may refer to:
* Acholi people, a Luo nation of Uganda, in the Northern part of the country.
* Acholi language
Acholi (also Leb Acoli, or Leb Lwo) is a Southern Luo dialect spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum an ...
and the
Kuku. Most Ma'dis speak
Acholi Acholi may refer to:
* Acholi people, a Luo nation of Uganda, in the Northern part of the country.
* Acholi language
Acholi (also Leb Acoli, or Leb Lwo) is a Southern Luo dialect spoken by the Acholi people in the districts of Gulu, Kitgum an ...
but hardly any Acholi speak Ma'di. This is possibly because during the
first civil war in the Sudan, most Sudanese Ma'di were settled among the Acholi in Uganda. Possibly for the same reasons, most Kukus speak fluent Ugandan Ma'di, but hardly any Ma'di speak
Kuku. It is still possible even today to find among the Sudanese Ma'di 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 Ma'di only and have become fully absorbed into the Ma'di community.
Crazzolara claims that there are linguistic traces of Ma'di found in
Nilotic languages
The Nilotic languages are a group of related languages spoken across a wide area between South Sudan and Tanzania by the Nilotic peoples.
Etymology
The word Nilotic means of or relating to the Nile River or to the Nile region of Africa.
Dem ...
like
Dinka
The Dinka people ( din, Jiɛ̈ɛ̈ŋ) are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan with a sizable diaspora population abroad. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Jonglei to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out ...
(especially
Atwot),
Nuer and
Lwo (Acholi,
Alur and
Lango) and among the
Bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
* Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
* Black Association for Nationa ...
(
Nyoro and
Ganda
Ganda may refer to:
Places
* Ganda, Angola
* Ganda, Tibet, China
* Ganda, the ancient Latin name of Ghent, a city in Belgium
Other uses
* Baganda or Ganda, a people of Uganda
** Luganda or Ganda language, a language of Uganda
* ''Ganda'' and "Ga ...
). There are also some claims which maintain that there are Acholi speaking clans in Pakele in Adjumani (in Adjumani District), whose Ma'di accent is said to be completely different from that of the other Ma'di in the area. In Adjumani itself, the Oyuwi (ojuwt) clans are said to speak three languages: Ma'di,
Kakwa and
Lugbara.
Phonology
Ma'di 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. There are ten vowels in the language, divided into
+ATR and -ATR .
Orthography
Currently there are two systems used in writing Ma'di, 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.
Examples:
* pắ - leg
igh tone* pa - descendants of
mid tone, unmarked* pá - pluck
ow tone* sấ - time, clock
alling tone
The examples below show how heavy and light vowels compare:
* Ốpí - waist
eavy vowel; high tones
* Ópí - chief, king
ight vowel; high tones
* mvự - drink
eavy vowels; mid tones
* mvu - jump, skip, gather
ight vowels; mid tones
Works in Ma'di
Printed material in Ma'di is scarce. The only general published works in Ma'di are missionary publications such as the translation of the New Testament, and prayer and song booklets by the Catholic missionaries. The
Ma'di Ethnic and Heritage Welfare Association in Britain publishes a quarterly bilingual (English and Ma'di) paper called ''Ma'di Lelego''.
In the spring of 1998,
Radio Uganda
Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) is the public broadcaster network of Uganda. It was founded as a result of the "Uganda Broadcasting Corporation Act, 2004", which merged the operations of Uganda Television (UTV) and Radio Uganda. It started ...
began regular broadcasts in Ma'di.
Bibliography
*A'babiku, Rose ''A Key History of Ma'di''
*Blackings, M and Fabb N (2003) ''A Grammar of Ma'di''. Mouton
*Blackings, M (2011) ''Ma'di English - English Ma'di Dictionary''. Lincom Europa.
*Fuli, Severino (2002) ''Shaping a Free Southern Sudan: Memoirs of our struggle''. Loa Parish.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madi Language (Sudan And Uganda)
Moru-Madi languages